Chapter 1 - WordPress.com€¦ · Web viewIn April, 2007 the Rutgers’ Women’s Basketball team won the Division I NCAA Championship. Shortly afterwards, Don Imus, a radio “shock-jock,”

In: Handbook on Gender Roles ISBN 978-1-60692-637-6Editors: J. H. Urlich and B. T. Cosell, pp. © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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Chapter 3

YOU’RE MY BITCH: CRUDE AND DEGRADING TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN HARDCORE RAP

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PREDOMINANTLY WHITE TARGET AUDIENCE

Melinda C. R. BurgessSouthwestern OK State University

Karen E. Dill and Beth A. WrightLenoir-Rhyne University

ABSTRACT

Both news media and scholarly experts regularly criticize hardcore rap for its violence and denigration of women. At the same time rap is routinely defended by the industry as benefitting the community from which it originates. This chapter explores the perceptions of rap by young adults, the people most likely to be listening to the music. We assessed their opinions about the content of rap songs, the material typically seen in rap videos, and the portrayal of women in rap. Additionally, we measured the young adults' perceptions of the criticisms rap faces: do they feel the content influences negative behaviors in listeners and who do they see benefitting, and in what ways, from the music. Based on their reports, young people believe that women are portrayed in rap music in a derogatory and sexualized fashion. The most common terms they listed included ho/whore, bitch, slut, shawty and sexy thang. We emphasize that bitch, in rap lyrics, takes on the meaning of one who submits to another’s will – sexually or otherwise. Consistent with content analyses of rap, our sample also believe hardcore rap focuses on sex, drugs, money, women and violence. Their perceptions are discussed in the context of what is currently understood about media effects on attitudes and behaviors.

Melinda C. R. Burgess, Karen E. Dill and Beth A. Wright

INTRODUCTION

In April, 2007 the Rutgers’ Women’s Basketball team won the Division I NCAA Championship. Shortly afterwards, Don Imus, a radio “shock-jock,” was fired from CBS Radio for his comments in which he referred to the (Black) team members as a group of “nappy-headed hos.” As a shock-jock Imus could be expected to make offensive and inflammatory remarks and perhaps the episode could be dismissed as the expected denigration from a self-confessed “idiot” ["Imus Apologizes for Controversial Comments about Rutgers Players," 2007]. However, in the fall of 2007, while testifying during a Congressional hearing to explore the issues of media, misogyny and racism, the second author listened to the industry defend itself from any wrong-doing in Imus’ derogatory comments about the Rutgers’ women. Their defense? Since the rap artists, typically Black men, referred to Black women in this way, why couldn’t/shouldn’t someone else? [From Imus to Industry, 2007]

While this logic is certainly questionable in its responsibility and tastefulness, it is, unfortunately, precisely what the Theory of Media and Aggressive Degradation [MAD Theory, Dill & Burgess, in press] would predict. MAD Theory posits that degradation begets degradation. When people view degradation of women (and minorities) in the media, this in turn fuels degradation of real people in real life. Another tenet of MAD is that debasing media portrayals encourage aggression towards the targeted group as well as increased tolerance for this aggression [Dill, Brown, & Collins, 2008]. Rap music’s perceived degradation of Black women, through labeling as “hos” and various other degrading portrayals, was a contributing factor to the real life degradation of a group of phenomenally talented Black, female athletes.

PRESENT INVESTIGATION

The purpose of this chapter is to explore young people’s perceptions of rap music and its portrayal of women. While rap has been soundly criticized from a multitude of sources, both academic and political, for its embrace of violence and its glamorization of ganglife and drug use [Haskins, 2000], and especially its misogynistic message and endorsement of rape culture [e.g., Buchwald, Fletcher & Roth, 1993; Waldron, 1996], little research has concerned itself with the perceptions of youth about the messages sent in rap lyrics. How do young people – both rap listeners and non-listeners – understand and interpret the content of rap lyrics? Since mass media use is the most common waking activity for youth, and since mass media teach social information, this information is important to understand from the perspective of youth socialization through media. White males, in particular, are the most frequent listeners of rap music as a means to vicariously enjoy the “dangerous” stereotype of Black males [From Imus to Industry, 2007]. The perception of rap stars and their messages by young adults is important to analyze for a number of reasons. Adolescent males are more susceptible to antisocial media influence than other groups, are more likely to find deviance--such as violence--appealing, and are also more apt to experiment with these so called “forbidden” behaviors. [Konijn et al., 2007].

