Article Review #2 Aidan Munn

Aidan Munn

WGST 202

T/Th 9:30-10:45

Professor Currans

Blog Topic: Women and Hip-Hop

Article Review #2

Morgan, Marcyliena. (2005). “Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil: Race and Class in Popular Feminist Identity.” South Atlantic Quarterly 104:3 pp 425-444

In “Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil: Race and Class in Popular Feminist Identity,” Marcyliena Morgan brings up many points. She starts off by giving some background information about black women in history. Black women have it the worst when it comes to repression because of being both non-white and a woman. The representation and involvement of women in hip-hop has been controversial because of how it is normally a male-dominated culture. Females that are in the hip-hop world rhyme a lot about black women’s history, social life, and dreams of being treated with respect. The main point of this article is the history of black women, specifically on women in the hip-hop world and their relation to men. Women of hip-hop challenge the men and the prescribed notions of feminism.

            One way we learn about the history of black women is by how other people see and treat them. There are multiple voices and messages about what it means to be a woman and what it means to be black in relation to men. The situation for black women today is where she is routinely ridiculed for her sexuality, social class, determination, commitment to family, passion, and public displays of womanhood. They are definitely judged more than men for the things that they do. Women in the hip-hop culture are especially stereotyped. Although they are stereotyped more, they can use hip-hop as a way to display their skills as well as to present and challenge what it means to be a young black woman in America and the world.

            Another way we learn about black women MC’s is through their lyrics. Women can express themselves a lot through their lyrics. Some women sing about change and representation and some sing about being treated fair and equal. In the song “Your Revolution” by Sarah Jones, some of the lyrics are about standing up to a man such as “Your revolution will not happen between these thighs”. This lyric is a woman basically telling a man that she won’t have sex with him. In one of Queen Latifah’s songs she has the line, “Enough about myself, I think it’s time that I tell you About the evil that men do.” (437) This is a very significant line because it shows her identity as a woman of power. The things that women talk about in their rap songs are very different from what men talk about in their rap songs. Men usually talk about cheating, how great they are in bed, and how much money they have. Women talk more about the issues facing young women such as relationships, sex, desire, and friendship.

            This article definitely relates to my blog topic. My blog topic is women and hip-hop. This article focuses on the way black women are perceived and treated, especially MC’s. This article talks about how black women have been considered lower, and in some points in history they weren’t even considered to be women. Even though those times are long gone, that could still have influenced the way black women are treated today. A lot of the time, the way black women are sung about and portrayed in rap lyrics and videos are ignored, but sometimes women make a stand. Some students at Spelman College, a prominent black women’s college in Atlanta, successfully pressured the rapper Nelly to cancel an appearance their school because they found his song “Tip Drill” and its accompanying video offensive. This also relates to our course themes. One of our main course objectives is examining how one’s own gender, sexual, and racial identities relate to others. This is shown is this article between it tells how black women are treated in comparison to white women and how women in the hip-hop world are treated differently than men are.

This article also relates back to the previous article I reviewed, “Hotep and Hip-Hop: Can Black Muslim Women Be Down With Hip-Hop?” In “Hotep and Hip-Hop,” McMurray discusses black Muslim women involved in hip-hop life. The article also talks about the gender roles and different ways communities react to Muslim women going against their culture. The Muslim women going against what is normally expected of them is a lot like the women in “Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil” going against being just passive women. They rap about being independent women and sticking up for themselves. This article definitely added to my knowledge about the subject. I learned a lot about the construct of the hip-hop world. It definitely showed how women in hip-hop have worked to show themselves in a good light as strong, independent women. There are also differences between the two articles. In “Hotep and Hip-Hop,” it is more of a questioning of a woman’s place in the hip-hop world and how they are treated in it. In “Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil:…”, it is more of what women are doing to counteract the ridicule they may face or go against what is expected of them. I don’t think there is anything the author left unaddressed.