Before taking this class I think I unconsciously consider gender and sexuality in hip hop as I predominantly listen to female rappers who embrace their sexualities. In the chapter “Performing Feminist Masculinity in a Postfeminist Era” from the book Graffiti Grrlz, Miss17 said that a rite of passage for women is learning “to make yourself uncomfortable so that you can be what everyone deems you to be.” Ladypink responded saying that girls eventually rebel and say fuck off to the “girl lessons”. I love seeing this quote played out in rap music today as female rappers own their bodies, identity and sexuality in their music. Girls are taught to hide their sexuality and to play a very specific role in society but females in hiphop often reject this rhetoric and by doing so they are practicing pheminist masculinity because they are doing something that men have been allowed to do in rap forever, claiming what is theirs and demanding respect (this can mean claiming their identity in a song like “Get U 10” by Cardi B or by literally claiming space on a wall as many female graffiti writers do).
Marcyliena Morgan wrote that women “willingly participate and are evaluated in a male dominated genre where they compete with men, regularly dispute male perspectives, and endure sexist and misogynistic comments about women while representing an array of female perspectives and defending the right to do so.” From the readings I learned that women in rap challenge misogyny and sexism by embracing feminine masculinity and showing how powerful women are instead of the masculinity hiphop is used to where men use power over one another to assert dominance. We can embrace our own feminist masculinity and dominance without making others inferior to us.