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You’re my Bitch: Crude and Degrading Treatment of Women in Hardcore Rap …

MUSIC VIDEOS AS SOCIAL INFLUENCE

While music and music videos have not been studied as extensively as other forms of media (e.g., video games or television) by social psychologists, there is no reason to believe that music and music videos are any less influential than any other form of electronic media. Media, in any form, tell stories about cultural mores and expectations and individuals learn about culture from the media. This is particularly true for individuals who have limited exposure to a particular culture. For example, many White suburban children live in fairly segregated communities, with the majority of their exposure to other ethnicities coming largely from the media [Ward, 2005]. Music, and videos, both present an idealized view of the world that tells a story about the way the world could, or should, be. Music and videos are repetitive in nature – both radio stations and television video channels air repeated presentations of songs providing the repetition that is so effective from a pedagogical perspective [Gentile & Gentile, 2008].

RACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN RAP

The very notion of critiquing rap music is fraught with political overtones. While the more public debate has centered on the “puerile rap” [Lena, 2006, p. 486] with its violent and misogynistic overtones, there is an alternative interpretation of the protagonist (referred to as a “hustler”) as an “anti-hero” [Lena, 2006, p. 486] who represents the “attitudes and social crisis of the black underclass” [Armstrong, 2002, p.184]. Additionally there is a division between East-Coast Rap, sometimes referred to as “Playa Rap”, originating in the Bronx and West-Coast Rap, what has become known as Gangsta or Hardcore Rap, originating in LA [Haskins, 2000]. While the East-Coast Rap began as predominantly novelty music containing political messages extolling the negative experiences of the underclass (and has become harder with time), West-Coast Rap began as a more aggressive response to the negative experiences many Black (males) were experiencing in reality. Unfortunately, this outlet of expressing rage with tragic life circumstances and corrupt systems seemingly has devolved as major-record labels discovered the commercial success of aggressive rap. Lena [2006], in a content analysis of all rap singles to reach the Top 100 of the R& B Billboard magazine from 1979-1995, found that the rap produced by the major record labels were significantly more likely to feature aggressive lyrics with the hustler protagonist.

The Recording Industry Association of America [Farley, 2001] reports that 75% of rap music consumers are White. Source magazine reported that White suburban kids are the rap industry’s customer base [Morales, 2000, p. 182 as cited in Armstrong, 2002]. The Whiteness of the consumer base may explain, in part, the shift in content. Certainly, the implications of a largely White consumer base are interesting. As rap’s content has shifted from a political message about inequality, gansta rap has now become an aggressive and degrading tool which minimizes both Black men for their violence and hypermasculinity and Black women for their sexual availability [Lena, 2006].

While there is little work investigating why this largely White consumer base is listening to rap, historically the White American culture has turned to Black culture with fascination, in large part for it’s exotic and dangerous elements [Mills, 2001]. Haskins [2000] has suggested

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that White youth are particularly enamored with rap because it offers them an outlet for “rebellion, hipness, or coolness, and protest” [p. 106]. Unfortunately, however ‘cool’ rap may appear, research with African-American listeners illustrates that the more hard-core rap men listen to the more negative their attitudes are towards women [Alexander, 2007]. While this study was correlational in nature, as opposed to an experimental manipulation, it is consistent with MAD Theory’s assertion that the derogatory nature of hard-core rap’s portrayal of women will be associated with real-life derogation of women.

