Whose Revolution Is Televised?: Young African Nova Scotian Women Respond To Sexual Politics in Hip Hop Culture & Everyday Life by Alecia Green Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Joint Women’s Studies Programme at Saint Mary’s University Mount Saint Vincent University Halifax, NS January 2007 ©Copyrightby Alecia Green, 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be includedBien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i * i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (ii) SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY MOUNT SAINT VINCENT UNIVERSITY JOINT M.A. IN WOMEN’S STUDIES The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend for acceptance a thesis entitled Whose Revolution Is Televised?: Young African Nova Scotian Women Respond To Sexual Politics In Hip Hop Culture & Everyday by Life Alecia Green in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Supervisor: Dr. Audrey MacNevin Committee Member: Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard Examiner: Dr. Catrina Brown Date: April 24, 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (iii) SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY MOUNT SAINT VINCENT UNIVERSITY DATE: April 24, 2007 AUTHOR: Alecia Green TITLE: Whose Revolution Is Televised?: Young African Nova Scotian Women Respond To Sexual Politics In Hip Hop Culture & Everyday Life PROGRAM: Women’s Studies DEGREE: Master of Arts CONVOCATION: Spring YEAR: 2007 Permission is hereby granted to Saint Mary’s University and Mount Saint Vincent University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at their discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. Signature of Author THE AUTHOR RESERVES OTHER PUBLICATION RIGHTS, AND NEITHER THE THESIS NOR EXTENSIVE EXTRACTS FROM IT MAY BE PRINTED OR OTHERWISE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE AUTHOR’S WRITTEN PERMISSION. THE AUTHOR ATTESTS THAT PERMISSION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FOR THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL APPEARING IN THIS THESIS (OTHER THAN BRIEF EXCERPTS REQUIRING ONLY PROPER ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN SCHOLARLY WRITING,) AND THAT ALL SUCH USE IS CLEARLY ACKNOWLEDGED. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (iv) ABSTRACT: This qualitative research study explores young African Nova Scotian women’s responses to images of Black female bodies depicted in three popular hip hop music videos. Taking a Black socio-feminist theoretical perspective, the project elicits the views of five young women in their first or second year of university, using an open-ended and semi-structured individual interview format. Research findings indicate that the participants are media literate and that they critically consume depictions of the Black female body in popular culture. Factors such as academic achievement, the importance of divinity, and degree of communal affiliation act as bases for counter-hegemonic viewing of the images. Whereas popular cultural depicts the Black female body as sexually promiscuous, the young women interviewed define Black female beauty as a quality mostly emanating from the inside-out. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (V) Shout Outs! Thank you Lord, for making all things in my life possible. An infinite amount of love goes out to: My family & Friends: Dad - Thank you for initiating my love of music. Mom - Thanks for engaging in this reflective process with me. Paul - Thanks for being open to hearing my rants even if you disagreed! To my Grandmothers - Thank you for your help, strength, support, and words of wisdom. Samkeliso Mawocha - You’re my best friend for life. Thanks for the late night conversations. The Hall Family- thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. Other warm thanks go out to: Audrey MacNevin Wanda Thomas Bernard Marianne Parsons Catrina Brown All of the female youth who inspired this research. Folks at the Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs, Folks at Dalhousie University’s Black Student Advising Centre, Pauline Byard, Maryanne Fisher, Valerie Marie Johnson (Remember, the first draft is always sh#*!) & Michelle Byers (Question everything...), My women’s studies classmates, George Pollard, Chris Powell, Janet Siltanen and other supportive folks at Carleton University. MUCH RESPECT to... Canadian un(der) recognized hip hop artists Those that came before: Thank you for creating building-blocks of inspiration for me and the future (hip hop) generation. Thank you, as well, to the other endless number of critical thinkers whose names I may have forgotten to mention. You have had a profound influence in my life and for that, I am truly grateful. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (vi) Table of Contents Abstract iv Shout Outs! V Introduction & Research Objectives 1 Channel 1: Literature Review 4 Channel 2: Research Methods & Methodology 33 Channel 3: Presentation & Analysis of Data 45 Channel 4: Discussion 76 Conclusion 79 Endnotes 92 References 96 Appendices 104 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction & Research Objectives Academic literature has tended to support the idea that Black female youth have higher self-esteem and more positive bodily self-acceptance than their White female counterparts (Harris & Kuba, 1997; Mandell, 1998; Parker, Nichter, Vuckovic, Slims & Riterbaugh, 1995; Wolf, 1991). Such literature has also tended to focus on the physical, biological, psychological (and often Eurocentric) perspectives of body image1, often emphasizing issues of weight preoccupation and body dissatisfaction (Brown & Jasper, 1993). Further, research to date has not specifically examined how prevalent, stereotypical, Americanized media images of the Black female body are linked to one’s self-conception, or considered the social implications that these Americanized images may have on one’s health and well-being in a Canadian context. This research begins to address these gaps in literature by examining the responses of young African Nova Scotian women to prominent media images and by exploring how these images affect self. More specifically, the research focuses on media images of the Black female body by undertaking an empirical investigation into the relationship between hip hop culture as illustrated by popular, commercialized rap videos and the responses to such images among young Black women. In essence, the research focuses on the ways in which images of the Black female body are socially constructed and dispersed through three American rap videos by focusing on two major areas of investigation. The first investigates how (non-) assimilation to White, Western culture affects young Black women’s notions of self­ conception and the connection, if any, to the beauty ideals represented in rap videos and hip hop culture. In this context, the main focus will be the extent to which young African Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nova Scotian women report that they do or do not modify their values and beliefs about images of body in an effort to assimilate to White, Americanized standards of beauty. The second investigates what remains to be done to bring about positive change and advocacy for young African Nova Scotian women concerning images of body, assimilation to Western standards of beauty, and self-conception. This study begins