Feminism within the music industry - By Goddard Adali-M

Music is a powerful way of getting a message across, and it is used to gather supporters for all sorts of acts, this can be dangerous baring in mind the youths are easily influenced by music, and some wrong messages sent by false-minded musicians can do damage to young listeners. When a child grows up in a certain surrounding he or she gets used to the influences of their surroundings and usually grows up sticking to the principles he or she learnt from their childhood, a lot of kids are obsessed with celebrity life-styles and have chosen to make superstars their role-models.

My main focus is on female musicians in hip-hop and how their feminist acts and words influence many young girls out there. Feminism can be summed up as woman power, or the fight for equality between women and men. Some feminist women take it to heart and take it so far that they end up sounding sexist, forgetting that the fight was not to discriminate men, but to stop men discriminating women. In music videos women are always used as what I see as 'bait' to attract more viewers, the women tend to be half naked and aspects of their body need to be in a certain shape or form for them to be accepted as beautiful, while the men appear more over-powering and careless. The men sleep with more than one woman and get praised by being called 'playas', where as if a woman was to do the same she would be labelled as a whore and discriminated.

 

There have been a few women putting their foot down in music, such as Mary J Blige, Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott and many more. The sad side of this is that many of these positive female artists don’t sell much, which would mean people prefer the naked woman talking about sex, more than the well dressed lady talking about power. It’s not just in hip hop that women get degraded; Pop music is mostly based around fantasies, and whose fantasies does not involve a hot naked woman? Whether it’s the woman looking at herself as a flawless model or the man looking at the woman as a sexually attractive character. Madonna put out a song called Human Nature, talking about being censored and given less opportunity all because of her gender, some of the lines in the song are "You wouldn’t let me say the words I longed to say" and "You didn’t want to see life through my eyes", she peaks of the un-fair rules she was bound by and how men did not want to see things through a woman's perspectives and avoided their opinions. Personally I think her songs empower women to realize that they deserve more and need to stand up for their rights, but then an artist like Nikki Minaj, (who has sold millions of records worldwide) steps into the music scene and does everything that destroys the power of women, she’s gotten plastic surgery to look more attractive, she barely wears any clothes and talks about sex all the time. Nikki Minaj would call herself "Barbie" (which clearly means a toy to be played with) or a "Bad Bitch" whereas Madonna would say "I’m not your bitch" she does all the things that angered women to stand up for their rights in the first place, even though she doesn’t have to in an era such as now where women have more rights and power than they used to have.
A lot of girls follow the likes of Nikki Minaj, they dress like her and believe that in order to look attractive you must wear clothes that show-off some cleavage or clothes that expose your thighs. There are other artists like Nikki Minaj that discriminate women even further, for example Lil Kim talks about selling her body to get men to accept her and make her famous, there’s a song where she says "Sucked dick just to get to the top", and later on talk about being an independent woman who doesn’t need the help of a man in her life.

Young girls look up to some of these false minded superstars and feel they can relate to them, but I feel like depending on men to get to a position where you wouldn’t need them anymore isn’t woman power. If a woman has to lower her standards at any point of her life because of her gender then she either does not know her rights or the power of her rights aren’t strong enough.

I was reading a book called 'From Black Power to Hip-hop: Racism, Nationalism, and feminism' and came across a quote by a female rapper 'Queen Latifah' who began her music career in the times when hip-hop was about getting the right message across, she was one of the few good role models who practiced what they preached. The quote is: "I don't act the way society dictates that woman should. I am not a dainty. I do not hold back my opinions. I don't stay behind a man. But I'm not here to live by somebody else's standards. I'm defining what a woman is for myself. Simply put, I'm not interested in subscribing to what society has decided for half of humankind. I am an individual." These are the kind of words that I will expect to hear from a feminist, or a woman who claims to stand for woman power. These days hip hop surrounds the fabulous lifestyle, being rich, driving the finest cars and wearing huge jewellery. The female rappers getting into the game follow the same trend, talking about fashion designer clothes and diamonds that they can afford by just appearing half naked in a music video and talking about sex, instead of them showing girls that you do not have to exploit yourself to be well off. This kind of music tends to degrade a certain type of audience, if a black woman always talks about having “the tightest vagina” or “shooting it out” (Lil Kim) and a white woman talks about “Sippin' gin and juice, layin’ underneath the palm trees” (Katie Perry) it is going to make black women look like the aggressive and violent type who will do anything for money or fame. “Apparently, singing and dancing about Black pain and wearing the latest styles while doing it could generate cold, hard cash.”

The book From Black Power to Hip Hop talks about colour blind racism, the fact that black people in general have to be involved in stereotypical activities in order to be successful,
The artists getting into hip-hop these days seem to have forgotten what hip-hop begun as. Before hip-hop there was the Black Power Movement, it was the voice of many who were tired of the unequal treatment. The female rappers could’ve stepped into the game of hip hop and sold millions based on lyrical content alone. Lyrical content informing the younger girls to focus on education and become doctors, encouraging the young ones that they are beautiful just the way they are and that they do not need botox to be loved or look any better. The songs these artists put out will influence a young girl to act cheap and whore-like, this has already been going on, many girls have no fathers because their mothers embraced the wrong lifestyle and either do not know their daughters father or their daughters father is just another thug minded man locked up. Nikki Minaj is very good with her lyrics and has some good songs apart from her usual sex topics, but still falls back into the act of getting naked and talking about things that degrade women. I think young girls need a role model, and not just one but many, because there are a few artists that try to educate the young black girls out there but they don’t get enough audience attention. There are even YouTube comments calling for good music, a lot of people are seeing the effects of this new hip hop and calling for the old “Real hip hop” back, here are a few YouTube comments on Nikki Minajs music videos:
“That's the dumbest shit I've ever seen.”
Written by: KurtwithKnives
“it's bullshit”
Written by: mizfest
But then there’s a comment that catches my attention, “Her music isn't aimed at young girls, so its not really her fault.”

Written by: MrHimey in reply to EfFaBaRbIElOlZ.

Even though her music is not aimed at young girls, it’s the kind of music young girls will want to listen to because every child wants to act as if they’re grown, so they dress like the grownups, talk like their favourite musicians and try to be like them. They’re young and can be thought anything, yet the false music is what they’re fed and when they grow and have daughters, their daughters are most likely going to act like their mothers. Black female rappers need to change their choice of topic and begin to influence their young black female fans the right way. It will take a lot of work but every step will count.

References:  From Black Power to Hip Hop by Patricia Hill Collins
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZvOhHF85I