Not your barbie girl
Rapping without showing my tits
FED I
I’m fed up.
I’m really fed up of being called “hoe”, “bitch”, “gold digger” and brought down to what I have between my legs. On Savage Mode II album by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin in just 15 songs we can hear “pussy” 83 times, “bitch” 33 times and “hoe” 6 times. Most of these instances are directed at women. Rap is one of my favourite music genre, but as a feminist, I ask myself whether I should listen to the music that does not respect me? This is unbelievable that we talk so much about #MeToo, female empowerment and fighting sexism and at the same time Tyler the Creator who sings “Goddamn I love bitches. Especially when they only suck dick and wash dishes. Cooking, cleaning, grant my wishes.” (“Transylvania”)is given Grammy prize in 2020. I cannot understand how oversexualization and dehumanisation of women
became an accepted norm. This is maybe due to the fact that rap has always been strongly dominated by men (apparently very primitive men). Lack of women in all the major roles in the music industry does not improve this. In the songs included on the list of 700 popular songs on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts between years 2012 – 2018, women represented only: 2.3% of songwriters, 21.7% of artist and only 2% of producers (professor Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report). On the lists of best rappers of all the time, women appear very rarely. It was a remarkable moment for all women when on Grammy 2019 Cardi B won the prize in the category of the best Rap Album. This was the first time in the history when a woman got rewarded in this category. I am very happy to see the successes of female rappers. But do the most famous
AM
D
female rappers like Cardi B, Nicky Minaj or Megan Thee Stallion help to move away from sexualization and objectification of women by singing “Lay on my stomach, toot it up, do the crybaby (crybaby) Look back, hold it open, now he annihilated (yeah) Moaning like a bitch when he hit this pussy” (“Cry Baby” – Megan Thee Stallion)? Such a representation of female rappers only reinforces a perception that if a woman wants to be successful in rap music (we can go a step further: in life), she must utilize her sexuality. Cardi B in her interview for i-D claims that „being a feminist is real simple; it’s that a woman can do things the same as a man.“. Then, why she cannot be a topchart rapper like Kendrick Lamar without becoming an object of male gaze? This leading female rapper says: “First of all, I rap about my pussy because she’s my best friend, and second of all it’s because it
seems like that’s what people want to hear.”. Unfortunately, in most cases, this is what men want to hear and see. Even Asap Rocky said that when he listens to female rappers he mainly thinks about having sex with them. Most of men think the same. For a reason. I had a chance to grow up with solidly rooted values core and clear views on what is good and what is not, but there is a lot of people that are shaped by what they listen to and watch. Pop culture by which they are surrounded creates their believes. It should be clearly stated that women are not men’s toys and their value is not estimated by their bodies. Music has a potential to be a powerful tool to fight for important causes. This is a shame that it wastes it all.