Snoop Dogg and Sexism in Hip-hop

The misogyny and sexism in hip-hop meme is not dead. Julianne Shephard of the Cowboyz and Poodles blog takes Snoop Dogg to task for shamelessly promoting domestic violence wife beating on his new album (UPDATE: Julianne's post has been referenced in the NY Times' review of the album! Props to Kelefa Sanneh). However, even while tearing apart Snoop, she admits:

"I am desensitized. I am a feminist who picks nits and splits hairs. But I also give passes. I throw my hands in air in the club to the crunk. I shake my ass like tomorrow's not gonna come, to songs written by men who wouldn't respect me. I rap along to murder-threat verse. I say to myself: sexual expression is complex and that's how I like it. I am an adult. I justify: I live in America, contradiction is my burden to bear."

This reminds me of what another female hip-hop fan said about this issue.

When I went to the Hip-hop Journalism Roundtable Discussion last month I asked the panel (just as I promised) about rap media's silence on the degradement of women in the music. The guys didn't answer, and the women, Dream Hampton and Raquel Cepeda, fed me non-answers that went in circles.

Since I couldn't get real talk out of them let me speak the harsh truth. Women in the hip-hop industry- the female publicists, stylists, managers, editor-in-chiefs, and label heads don't speak against the treatment of their sisters in our songs and videos because they're making good money off it. Boom, I said it.

UPDATE 1: Nick aka Catchdubs, the blurb master general drops a rare 300 words on the issue. It spreads...

UPDATE 2: Matt Cohen weighs in:

Jeru's homophobia, Mos Def's anti-semitism and Clipse's misogyny are offensive to me, but it isn't like their sole purpose is to push a hateful agenda... Where I draw that line may be just a rationalization, or my friend Dr. Kate may be right when she tells me that I am experiencing "cognitive dissonance," but it's not going to change my taste in music. If that makes me a hypocrite, then so be it.

It does, Matt

UPDATE 3: Justwill quotes an essay from Tracy A. Gardner about misogyny in the Black community:

Some Black men, full of the white man's perspective and values, see the white woman or Blond Goddess as part of the American winning image. Sometimes when he is with the Black woman, he is ashamed of how she has been treated and how he has been powerless, and that they have always had to work together and protect each other.

Interesting.

Comments

[Bol]

Some chicks just liked to be slapped around. They front about it, but they know it's true.

[Milo]

gangster shit, hash.

it is so true and awful. this is why we need to fill lauryn hill with prozac and send her to fix this up.

[lynne]

you have read joan morgan's book when chickenheads come home to roost and dr. gwendolyn pough's book check it while i wreck it - right?

[sleepnotwork]

Haha Bol, you must've been reading my blog:

http://www.sleepnotwork.blogspot.com/2004_09_26_sleepnotwork_archive.html#109622631975716428

[Stoney]

The problem with misogony in hip hop doesnt lie totally in the hands of the musician. I think the only sista who's stood up for her self was Queen Latifah (who you callin bi*ch?)
Nowadays it's like "Nothing in life is free, especially not me" Many of the women in this culture are complacent to be not only verbally, but physically and mentally abused (not just in the music). This stems to a psychological problem in our culture where children grow up watching their dad hit their mom, which teaches little boys that it's okay to hit girls, and teaches little girls that it's okay for their man to hit them. I've personally dated girls who were in this situation who essentially dumped me because I was too good to them. The last girl I dated went back to her abusive exboyfriend, and he killed her. (no lie) So the problem is more serious than some namecalling and a few bruises. As much as we dont want to admit it, the music we listen to does have a hand in shaping our culture. Our children are the ones who suffer. (I've seen 4 year old girls that know every word to "my neck...my back"
and 5 year old boys being pushed in shopping carts by their mother chanting "You'se a HO!") Mommy, DO SOMETHING!