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Women of Color in Hip Hop: the Pornographic Gaze Author(S): Margaret Hunter and Kathleen Soto Source: Race, Gender & Class, Vol

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Women of Color in Hip Hop: the Pornographic Gaze Author(S): Margaret Hunter and Kathleen Soto Source: Race, Gender & Class, Vol Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal Women of Color in Hip Hop: The Pornographic Gaze Author(s): Margaret Hunter and Kathleen Soto Source: Race, Gender & Class, Vol. 16, No. 1/2 (2009), pp. 170-191 Published by: Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41658866 Accessed: 15-01-2020 19:18 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41658866?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Race, Gender & Class This content downloaded from 146.244.101.138 on Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:18:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Race, Gender & Class: Volume 16, Number 1-2, 2009 (170-191) Race, Gender & Class Website: www.suno.edu/Race_Gender_Class/ Women of Color in Hip Hop: The Pornographic Gaze Margaret Hunter Department of Sociology Mills College Kathleen Soto Education Teachers College Abstract: The lyrical content of hip hop music is a widely contested, yet understudied popular culture phenomenon. This article presents a content analysis of the lyrics of the 49 most popular mainstream rap songs over a two year period. The analysis revealed three over-arching themes regarding women of color: 1 ) consistent with trends in mainstream pornography, women are commonly characterized as sex workers, particularly strippers and prostitutes, 2) women's voices are used strategically in songs to "sell" particular images of women and gender ideologies, and 3) women are often valorized for their loyalty to male partners despite danger to themselves. We find that popular rap music draws heavily from mainstream pornography contributing to a "pornification" of youth culture. Keywords: pornography; rap music; hip hop; popular culture; youth culture Margaret Hunter is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mills College in Oakland, California. Her research focuses on women of color in the United States in comparative perspective. She has published extensively on skin tone discrimination in the African American and Mexican American communities, including her book, Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone (Routledge 2005). Hunter is currently studying the shifting racial attitudes of white youth in the post civil-rights era. Address: Department of Sociology, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613. Ph.: (510)430-3220, Fax (510)430-2304, Email: [email protected]. Kathleen Soto is a Graduate Student in Education at Teacher's College. She has This content downloaded from 146.244.101.138 on Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:18:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Pornographic Gaze 171 been active as a student leader in social justice issues in higher education. Her areas of interest are race and gender inequality in schools and youth activism. Address: 24429 Albatross Ave., Wilmington, CA 90744. Ph.: (310)702-2959, Email: [email protected]. Please direct all correspondence to Margaret Hunter. to the rising tide of pejorative lyrics about women in rap music. "Who In you to you 1994, callin' the callin'a bitch?" rising she Queen asks tidethe alistener bitch?" andLatifah the oflarger pejorative hip hop she released asks lyrics the the about song, listener women "U.N.I.T.Y." and in the rap larger music. as a response hip "Who hop community. More than a decade later, the African American women of Spelman College asked the same question, and found themselves in the middle of a media frenzy about rap music videos and representations of women. In the decade that has passed since Queen Latifah initially posed this question, many have argued that representations of women have only spiraled downward in mainstream rap music (Cole & Guy-Sheftall, 2003; Perry, 2003; Sharpley- Whiting, 2007). In music videos, women wear less clothing, and perform more explicit sexual acts on screen. This trend toward the pornographic began early in rap music, and accelerated as pornography expanded into the cultural mainstream (Caputi, 2003; LeVande, 2008; McFarland, 2003; Miller-Young, 2008). In 1990 members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were arrested in Florida on "obscenity charges" for the pornographic depiction of women and sexuality on their album, As Nasty as They Wanna Be (George, 1998; Perkins, 1996). In 1994, DJ Yella of the notorious group, NWA (Niggaz With Attitude), made a pornographic video and marketed it with his name and association with NWA. But rap music's relationship with pornography has only expanded in recent years (Miller-Young, 2008). Many rappers' entrepreneurial skills have taken them into the markets of fashion, energy drinks, liquor, and even the actual production of pornography. Snoop Dogg has been the most successful in this crossover. As reported by Adult Video News , Snoop boasts the top selling adult videos of 2001 (Doggystyle) and 2003 (Snoop Dogg's Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp) (Allers, 2005). Several other best-selling rappers including 50 Cent, Lil' Jon and Ice-T have begun producing and hosting pornographic videos as well (Kinnick, 2007). It is worth noting that "hosting" a pornographic videos means being fully clothed and simply introducing scenes and actors throughout the video. Music videos and rap lyrics increasingly draw on well-established themes in pornography. The "pornification" (Paul, 2005) of rap music also involves increased representation of women as porn stars, strippers, prostitutes, and other types of sex workers. Beyond representations of "types" of women, the pornification of rap also involves the routinization of a "pornographic gender relation." We describe pornographic gender relations as those that portray interactions between women and men in particular and limited ways. This content downloaded from 146.244.101.138 on Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:18:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1 72 Margaret Hunter & Kathleen Soto Examples of this particular gender relation widely communicated in hip hop include scenes or lyrics where women are routinely sexually humiliated, used for male sexual pleasure at the exclusion of female sexual pleasure, or typically shown as exchanging money or status for sex. Sex work and pornographic culture (their economics and gender relations) have merged with rap in form and content (McFarland, 2003; Miller- Young, 2008). Why should anyone research rap music if it is "common knowledge" that the lyrics are sexist? We suggest two reasons. First, aside from journalistic accounts of rap, few empirical studies have been done on lyrical content. Pundits and alarmists routinely grab headlines about rap music, but few scholars or activists have systematically looked at rap music content. Second, much research shows that adolescents who watch and listen to more rap music are at increased risk for displays of violence, substance abuse, and "risky" sexual behavior (Miranda & Claes, 2004; Wingood et al., 2003). Images in rap music lyrics are not simply sexual in nature. They also convey a particular gender and racial ideology. The commingling of sex, race, objectification, and violence in contemporary mainstream hip hop has resulted in a "pornification" of the genre consistent with the expansion of pornography into youth culture more generally. One recent public example involved shock jock Don Imus. Imus, who has a long history of using offensive language on the air, referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hoes" (CBS News, 2007). After his show was dropped from CBS Radio for that comment, many public voices wondered aloud how his comment was any different from the way rappers routinely talk about black women in their songs ( Chicago Tribune , 2007). Best-selling rapper and producer Snoop Dogg responded this way: It's a completely different scenario. [Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about hoes that's in the 'hood that ain't doing shit, that's trying to get a nigga for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel (Reid, 2007). Snoop's use of the "good girls/bad girls" dichotomy is common in popular culture in general and rap music in particular. Many young women who are rap music fans feel that the girls in the songs are "bad girls" or "hoes." while they regard themselves as good, decent, or normal. This distinction allows them to enjoy the music and distance themselves from its female subjects, avoiding feelings of degradation or humiliation. The race of the women in the videos also plays a role here. For white consumers (and they constitute the plurality) the fact that the This content downloaded from 146.244.101.138 on Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:18:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Pornographic Gaze 1 73 women and men in rap music are almost exclusively black and brown adds an additional layer of social distance between them. This good girl/bad girl distinction dominates mainstream rap lyrics.
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