Rankin-ABMIDTERM
Juliette Rankin
March 12, 2018
WOM324
Professor Pabon
Annotated bibliography for hip hop feminism wikipedia page
Source #1
Stephens, Dionne P., and April L. Few. “Hip Hop Honey or Video Ho: African American Preadolescents Understanding of Female Sexual Scripts in Hip Hop Culture.” Sexuality & Culture, vol. 11, no. 4, 2007, pp. 48–69., doi:10.1007/s12119-007-9012-8.
This academic journal focuses on the sexual scripts in hip hop culture within preadolescence. Music videos have been the best platform to deliver these sexual scripts to preadolescents. Hip hop music videos depict women as sexual objects. The projected sexual scripts not only work to reinforce stereotypical beliefs of viewers living in predominately White communities who have little contact with members of other racial or ethnic groups but also serve as representation of how African American preadolescent women are expected to view themselves. (Stephens 2007.) Hip hip culture has formed new stereotypes and deemed sexual scripts of African American women. Stereotypes such as gold digger, baby mama, freak, and dyke have replaced the older sterostypes being Jezebel, welfare mama and mammies. The research findings indicated that hiphop shapes preadolescent ideas of sexuality through sexual scripts.
Source 2
Jenkins, Craig. “Rap Is Less Homophobic Than Ever, But It Has a Long Way to Go.” Vulture, 13 Feb. 2017, www.vulture.com/2017/02/theres-still-homophobia-in-rap.html.
I chose this article from vulture because it shows homosexuality in hiphop in a different light. It rather focuses on how in recent years, the hiphop community is becoming more accepting of homosexuality. It speaks on the coming out of Frank Ocean, ILoveMakonen, and Young M.A. In past years, Hip hop rappers such as 50 cent and T.I have been vocal about their feelings towards gay and how their view has changed recently. The article brings up how many fans already assumed that they knew about his sexuality because they believe that being a cosmetologist is seen as a feminine field. Society buys into the idea that certain styles of dress, speech, and movement; certain interests; and certain professions differentiate straight men from gay and bisexual ones (Jenkins 2017.) The main idea of the article is the public has been more accepting of homosexuality but still has room for improvement.
Source 3
Davis, Brittney Nicole. “Explicit Content: Hip Hop, Feminism, and the Black Woman.” OPUS Open Portal to University Scholarship, 13 July 2017, opus.govst.edu/theses/93/.
This article describes black feminism towards hiphop. It begins within the history of hip hop, the way black women are portrayed in hiphop culture and hypermasculinity in the african american community. Hip hop lyrics are analyzed and the messages that the lyrics send out. Women in hip hop are perceived as victims. In music videos they are used as props and sexual objects. The top twenty hiphop songs from the year 2016 was decoded and segmented into three main themes. The main three themes are “Formation of Black Femininity, Hyper-Masculine Blackness, and Foundations of the Hip Hop Community.” These main themes are intertwined and connected to the history of hip hop and the African American Community.
All three readings were found to be quite interesting and thought they could definitely be used for editing the wikipedia page. Topics that seem to interest me the most when it comes to feminism and Sexuality in hiphop is the portrayal of women in the hiphop culture. The first source “Hip Hop Honey or Video Ho: African American Preadolescents Understanding of Female Sexual Scripts in Hip Hop Culture” spoke to me the most and I found it to be the most relatable. The way pre Adolescent kids are taught sexual scripts through hiphop at such an early age is mind boggling. There are eight sexual scripts that have been developed through modern culture. The eight scripts are the Diva, Gold Digger, Freak, Sister Savior, Dyke, Mother Earth, Gangster b*tch, and Baby Mama. These new scripts have replaced the original sexual scripts of African American women previously being the Jezebel, Mammy, Welfare Mama, Sapphire and Matriarch. “The Diva” symbolizes the pretty lightskin long haired slendered female and tends to date or exachge sex with men of social status. “The Gold digger” uses to sex in exchage for being rewarded finacially. “The Freak” is a woman who exchanges sex for pleasure. Sister savior is the female who avoidssex for religious reasons. “Gangster B*tch” is the ride or die female, she focuses on survival as she had a rough upbringing. “Earth mother” the india arie or erykah badu. She is self aware through an afrocentric political and spiritual consciousness lense. “Dykes” are the the lesbian and the baby mama is the mother of a mans baby and nothing more. Preadolescents are aware of what these scripts meanings and percieve these kind of women in a certain light.
The second source ‘’Rap Is Less Homophobic Than Ever, But It Has a Long Way to Go’’ from vulture. Vulture may not be such a reliable source but I mainly seen articldes that show homosexuality in hip hop in a very negative light. The article focuses on homesexuality within the hiphop culture. ILoveMakkonen a rapper from Atlanta had recently came out to the public as gay. The public in the past, had suspected that he may have been homosexual. It upsets rap’s streetwise hypermasculinity to have a cherubic, eccentric drug dealer turned cosmetologist turned rapper crooning and rhyming his way through songs about drugs and women. The public recieved the news well with his coming out. Rapper Quavo from the group Migos suggested that it may affect his street credibility with the trap songs he released such ‘I Dont Sell Molly No More” and ‘Look at Wrist.’ The article then goes on to speak how hiphop weren’t so tolerant of homosexuals. A tribe called quest hit song ‘Georgie Porgie sends a anti gay message. Public Enemy’s ‘Meets the G That Killed Me’ which suggests the engaging in gay sex will lead to AIDS and drug use. The hiphop industry at that time was on hunt for closeted rappers all the way till the mid 2000s. Rappers such as 50 cent and TI made negative comments towards the gay community but changed the perception in recent years. Kanye West always spoke out and defended gays. The article ends with instilling the idea that the public has been more accepting of homosexuality but still has room for improvement. The third source “Explicit Content: Hip Hop, Feminism, and the Black Woman. It begins within the explaining history of hip hop, the way black women are portrayed in hiphop culture and hypermasculinity in the african american community. Twenty top hiphop song are analyzed and the messages that the lyrics send out. These three articles dig in to the perception of sexuality in hiphop and two of them are focused on the portrayal of women in hiphop. Which all can contribute to the editing of the wikipedia pages. These articles touch base on the sexualization of woman in hip hop lyrics and the oversexualization of women in the music videos known as video vixen. I think the the first source could improve by redirecting the sexual scripts from the female point of view instead from the preadolescent perspective. The second source can expand more on the fan perception of rapper coming out as a gay. Further reasearch can be done on these topics but these sources have great insights.