It feels like forever since we've blogged! Glad to get back into this swing of this...
I think that Perry does a great job outlining some of the complexities of black masculinity and its relationship to the discourse and art form of hip hop. In fact, my mid term paper was essentially a focus on the fifth and sixth chapters of Perry's book. I think she rightly points out that black masculinity does not have the same position of power or security as white male privilege. It is not a simple equation when determine identity and social position because of the multiple matrices of power.
Perry also does a good job of discussing the hypermasculine character of hip hop lyrics and personalities as a response to black men securing their own masculinity in a white supremacist culture, and the legacy of feminizing the black male body. However, this sort of sociological argument reminded me of the piece we read about how often we ascribe responses to coping mechanisms for oppressed groups. This determinism removes agency and aesthetic considerations from the discussion. Perhaps the aesthetics of hip hop are masculine and to produce authenticity, rappers have to skillfully incorporate certain ideological messages about gender with gendered language. Perry to some extent states this, but she does not really address the systemic nature of hip hop's aesthetics shaping lyrics, and instead focused on sociological explanations (which I felt were equally important).
Another thing that I felt Perry did not do well search for compelling examples. One place in particular struck me, which was her discussion of tenderness and love in hip hop lyrics on 144-147. Perry brings up Method Man to highlight the "hybrid discourse" that is encouraged in hip hop: between female objectification and compassionate gender relations. However in the other examples, Perry takes the words about rappers using females as their "partners in crime" or female gangsters as signs of a deeper, more progressive sort of love. She sees this as a creation of a shared gendered space of support between male and female. However, using women as the subject of the "ride together, die together" ballad does not seem to be equal. In all of the examples, the female subject was glorified and respected only when she transformed to fulfill the needs of the male speaker. She is tough, she cares a gun in her Coach purse, she helps push drugs. So essentially, this woman has become a pawn in the hypermasculine show, without any sign of reciprocal transformation of the male speaker to accommodate the needs of the woman. Perry actually says it best about a non-hip hop song, Ain't No Woman: The song is "vaguely sexist (in that the man is the center of the relationship)" (147). I felt like all of her examples pointed to this type of relationship: male-centered. Obviously, the male is the speaker so there are certain lyrical constraints for de-centering their narration and perspective, but it was not clear that any sort of transformations took place on the male side of the equation to signal an egalitarian shift.
Well, should be fun to discuss! Looking forward to class, but the question is: who is bringing snack!?
Salinas v. Texas
10 years ago
I found Perry's section concerning love tenderness in the views of gender to be rather odd. The women who are considered appropriate in hip hop culture are the ones that have been hypermasculinized in some way. Now, I am a bit of a feminist, so my points may be rather skewed as well. But I firmly believe that, even when a woman is considered near an equal in hip hop, she is still being hypermasculinized to serve the purpose of the male. In most cases, the woman is either under the thumb of the male, used as a pawn or as a trophy girl. In other situations, she can attain "equal" status in the situation by, again, becoming a pawn or of some sort of assistant to the man. As it was pointed out in Toure's book a while ago, there are two positions for women in hip hop; they are either a sister or a ho. From what I see, there is not an escape from the hypermasculinity surrounding hip hop culture.
ReplyDeleteMatt-
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I agree with everything being said here. I felt that Perry's book is extremely strong EXCEPT in her argument that female artists like Lil Kim and Eve are defying the gender stereotypes imposed by black masculinity. She seems to take the view that women seen as gangsters or who voluntarily assert their sexuality are better than the alternative-- the sort of girls in music videos-- but don't they still leave something to be desired? I'm not quite sure Perry follows her gender argument all the way through its course.
Katie