At the conclusion of our “De/Constructing Gender and Sexuality” section it is evident it is evident that there is a clear double standard and hypocrisy when it comes to gender in Hip Hop. One prime example is the music video “What You Might Do” by Kemo the Blaxican. Kemo the Blaxican portrays masculinity by objectifying women and sexualizing their bodies in his music videos while in the same breath referring to a woman as a poisonous snake for being promiscuous herself. This is a common theme in hip hop where women are built up because of their bodies and how they can be sexualized but once they use their bodies they’re belittled for it. For me I feel that this is something I have noticed before but haven’t given it much of a second thought in terms of why it happens and what affects it has. After discussing it in class I realize how this not only dehumanizes women but also pushes the narrative that women can only be used as sexual objects. 

Another example can be found in the chapter 1 reading of Graffiti Girls titled “Performing Feminist Masculinity in a Postfeminist Era”. Throughout the chapter we see how female graffiti artists had to display masculinity in order to be taken seriously as an artist, instead of having their work speak for itself. There was and still is a strong belief that being a woman or expressing femininity makes one incapable or bad at participating in Hip Hop. while reading the chapter it was interesting to see how female graffiti artists performed masculinity as they see fit. The artist ClawMoney performs masculinity in a way that supports other female artists but also reclaims it for herself. ClawMoney uses graffiti as an outlet for her “tough bitch” personality  which allows her to dabble into her femininity as well as utilizing masculinity in her work.