Article Review #1 Aidan Munn

Aidan Munn

WGST 202

T/Th 9:30-10:45

Professor Currans

Blog Topic: Women and Hip-hop

Article Review #1

McMurray, Anaya. (2008). “Hotep and Hip-Hop: Can Black Muslim Women Be Down With Hip-Hop?” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, volume 8, no. I, pp 74-92.

In “Hotep and Hip-Hop”, Anaya McMurray discusses Muslims of the hip-hop generation (young African Americans born between 1965 and1984) and actual black Muslim women involved in the hip-hop culture. She discusses all the different Muslim people that are involved in hip-hop life. She questions whether black Muslim women should be “down” with hip-hop based off of society, Muslim customs, and much more. Her main argument is that Muslim women in hip-hop are treated way differently than other women and especially men. This article also discusses the gender roles and the different ways the Muslim communities and communities as a whole react differently to Muslim men going against customs versus Muslim women.

            When determining if black Muslim women should be “down” with hip-hop, it is important to look at what they bring to hip-hop. It is rarely discussed what these women contribute to hip-hop culture. The typical thought of what a Muslim women would look and act like is completely different from the roles women are encouraged to play in the hip-hop industry. People think of Muslim culture they usually imagine a quiet submissive woman, body completely covered up and no make up. This is the completely opposite in the hip-hop industry. Women are in very small, skimpy outfits with lots of make up and showing off their sexuality. Both of these examples are extremes of what the reality is, so this doesn’t make it so women can’t be down with hip-hop. Not all women of Muslim religion (especially in America) are covered up in long outfits with their hair wrapped. Along those lines, not all women in the hip-hop industry have to wear demeaning skimpy clothing.

            Another reason to wonder if black Muslim women should be down with hip-hop is looking at their cultural roles and double standards. We as Americans already have different stereotypes and judgments about men and women, but it is even more extreme in the Muslim community. Part of the reason black Muslim women are not well represented in the industry is because the roles that they play are not the roles women in the hip-hop industry are encouraged to play. Muslim women’s image of being the “good girl” is being at home, submissive, and many other things. Muslim women are not supposed to be promoting things that women in the music industry are supposed to be supporting such as any type of alcohol or something sexualized. This is not a reason for them to not be down with hip-hop. You don’t have to be into all the sex things and stuff like that just to be part of the music industry. Just focus purely on your music if you don’t want to participate in the things that a typical hip-hop artist would do.

            This article relates really well to my topic. My topic is women and hip-hop in general so this definitely had a lot of information for us. They had the answers to almost all questions and did a great job keeping us involved and in conversation. This shows us a great side of hip-hop and women, specifically focusing on those of Muslim decent. This is so closely related to course themes. The biggest one I saw here was the gender roles. McMurry described how if a Muslim man were to talk about drinking, hanging out late, hanging with opposite sex, anything like that they would be high frowned upon. Although the Muslim community wouldn’t be too happy, but they would open up the door and forgiven them a lot easier than if a women hip-hop artist were to do the same thing. I am comparing and contrasting this article to the article we read in class by Cecelia Ridgeway, “Framed Before We Know It: How Gender Frames Social Relations”. One way these articles are alike is because both describe how our assumptions of how a certain group should act is based off of our cultural upbringings and the things we’ve experienced. Like in the article by Ridgeway, we don’t mean to judge people based off of their gender, but we learn these prejudices from our parents and the expectations set by society. We start making judgments and assumptions without knowing it because that’s just how we were born and then raised. A way the articles are different is because of the content. They are both about gender and gender differences, but the article by McMurray incorporates a lot more. Besides just gender, McMurray’s article also includes race and religion. It discusses how the Muslim culture and religion is extra strict on their women. Muslim women are a lot more restricted than American women are.