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Monday, July 7, 2008
Women in Society
I was watching Hiphop vs. America on BET yesterday. Michael Eric Dyson was talking about Eccleciastical Apartheid. Which he described as using the bible to hold women down in the church as well as in society. I couldn't help but think about the Nas track "America" where he mentions that women have been told they're the reason sin is here. What place do women have in society, specifically black women? What do you think of Dysons analogy?
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Allot of woman in American society struggle with demonstrating strength and remaining a woman at the same time. often woman can come off masculine when demonstrating strength. its a hard battle balancing femininity and strength being a man i am happy that i don't have to face this challenge. we live in a mans world its obvious when all white states would rather have a Black MAN as the democratic nominee vs. an equally qualified if not more so (when it comes to experience) qualified white woman... I'm not taking the stand that Mrs. Clinton would be a better nominee or president rather what i am saying is if she was a white male with her qualifications AND experience she wouldn't have been dismissed so easily possibly would have been the nominee of the democratic party.
I think Dyson's analogy holds some truth but to add insult to injury, I think these hiphop videos degrade our black women and have placed them light years behind. "Dropping it like it's hot" in videos has widely become a culture in the black community. As gratifying as it may be to us men, it is on the other hand destroying our women. My question to you is: Do you think these videos roles and aspirations are geared toward women of a deprived socio-economic status? I understand the rappers' struggles and they're trying to amass revenues from every possible avenue but there needs to come a time when hiphop takes the matter at hand and starts to reconstruct the damages that have already been done. We can't have little black girls or daughters for that matter thinking that's a career choice.
WE can't have our daughters or anyone daughters seeing that life as a step ladder to something else. I saw the Hip Hop vs America also.
In response to Smooth...
In a recent Rolling Stones article, Barack made an interesting statement, "...as people know better they do better...".
This was in reference to a question posed about hip-hop and its responsibility for the plight in our communities.
With that said, I think as these young ladies and young men are exposed to different things, their thoughts and actions will change and we will see a change in the music as well as the videos. So asking a rap artist to not objectify women is somewhat counter productive. Instead we should identify why these young men view women in this light and better yet, why young women fail to have enough self worth to refuse these roles. Until we identify the root to these questions, nothing we can say or do will stop us from the direction we're moving towards.
So I think this brings us full circle. We can point to slavery and moving along in history, the church as the catalysts of this issue. Women were raped in front of their children and husbands and haven't gained respect for themselves or from society since. This can be evidenced in rap videos, but also in the church as Dyson pointed out.
The solution is to reverse the thinking. I remember a year ago when Don Imus made his racially motivated comments, thinking that the term "ho" in the phrase "nappy headed ho" wasn't nearly as offensive as "nappy headed". To be called a ho is something that can be easily dismissed. You're either promiscuous or you're not. And someone making that judgement about you without knowing you doesn't hold much weight. However to call someone nappy headed is not easily dismissed because it is a physical characteristic that cannot be denied. So the real question is, why is the term nappy even offensive to begin with. The answer... Self-hate. Replace the word Curly for Nappy in the phrase (Curly headed Ho), does this have the same sting? Replace nappy with a number of adjectives used to describe the physical feature of a persons hair and I bet almost none will have the sting that nappy had. Why? Self-hate. Why does nappy offend us? Nappy is what my hair is... that's the word the created to describe my hair and even if it is used with malice it does not sting me because I love myself and I know there is nothing wrong with the way I am. As a matter of fact the bible describes our maker as bronze skin and hair of wool which fits my description. Its this type of thinking, the self-hate thinking, that allows young men to disrespect and young women to put themselves in the positions they do in these videos. For as long as these young men and women could remember they were told that who they are IS NOT beautiful. Maybe not directly, but subliminally. Through ads that show skinny blonde women with long flowy hair... we have been told this is the definition of beauty. Does it surprise you then that although we were born with naturally curly hair almost every women we know including our mothers has straightened their hair to fit into a European society? Does it surprise you that we categorize hair by "good and bad" with bad often describing hair that is akin to us?
On the "Blackstar" album Mos Def and Talib sampled a skit from a movie called "Chameleon Street" where there is an exchange between two men. One man basically says he likes good hair and light skinned women... after much debate he agrees " I'm a victim brother. I'm a victim of 400 years of conditioning. The man has programmed my conditioning. Even my conditioning has been conditioned!"
Like you said,it stems on the primitive schooling of slavery and I agree 100% but how do we overcome these hurdles? How do we evolve as a unit and moved beyond the conditioning? How do we prevent our black women from vilification? It behooves the video directors, producers, record label, rap artists to discontinue hiring these females. Firstly, they are the employers and without a demand for these roles in the music videos, it would bring these aspirations and the need for such roles to a halt. Perhaps the videos need to be regulated and functions under standard operating procedures. Don't you think that the blame should be skewed more toward the record labels, rap artists, music video directors moreover than these young women? The aforementioned names are the patricians of the group and represent our voices to a certain extent. More should be expected and required of them.
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