Well... geez, i uh...
Well, i went to a forum thing tonight, entitled "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?" A catchy title, designed specifically to get people in the doors. See, an academic title like "Gender Issues in Hip-Hop Culture" wouldn't have drawn much interest, outside of academia, that is. The forum was fascinating, with the short answer being "Kinda" and the long answer being, well, longer.
I don't have my notes in front of me, but here's what i remember off the top of my tired, gotta go to bed, head. The masculine violence represented by some of Hip-Hop culture can be irresistibly attractive to Black women, since in this sexist, racist world, some women feel the need for someone who can "handle" himself on the streets, someone who can lend a kind of strength and protection. Black women allow themselves to be portrayed as promiscuous floozies in rap videos because American culture rarely celebrates Black women for their beauty and sexiness in wholesome ways. There's a yearning to be seen as beautiful and sexy (and valuable!) and these girls will take what they can get. Um... "Hustling" and "Thug Life" paradigms are not new to Hip-Hop, since throughout Black history there's been a certain admiration for the man who can make his way outside of the system. Mentioned were the legendary runaway slave, the tricky characters in Minstrel shows, the "number running" gamblers of the first half of the 1900s, and the drug dealers of today. Improvisation has been a huge part of Black culture, not only in these ways of getting ahead, but also in music (jazz), poetry (spoken word, rap) and sports (basketball, boxing). Physical and sexual abuse has been growing in the communities where Hip-Hop culture holds most sway, and the panelists lamented how little these issues are being discussed.
Things got really dynamic when the panel of experts took questions. The first one was from a "Hip-Hop Purist" who said he was offended by the title of the forum, and that Hip-Hop offers so many positives, and all the forum wanted to do was focus on the negatives. There was more to the question, but the panel's response made me forget. One of the ladys answered with passion, saying "how dare he" say that someone like R. Kelly (who filmed himself having sex with an underage girl and hardly got in trouble for it) or Mystikal (he and two friends forced his hairstylist to perform sexual acts for them because she stole from him) aren't Hip-Hop, when they've got as much a place to claim the culture for themselves as he does, and when Hip-Hop Purists ostracize certain artists, they're trying to avoid responsibility for that ugly part of the culture. She basically put the smack down on the dude, not least for which he called them "You Intellectuals".
I got to ask a question, wondering how much resistance there would be in the mostly white elite owned Hip-Hop music industry if independent artists began producing conscious music, directing anger at the system which allows the social inequities to continue rather than at the members of a rival gang... and the answer was kind of long and i don't remember much of it besides the one guy said music is entertainment, and it can't be conscious in every way, "I mean", he said, "I don't want a song about the fifteen minutes I spend sitting on the toilet when I'm about to wipe my ass!" There was more to that answer, but that was the funniest part.
A gay guy said his boyfriend listens to lots of Hip-Hop music and commented about the homophobia in Hip-Hop culture, and got a round of applause for being brave enough to stand up and say he's gay in front of, well, members of Hip-Hop culture. A girl asked about the internal conflict between wanting to look and act like the girls from the videos, but also recognizing the value of school, church and family. Another girl plead for answers about how to get this conversation going in the streets, in the very community where Hip-Hop culture is being lived out and (by the power of God) redeemed toward something healthier.
Well, maybe my post wasn't interesting, but at least it was long. I feel as though my obligation is fulfilled.