Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses Studies Summer 8-1-2010 Where my Girls at?: The Interpellation of Women in Gangsta Hip- Hop Chanel R. Craft Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Craft, Chanel R., "Where my Girls at?: The Interpellation of Women in Gangsta Hip-Hop." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses/19 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. WHERE MY GIRLS AT?: THE INTERPELLATION OF WOMEN IN GANGSTA HIP-HOP AT GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY by CHANEL R. CRAFT Under the Direction of Amira Jarmakani ABSTRACT This thesis interrogates gangsta hip-hop for the unique attention it plays to the drug trade. I read theories of hypervisibility/invisibility and Louis Althusser’s theory of interpellation alongside hip-hop feminist theory to examine the Black female criminal subjectivity that operates within hip-hop. Using methods of discourse analysis, I question the constructions of gangster femininity in rap lyrics as well as the absences of girlhood on Season 4 of HBO’s television drama The Wire. In doing so, I argue that the discursive construction of Black female subjectivity within gangsta hip-hop provides a hypervisibility that portrays Black women as violent while simultaneously erasing the broader social processes that impact the lives of Black women and girls.