Girls
in the Hood
During this week we read materials
on Girls in the Hood from the works of Bell Hooks entitled: Outlaw Culture
resisting representations associated with the gangsta culture. She brilliantly discussed some of the crucial
and significant themes of the gangsta rap culture that is so negatively viewed
and portrayed within the context of the mainstream American ‘white supremacist
system’, which has long marginalized people of color and other ethnic
minorities and how these processes alienate, isolate and violate the rights of
black females. She also critique the gangsta rap culture and provided
substantial evidence that this phenomenon is a direct result of the long
historical development of the dominant white supremacist society that has kept
people of color at the margins of the American society and how young black
males see gangsta rap music as a social platform to expressly and vocally state
the hatred, isolation and denial they have been indoctrinated to grow up in.
Furthermore,
she asserts that the media and film industries play significant roles in
creating these gaps and reinforcing these perspectives. That is, most of the media
entities in the United States of America are dominated by white supremacists
that only care about their own benefits and the benefits of the people of their
race. She asserts that black young males and sometimes females gangsta rappers
use their music to unveil these deep social issues that are embedded within the
dominant white culture. She argued that white supremacists use the media to
attract attention by focusing on the negatives of the gangster rap culture, but
fails to explore those deep social and cultural issues that underpin gangsta
music. Gangsta rap is part of the popular culture and it is not isolated of
itself. It is a way of expressing and medium through which young black males
and females express deep issues of hate that has been historically and
culturally developed in the midst of the white supremacist dominated culture most especially in the United States.
Reflection Questions
Group 2
1.
Taking the idea that the
discursive construction of the critique of gangster rap strategically
misconstrues its political context, hooks asks an important feminist question
about the intersection of race and gender. How can we extend this idea to the
ways in which asking feminist questions visibilizes and therefore politicizes
things previously normalized by hegemonic discourses?
2.
While male gangster rap is
normalizing to hooks, Pough sees female gangster rap as subversive and bringing
wreck. Does this binary construction necessarily create the conditions to
dismiss their arguments, or asking this question differently, what sort of a
conversation about 'wreck', as a rhetorical act of resistance by the marginal,
would emerge between hooks and Pough?
3.
Does the misogyny that is represented in "gangsta rap" normalize
the objectification of women? Does this then breed the young people that
listen to "gangsta rap" to think women are objects, rather than
equals?
4.
In the article "Girls in Hood", there is a lot of
discussion of the depiction and representation of the black woman. Melissa
Harris-Perry discusses that black women are categorized within three main
stereotypes: the hyper-sexual Jezebel, the devoted mammy and the outspoken,
angry Sapphire. To add to this, is the stereotype of bourgeoisie sister, the
baby mama and the fast-talking, outspoken woman from the Boyz n the
Hood. Where do you think these stereotypes have appeared from and what do
you think are some of the reasons for why black women either choose to embody
these stereotypes of challenge them?
Group 1
1.
How can we construct "check
yourself before you wreck yourself" in feminist speak? (thinking of
reflexivity, positionality and intentionality as essential feminist ideas).
Also, how do these ideas relate/stray from the notion of 'saving' that Pough
speaks of?
2.
Do you think misogynistic attitudes would still be as present
with out "gangsta rap" in popular culture?
3.
In the "Gangsta Rap" article, they talk about the
violence and objectification of women in the lyrics and video similar to that
of the movie "The Piano" yet the latter didn't receive the same
criticism. What do you think of the argument that gangsta rap is simply one of
the ways that the black community are meeting the demands of white patriarchal
demands? And is there inherent racism in the way that the movie the Piano is
reacted to versus gansta rap or is there a difference? Lastly, are the
arguments that gansta rap is corrupting the youth comparable to previous
generations' argument about rock n roll and therefore is a passing phase, or is
there more legitimacy to it? Do you think other genres of music objectify women
in the same sense that "gangsta rap" does?
4.
One of the ways of re-asserting Black womanhood is through
wreck. Yet it seems to be speaking to a power that is demonstrated through
black manhood. Other black artists' assertion of black womanhood has also been
through aligning themselves to black manhood like Beyonce's lyrics of diva
"a diva is a female version of a hustler" and Nicki Minaj's lyrics of
roman revenge "I am not jasmine, I am Aladdin." Do you think the
only way to reassert power of black womanhood is through aligning oneself to
male characteristics or are there other examples that black womanhood has been
asserted?
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