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Misogyny is Not Unqiue to Rap Music...Norvet
An Essay by Lexi Norvet
What I wish to discuss today is not whether or not sexism exists and is rampant in contemporary hip-hop and rap lyrics. This is inarguable. Women are most commonly discussed in terms of their (hetero)sexuality and relationships with the men rapping about them. A woman is as (if not more) likely to be referred to as a “bitch” or “hoe” before, you know, as a person. I am not interested in arguing about that. What I am interested in discussing (as a woman who listens to music, including rap) is how our hyper-focus on the misogyny in rap music - and hiphop culture more generally - both reveals how racist we all are and simultaneously blinds us to the misogyny spouted by artists in other genres, and (not so) incidentally of other races.
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How is paying particular attention to misogyny in rap music racist? Well, my handy-dandy straw man, I’ll tell you. Like most genres of music, rap and hip-hop were created and developed by black people and black culture in the United States. Unlike rock and roll, R&B, jazz, and punk, though, white people have yet to infiltrate and completely dominate rap music (Macklemore, Eminem, and Itchy Australia notwithstanding). Because rap music remains a dominantly black medium, it is up to the white supremacist hegemony to do what it can to devalue it as an art form. That is what pointing out sexism in the lyrics of Kanye or 50 Cent or Waka Flocka is about – devaluing black art forms and asserting white supremacy. It has absolutely nothing to do with promoting the rights of women or denouncing violence against women. By always focusing on rappers’ liberal usage of perjorative terms for women, white culture is able to reassert its superiority and also dismiss everything else rappers are saying. We do not have to take it seriously when they discuss the evils of the prison-industrial complex or the inescapablility and racialization of poverty, all because they used the b-word.
This pattern falls right in line with how America and white Americans have framed black Americans since our country’s founding. While black women have been summarily ignored and utterly dehumanized by dominant white society, black men have al14 Content Warning: Sexual Violence & Misogyny
ways always always been villains and sexual fiends. Black men – as a tool of white supremacy – have been framed in the popular consciousness as hypersexual beings who cannot help but degrade women. This worry, of course, did not usually extend to black women but was concerned mostly with the relations between black men and white women. One of the many things that Jim Crow laws prohibited was interactions between the two groups. And while Jim Crow may be gone, the ways of thinking about black people that it promoted are not.
So, as a fan of Kanye, when I listen to him say “Fuck you and your Hampton house / I fuck your Hampton spouse / Came on her Hampton blouse / and in her Hampton mouth” on his seminal track “New Slaves,” I read it as less about degrading this one particular wealthy white woman because she is a woman and more as a statement of rejecting, outright, the restrictions that have historically limited the actions of black men, and more importantly as a declaration of war on white supremacy and its vestiges. (Yes women’s bodies are routinely viewed as the battlegrounds upon which wars are fought and won by men but that is a conversation for another article in a not music zine.)
Another clue that criticizing the misogyny in rap has fuck all to do with helping women is that our society has very little to say about the misogyny prevalent in other places in the music industry. Other male music legends like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan get little to no accusa-
tions of sexism in the mainstream discourse despite songs like “Under My Thumb,” “Run for your Life,” and “Just like a Woman” respectively (you can look up the lyrics for yourself). Robin Thicke and “Blurred Lines” enjoyed immense success last year (yes, criticisms of that song are rampant but no one is questioning the worth of the entire genre of boring pop music because of it (seriously that song does not go anywhere)). Particularly annoying to me, our collect-
ive culture did not band together to let Megan Trainor know that “boys like a little more booty to hold at night” is not a good reason to feel good about yourself. All of these songs are harmful to women and women’s wellbeing and society at large does not care because society does not have anything to gain by being critical of these artists. The large-scale scrutiny of these people and their music would be detrimental to white supremacy and force people to start thinking more critically and self-reflexively about matters like internalized misogyny, rape culture, and false and unhelpful body positivity. Our white supremacist, patriarchal culture is only interested in pointing out the mistreatment of women in already marginalized communities because it justifies the marginalization of those communities.
And this rampant hypocrisy is not limited to the world of music either. Think of how quickly Bill Cosby became an industry leper, think of how the modern symbol for despicable abusers of women is Chris Brown (yes, I know Chris Brown is still popular, invited to award shows etc. but he has been accepted as scum in the white hegemonic discourse). Now think about Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin and Eminem (again). Think about Roman Polanski, who still manages to get standing ovations at the Oscars, and Woody Allen, who got a lifetime achievement award last year at the Golden Globes, (again I do not wish to go into detail on these people’s specific crimes as they are awful, and No Fidelity is not the place – but please look into these individuals for yourselves and come to your own conclusions). These men are guilty of similar crimes to Brown and Cosby and have not faced anywhere near the level of repercussions that the former two have faced. Again, I am not suggesting that Brown and Cosby do not deserve everything they have gotten recently; I am simply pointing out that our unquestioning rejection of them was only made possible by their blackness. Such allegations are usually the end for you if you are black. But, if you are proven to have enacted violence against women and are white – you will most likely come out all right in the end.
Mainstream feminism (that is, white and liberal feminism) along with the hegemonic society it aligns itself with is really interested in talking about what I like to call The Easy Issues. To me, only talking about misogyny in rap music is Easy. It is Easy like decrying the homophobia of the Westboro Baptist Church is Easy. It is Easy like calling the racism that was prevalent in the Jim Crow-era south bad is Easy. While all of these things are true, only talking about misogyny, homophobia and racism as problems that other communities have prevents us from discussing and seeing how those problems are intrinsic to our communities as well. Sexism is not a problem at the margins; it is not exclusive to black, male rappers that scare your grandparents, and it is not always as Easy to spot as it is to count how many times Wiz Khalifa uses the term “bitch” versus “young lady who I would like to know better.” Misogyny in our patriarchal, cis-sexist, heteronormative, capitalistic, white supremacist society surrounds and affects us all. No one is exempt from that; not Childish Gambino, not Mumford and Sons, not you, not me, not anybody.
You better run for your life if you can, little girl Hide your head in the sand little girl Catch you with another man That’s the end ah little girl
Well I know that I’m a wicked guy And I was born with a jealous mind And I can’t spend my whole life Trying just to make you toe the line
Let this be a sermon I mean everything I’ve said Baby, I’m determined And I’d rather see you dead “Run for your Life” by the Beatles
