Vargas_AB Midterm
Michelle S. Vargas
Annotated Bibliography Midterm
March 12th, 2018
Gender and Sexuality in Hip Hop
Annotated Bibliography for Hip Hop Feminism Wikipedia Page
Source 1
Johnson, Aja, ‘Keep It Coochie’: Reimagining the Boundaries of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Dominant Hip-Hop Culture through Raunch Aesthetics (August 24, 2016).The McNair Scholars Journal at Sacramento State. Volume 17 (Cohort 2015-2016)http://www.csus.edu/mcnair/_all-scholars-articles-photos-webpage/17_2015_2016/journal_2015-16/johnson_%20journal%20vol%2017.pdf
Johnson’s text focuses on the merge of the unorthodox representation in Hip Hop culture for women and female artists. Women typically being hyper-sexualized and not given a space to experiment their own aesthetic and material, many are creating their new image and space based on their sexuality. Artists such as Junglepussy, Cupcakke, and so forth are introducing new visual and lyrical art to Hip Hop that freely expresses sexuality, womanhood, and empowering non-spoken norms. Johnson’s texts also brings in to question how do Queer men, queer women, and heterosexual women combine to create a space for themselves in the industry, mentioning Cakes Da Killas emergence into Hip Hop but embark their name in an industry that is over capacitated with cis hetero-masculinity as an overall landscape? Hyper masculine figures in Hip Hop use women and members of the LGBTQ+ community as a target for disrespect, abuse, and plain derogatoriness. Falling into the lines of bullying and harassment, having artists that embody and perform what society contradicts and Hip-Hop heads diss regularly, they’re breaking norms of the industry and therefore, constructing and embracing feminism in Hip Hop through raunch aesthetics without the intention to profit and benefit the industry of Hip Hop misogynists.
Source 2
Cuenca, Alhelí and Hunter, Margaret. “Nicki Minaj and the Changing Politics of Hip-Hop: Real Blackness, Real Bodies, Real Feminism?.” no. 2, 2017, p. 26. <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/671716/pdf
Hunter and Cuenca’s texts focus on Nicki Minaj’s domination in the Hip Hop industry through groundbreaking record sells and delivering a new image to Hip Hop collaborating her body display and ego involved in her performance that drifts away from the common style of women being sold to the industry. Her work falls into lines of blackness, black womanhood, and feminism. Many argue within the symbolism of her aesthetic and material: Is it feminist movement or is it appealing the hypermasculine, misogynistic industry? Minaj defeats the stereotypical voiceless video-vixen woman of hip hop and rises the influence of attracting more female rappers to the game. Minaj has contributed successfully to the domination of the rap industry but is known for her sexy, radical, alter-ego, fashionista portrayal and raw lyrics. She has become the face of Hip Hop. Acknowledgment of women in Hip Hop are crucial for the update of informativeness and how the domination and lenses of Hip Hop is progressing for the better. Exploring past feminist Hip Hop women icons and predicting the feminist change appearing in modern day music and media. This is essential to displaying female artist who display the wave of raunchiness and embrace their sexuality.
Source 3
Williams, Sherri. “Cardi B: Love & Hip Hop’s Unlikely Feminist Hero.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 17, no. 6, 2017, pp. 1114–1117., https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2017.1380431
William’s texts brings into detail Belcalis Almanzar past and present life, setting her way to dominating the music industry within a years span. Known socially as Cardi B, she has topped charts, made her legacy in finding her slot on the Billboard Top 100 three consecutive times, as well as having two Grammy nominations. William’s focuses on Cardi B transitioning into the Hip Hop industry while battling the negativity near her way. Having been an exotice dancer and starting off her career as a stripper, she has become the target of misogynistic and backlash comments of her success but she moves forward and continues to focus on creating her base of success; won’t stop anytime soon. She defines her feminism through her uncensored, real, Bronx-lavish style of being and hardcore, raunchy lyrics that emphasis a hardcore sensual portrayal. Cardi B has become the prime example of modern feminist icon that embrace their sexuality, identity, and break norms. Cardi B’s aesthetic derails from benefiting the male lens of Hip Hop and focuses more on individual profiting and engagement. Being extremely unapologetic as an artist and her character of woman, she proceeds in breaking ground of norms and giving a new image to feminism and women in hip hop.
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These journals and articles focus on women in the Hip Hop industry who are focused on rising to the top of stardom but are embarking on a new act of feminism that is crucially needed for the music culture. Many of the journals include the mixed feelings and perspectives members of society have on these female hip hop artists. Since the beginning of hip hop’s stardom, women in hip hop have only been used to be hyper-sexualized; pleasuring the video-vixen eye-candy stigma. Female MCs and artist have the expected role to be considered more masculine than falling into the feminine spectrum; trying to fit in with the imagery of more hardcore, less-feminine. Women artists are expected to not last as long as male competitors on their mark in the industry but upcoming female emcees are here to prove it wrong and portraying new faces of Hip Hop Feminism, disregarding the criticism.
For example, many critics judge artists such as Cupcakke, Cardi B, and Nicki Minaj for seeming too sexual, too raunchy, embracing sex, and being beyond a sex icon. Cardi B is looked as a woman “too ghetto” and unmannered by society and is constantly bashed for her career as an exotic dancer; having that thrown at her when in topic with her music. Society, especially those who vouch for hyper masculine, misogynistic material constantly focus on dehumanizing a woman on her road to the hall of fame. Mixing in talent with personal; Regardless, she continues to remain true to her character and her audience. Battling against the material to sell to the pop culture: she writes, performs, dresses, and acts how she did before the fame. That’s the genuineness that women of our society need in order to dismantle the patriarchy of our industry and society, actually embodying originality and women empowerment. Women in hip hop need to be respected for all forms of persistence they had to overcome in order to “grind” and get to their final point.
Exploring more feminist icons in hip hop such as female rappers who are underrepresented in the media is a must. Most notable female artists stand out for their flamboyance, sexiness, and hustle. Not fitting into the selling image criteria and not dominating the charts to pop culture, often times feminists are overseen and unknown. They need to be researched, supported, appreciated, and placed more on the media market to represent the changing game of hip hop. By the people placing them to the charts and the proper media attention, that is how we support the feminist movement in hip hop. It goes beyond the lines of supporting your local female MC but actually supporting all female hustlers in the industry, which is made up of several pillars.