"Now I Ain't Sayin' She's a Gold Digger": African American Femininities in Rap Music Lyrics Jennifer M
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2008 "Now I Ain't Sayin' She's a Gold Digger": African American Femininities in Rap Music Lyrics Jennifer M. Pemberton Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES “NOW I AIN’T SAYIN’ SHE’S A GOLD DIGGER”: AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMININITIES IN RAP MUSIC LYRICS By Jennifer M. Pemberton A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2008 The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Jennifer M. Pemberton defended on March 18, 2008. ______________________________ Patricia Yancey Martin Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ Dennis Moore Outside Committee Member ______________________________ Jill Quadagno Committee Member ______________________________ Irene Padavic Committee Member Approved: ___________________________________ Irene Padavic, Chair, Department of Sociology ___________________________________ David Rasmussen, Dean, College of Social Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii For my mother, Debra Gore, whose tireless and often thankless dedication to the primary education of children who many in our society have already written off inspires me in ways that she will never know. Thank you for teaching me the importance of education, dedication, and compassion. For my father, Jeffrey Pemberton, whose long and difficult struggle with an unforgiving and cruel disease has helped me to overcome fear of uncertainty and pain. Thank you for instilling in me strength, courage, resilience, and fortitude. For my departed mentor, Al Imershein, who believed in me as a student and scholar and helped me through a difficult time. Thank you for teaching me the importance of teaching about and for social justice and change. I will forever remain an honorary Cameron Crazie. Go Duke! iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I cannot sufficiently thank all of those who have contributed to my education, academic development and career and who have supported and encouraged me in completing this dissertation. First and foremost, I thank Patricia Yancey Martin, my major professor, dissertation advisor, and friend. Thank you for taking the risk of welcoming me back into academia after a hiatus and guiding, encouraging, and pushing me (even when I resisted). You have the uncanny ability to know exactly when to challenge and when to complement me, impelling me forward without discouragement. Thank you for having faith in my abilities when often I did not. Thank you for keeping me abreast of the latest and best scholarship in our field which greatly improved my dissertation and increased its potential relevance and importance. Your patience with me and vigorous commitment to reading and editing drafts have made me a better scholar, writer, and thinker. Thank you to the members of my dissertation committee whose support and patience through this long and often-changing journey never wavered. Thank you to Jill Quadagno whose course on race and ethnicity in my first year of graduate school partially inspired me to pursue the topic of my master’s thesis and dissertation research. I also thank Irene Padavic for agreeing to be on my committee without having ever worked together before. And, thanks to my outside committee member, Dennis Moore whose friendship with Al Imershein made his participation in this process important and meaningful to me. I thank each of them for their comments, thoughts, and suggestions. Thank you to Harry Dahms whose mentorship early in my graduate career taught me new ways to think about the world and issues of social justice. Thank you to Lori Reid for her assistance in the formulation of an earlier dissertation prospectus. I also want to thank John Reynolds for giving me my first research experience and for allowing me to collaborate with him on a co-authored journal article. Thank you to Mary Rogers for working with me on an entry on feminist epistemology in an encyclopedia of social theory. In addition, I thank the many graduate students, especially Ashley Schmidt, Lacey Sischo, and Tina Deshotels, who at various times have consoled, listened to, and celebrated with me during my graduate school journey. Their friendship has been iv invaluable to me. I also thank Jamie Yeargan for helping me with the various bureaucratic forms and formalities required for completing my degree. Last, and certainly not least, I thank my entire immediate and extended family including, but not limited to, my four parents and six siblings and my grandmother. Your unconditional love, support, and encouragement have meant the world to me and I could not have made it through this long and arduous journey without you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ........................................................................................viii Abstract...................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................1 Research Questions and Data..............................................................3 An Introduction to Rap Music, Hip-Hop Culture and Scholarship.......4 My Encounters with Rap Music..........................................................7 Women and Rap Music.....................................................................11 Gender as an Institution and the Intersections of Gender, Race, Class and Sexuality.................................................................15 Hegemonic Masculinity and Pariah Femininities ..............................18 Theoretical Perspectives and Research Contributions........................27 Overview of Dissertation Chapters ...................................................28 CHAPTER 2: PLACING RAP MUSIC AND HIP-HOP CULTURE IN CONTEXT: WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL CLASS AND PATRICIA HILL COLLINS AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE, SOCIAL CLASS, GENDER AND SEXUALITY ......................29 The Emergence of Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the U.S. Urban Context ..........................................................................30 William Julius Wilson and the Significance of Social Class..............32 Patricia Hill Collins and the Significance of Ideologies about and Intersections of Race, Social Class, Gender and Sexuality..........39 Hip-Hop Culture and Rap Music Origins..........................................47 Women in Early Hip-Hop Culture ....................................................54 Gangsta Rap: Misogyny, Violence and the Young Suburban White Men Who Propelled Rap into the Mainstream ........................57 Conclusions......................................................................................59 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ........................61 Rap Album Population and Song Sampling Frame............................61 Coding Procedures............................................................................63 Codes ...............................................................................................70 Code Frequencies, Percentages, and Intercoder Reliability................74 Analysis Procedures .........................................................................76 Conclusions......................................................................................79 CHAPTER 4: FREAKS, PROSTITUTES, AND BITCHES IN RAP MUSIC LYRICS ......................................................................80 Analysis Aims ..................................................................................80 Freaky Freaks Freak .........................................................................82 vi Pussy Sells: Prostitutes .....................................................................94 She’s a Bitch ....................................................................................97 Conclusions....................................................................................120 CHAPTER 5: MAMAS, DYKES, DIVAS, SISTER SAVIORS, AND EARTH MOTHERS IN RAP MUSIC LYRICS..........................122 Baby Mama Drama vs. My Hard Workin’ Mama: Representations of Mothers ............................................................122 Dykes: Heterosexism, Homophobia, and “Bulldagging Ass Bitches”...................................................................................133 Scripts Associated with Black Middle-Class Women......................142 The Black Lady, Modern Mammy, and “Educated Bitch”...............143 The Diva, Sister Savior, and Earth Mother: Middle-Class Scripts for Black Women in Rap Music Lyrics ...............................145 Challenging Negative Images of (Black) Women and Resistant Femininities in Rap Music Lyrics ...................................................153 Conclusions....................................................................................156 CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND REFLECTIONS............................158 On Hegemonic Femininity, Pariah Femininities, and Hegemonic Masculinity in Rap Music Lyrics ....................................................158 On the Intersection and Significance of Gender, Race, Class, and Sexual Ideologies in Rap Music Lyrics...........................................165 On the Commercial