Page Sec1:28 - Labyrint 2013 - English Edition

The women of hip-hop: ­
Sex bombs and villains
Scantily clad women dancing provocatively while guys grope are a familiar
sight in many of today's rap videos. Hip-hop culture is not exactly a paragon
of gender equality
Laura Castor, in the Department of Culture
and Literature, studies the portrayal of
women in American hip-hop, and she says
these problems in commercial rapmusic
are only getting worse.
“African-American women in commercial
rap are portrayed in a rather one-sided
negative way. They are hypersexual whores
or “golddiggers” who are just out to exploit
men. This image has become more domi-
nant in recent decades,” she says. “You can
find this view of women in the lyrics, while
it is reinforced visually in the music videos.”
As with so much else, it was different
before. Hip-hop culture originated in the
Bronx in the mid-1970s, at a time when this
poor borough struggled with cuts in welfare
spending and the demolition of homes to
make way for a new highway. Out of this
misery grew a creative subculture, consist-
ing of four basic elements: DJ'ing, rap,
breakdancing and graffiti.
Thewomen strike back
And women were included from the
beginning. It was actually a woman - Sylvia
Robinson - who was behind the first rap
hit, Rapper's Delight in 1979, by the Sugar
Hill Gang. Robinson was the producer and
co-author.
During the 1980s and 1990s, there were
several female rappers who made a name
for themselves with great success. ­Roxanne
Shanté, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah
showed that they were as tough as the boys
in a male-dominated genre. Salt-N-Pepa
struck a blow for female sexuality, while
Yo-Yo ironized over discrimination against
­women in the hip-hop song It's a man's
world with Ice Cube in 1990.
The first female rappers often worked hard
to be seen as one of the guys. They dressed
in the same baggy clothes, and showed the
same aggression and tough attitudes. With
time the trend has been towards a much
more sexual image for female rappers. ­
Lil 'Kim found success in the late 1990s with
her provocative and almost pornographic
image, a tradition that continues today with
the popular Nicki Minaj. Violence against
women and general misogyny – or hatred
of women - in rap texts picked up towards
the end of the 1980s, at the same time as
gangsta rap caught on. The hypersexual
image for women increased in popularity
during the next ten years.
“The hip-hop generation, or people born
between 1965 and 1984, was the first gen-
eration that grew up after segregation was
abolished in the United States. They grew
up with an expectation of equality that was
simply not true,” Castor points out.
“Discrimination remains a problem, and
many African-Americanmen take out their
frustration on women from their own com-
munities. The men are annoyed because
they have to pay child support and feel that
women have an easier life than they do.
The women, on the other hand, are angry
withmen because they get in trouble with
the law, and they do not follow through on
their responsibilities. This has created great
distrust between the sexes, and this reality is
reflected in rapmusic,” she says.
Parodyor reality?
A study from 2009 showed that misogyny
was found in only 22 per cent of the rap
songs surveyed, which researchers pointed
out was far less than the biggest critics had
believed, but that it nevertheless represented
a clear theme. They found that the most
common negative way to refer to women in
rap was as sexual objects, followed by songs
that discussed women in general using
derogatory words. Distrust towards women
was a topic in a little under half of the mi-
28 ••• Labyrint E/13 – University of Tromsø
Queen Latifah is one of the world’s most successful female
rappers. Photo: Universal Music