I feel like I’ve always known how little respect women get throughout most art forms, but I never stopped to think about the treatment of gender and sexuality in hip hop probably because I’ve never really paid attention to it.  What really opened my eyes was how female graffiti artists were treated.  The reaction to the mere mention of RenOne in your book elicited such a horrible reaction from that man.  His first reaction was to degrade her as a person and even accuse her of not doing her own work.  Had it been a man mentioned rather than a woman, maybe he would’ve complimented the art or not, but it still would’ve been about the art rather than the person and their supposed sexual promiscuity.

The way women present themselves in their music videos is so different from the way men present women.  Queen Latifah presented herself as a traditionally male figure in her “Ladies First” music video – she was the general in the war room planning to topple governments.  She looked unstoppable and no man could ever push her down.  Missy Elliot did this too in her “Throw it Back” video in which she wore baggy clothing and was being carried around as if she was a damn emperor.  She also wore things that were traditionally masculine like a baggy suit, but it was also pink – bringing traditional femininity into the mix.

Compare this to how Kemo presented the woman in his music video, she was hyper-sexualized and described as a snake not to be trusted.  Yet he is somehow faithful to his wife just because he shows off his wedding ring while gawking at another woman.  It makes me question if artists realize what they’re really doing when they have these “poisonous” and sexy ladies in their videos.