There was a whole lot going on in these three episodes. A whole lot of sexist and misogynistic behaviors from a lot of the cis men, especially Mylene’s dad and Roy. Sexism, according to the reading, is the “practice of domination of women” (Rose, 151) which is exactly what both men are doing in two different ways. One was the ‘protective, I’m gonna control your decisions to keep you safe’ side and the ‘you’re only valuable to me if you’re gonna be sexy to sell’ side.
A lot of the scenes involving Mylene’s dad brought me back to the discussion about T.I. in class. Only because I’m at a complete disbelief that these cis men think they own the right to their daughters bodies like they’re a piece of property. In every single one of the three episodes, Mylene’s dad was making her decisions for her including when and where she will perform and how it is essentially all going to be church related. In episode 7, her dad shoves himself into the start of a conversation between Mylene and two men asking about her doing a benefit concert for their church and says yes for her before she can even get a word out (27 mins). Every instance of this happening you can see the ‘I really would rather not, but I would never go against my father’ look on her face. She eventually goes on to go against him in episode 9 when she meets with Roy and makes her own decision, finally.
In the beginning of episode 8, Roy has a conversation with Shane about Misty Holloway and the movie she’s supposed to be cast in and goes on to say “you need number one sexy tits! Mylene Cruz’s tits, have you seen them…lets make a million f*cking bucks already” (5 mins) which proves the point that higher up people in hip hop only believe “women are only valuable only because they are sexually desirable” (Rose, 150). Throughout episode 8 into episode 9, Roy makes a plan to completely ignore Mylene’s existence as an artist until she comes crawling to him and strays away from her father. It works because she crawls right into his office and agrees to be a part of a show on Friday where she needs to show she can be sexy, as long as her girls are involved (27 mins). Roy is the perfect example of why sexism exists in hip hop and just proves the point that although “hip hop didn’t create sexism…it glorifies and encourages its growth and maintenance” (Rose, 158). He’ll clearly do anything without thinking about the effects it has on the person and only thinking about how he can make money off of them.
Sexism is rampant in hip hop and I think the episodes showed us the beginnings of how women are exploited in it and touched on the excuses people make to feel better about exploiting women.
