Feminist activism in hip-hop
[1] Hip hop has a history of being a genre that sexually objectifies and disrespects women ranging from the usage of video vixens to explicit rap lyrics.
Hip hop refers to the "music, arts, media, and cultural movement and community developed by black and Latino youth in the mid-1970's on the east coast of the United States".
Reiland Rabaka, author of Hip Hop's Inheritance, observes that, "the majority of hip hop feminist mobilization at the present moment seems to emerge from cyber-social networks, mass media, and popular culture, rather than nationally networked women's organizations based in government, academic, or male-dominated leftist bureaucracies"; indeed, music videos, as part of popular culture, can be disseminated as mass media through cyber-social networks, making them a perfect platform for motivating change.
[3] Hip hop is often seen as a means of unifying individuals hoping to spread equality, peace, love and social change around the world.
meditations and re-evaluations can occur, offering participants the opportunity to re-imagine masculinities and femininities in a multitude of ways to suit a variety of contexts".
"[3] Gwendolyn Pough (2004) argues that hip hop feminists have "found ways to deal with these issues [of sexism and tropes of the video vixen and strong black woman] within the larger public sphere and the counter-public sphere of hip hop by bringing wreck to stereotyped images through their continued use of expressive culture'".
[3] For Pough, "the women of the hip hop generation have created a body of work that offers up feminist or womanist answers to many of the hip hop generation's most urgent interpersonal, cultural, social, and political issues" and "recent feminist scholarship suggests that in its own controversial and/or contradictory way the hip-hop feminist movement may very well be the most politically polyvocal and socially visible manifestation of the ongoing evolution of the Women's Liberation movement prevalent in contemporary US society".
Throughout third-wave feminism which began in the mid-80's, many constructs were destabilized, including the notions of "universal womanhood", body, gender, sexuality, and heteronormativity.
A Primer in the Study of Hip Hop Culture as "a term that argues that race, gender, sexuality, and class are interlinked and used to shape hierarchical relationships in American society".
As human rights activist, Shani Jamila states in her book, Can I Get a Witness, "As women of the hip-hop generation we need a feminist consciousness that allows us to examine how representations and images can be simultaneously empowering and problematic.
"[11] Many female rappers, such as Queen Latifah, embody and convey feminism, yet she does not identify as a feminist because "it is considered too white, too middle class, and too hostile to black men.
[12] The Second wave of feminism unfolded in the context of the anti-war and civil rights movements due to the growing self-consciousness of minority groups around the world.
Female emcees sometimes mimicked the hip hop rhetoric of males in the scene and generated a massive amount of attention.
Missy Elliot was often seen dressed similarly to male hip-hop artists and utilized the same body language and aggressive delivery of her lyrics as a means of protest while still preserving her femininity.
With his song "Crooked Smile," he not only asserts that women should love everything about themselves but also points out that being insecure is a "gender neutral" experience that everyone in the world goes through.
For example, many modern hip-hop feminists utilize their voluptuous figures in a commanding manner rather than adopting male rapper outfitting and lyric style.
In fact, in the 2011 issue of Ebony magazine, Minaj asserted her place in the hip-hop world, affirming that she can stand on her own in the male-dominated genre and use her body in an empowering manner rather than an oppressive one.
She symbolizes the shifts within Hip hop that have occurred over the past two decades, including a "narrowing of the representations of blackness in hip hop, hip-hop’s move toward consumption and merchandising, and the rapid disappearance of female rappers and the dramatic increase voiceless female video dancers".
Given Rihanna's past, the hip-hop feminist scene looked to her as a role model to stand up for domestic violence against the black female body.
[22] More recently, rapper's such as Cardi B have sought to be considered modern day feminist icons due to liberating their sexuality and embracing promiscuity to their full advantage instead of benefiting the dominated male industry.
"[23] Feminist media activist Jamia Wilson says, "I think that it's just hard for people to really grasp what it's like to be extremely powerful but also vulnerable.
Johnson writes: The confrontational and aggressive qualities of breaking are more aligned with conventional notions of masculinity than femininity in Western culture.
These practice areas included, but weren't limited to "churches, community centers, school gymnasiums, and when the weather is nice in parks, on beaches, or on the street.
However, some have overcome these barriers to become respected dancers in their field, such as Ana 'Rokafella' Garcia, who runs a not-for-profit organization called Full Circle.