PORTRAYAL OF GENDER/VIOLENCE IN MUSIC VIDEOS

Sut Jhally, [2007] in his documentary DreamWorlds 3, discussed the “pornographic imagination” inherent in music videos generally and in rap videos specifically. Black women have gained admittance to the world of music videos, from which they were largely absent prior to the popularity of rap music, but their presence is almost exclusively limited to portrayal as a sexual commodity that can be purchased, or simply used, for men’s sexual satisfaction. Much of the sexual imagery in these videos is associated with money being thrown on the women in exchange for various sexual acts, or in a particularly egregious example, a credit card is swiped in a woman’s buttocks. While the portrayal of Black women in these videos is filled with contempt, the portrayal of the rap/hip-hop stars (primarily Black men) is little better. Jhally [2007, p. 5-6] decries this as an offensive portrayal that promotes sexual violence against women, and one that is ultimately rooted in racism:

“And while black men in mainstream rap and hip-hop videos are largely presented as violent, savage, criminal, and drunken thugs interested in molesting and insulting any female that happens to be around, we have to remember that these representations do not reflect the reality of African-American masculinity but how someone has chosen to represent it at this point in history. As such, they constituted the most racist set of images found in decades in American media….[W]e have to focus our attention on these contemporary images of a threatening and out of control, black masculinity and the role played by largely white men who control our current media empires. We have to ask what functions do the racist and sexist images in hip-hop and rap perform for the corporations who control our media culture and why are these images of black masculinity so connected to the abuse of women and what role does the pornographic imagination play in this?”

CONTENT ANALYSES: THE CONTENT OF RAP MUSIC

Many date the emergence of the rap music genre to 1979 when the first rap song, Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, hit the charts. Vanderbilt University Sociologist Jennifer Lena [2006] studied the evolution of rap music content over time and found that there was a distinct shift in lyrical content when rap moved from independent record labels to large media conglomerates. When large media conglomerates took over the marketing of rap music from the early independent labels, Lena found, the corporations produced the puerile content that many associate with rap music because they believed it would be easier to sell. In days when rap and hip hop were produced by independents and artists, the lyrical content

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centered around features of the neighborhood and community. The genre emphasized anti-corporate values and artistic expression.

What happened to rap content when multi-national conglomerates took over? After the change from independent to the major labels, rap lyrics now emphasized street credibility, the hustla, gangsta or baadmen personas, and making money. The subgenres of hardcore and gangsta rap now focused on graphic depictions of sex and violence and glamorizing violence and antisocial behavior. According to Lena’s [2006] content analysis, common themes in rap music include partying, sex, humor, boasting, violence, gender roles, and money. Lena quotes those who suggest that the industry puts ethics aside and produces sexist and violent music for profit’s sake. While it used to be about the neighborhood “keeping it real,” and art for art’s sake, it is now, to quote a P. Diddy title, “all about the Benjamins.”

Armstrong [2003] notes that gangsta rap has been called both violent pornography and music violence. Gangsta rap is also centered on male power and hegemony. According to Armstrong’s content analysis, 22% (111/490 songs) of gangsta rap songs contain violent misogynistic lyrics. In these lyrics, 75% of the women discussed have been killed. A central concern in the lyrics is with male power and dominance in heterosexual relationships.

According to Communications scholars Krohn and Suazo [1995, pp. 140-141]:

“Rap music also demeans women and promotes drug use and violence as a way to achieve empowerment through symbolic verbal action. The negative implications of rap music have become as popular as the music itself. It has attacked racism through more racism, lack of power through supremacy and perhaps poverty through the sales of racist and misogynist material to those willing to be entertained and influenced in their desire for information about ghetto culture — those who take the easy stand of observing rather than participating.”

Miller-Young [2008] argues that Black hip hop and porn are converging – but as entertainment for a predominantly White audience. Blackness is associated with hypersexuality, hypermasculinity and with violent mysogyny. Miller-Young [2008] discusses anxiety in the Black community because hip hop music portrays Black people in this way. So called “ghetto porn” was influenced by hip hop music and glamorized the “hood” – the gangsta lifestyle, the inner city, poverty, and Black “whores.” Thus the line was blurred between Black rap/hip hop music videos and pornography. Black women were thus associated with prostitution – the “hos” of the rap music video and song lyrics. Furthermore, presenting Black men’s desire and Black women’s bodies as ubiquitous devalues Black women. The visions of Black men as pimps and Black women as hos ads to this demeaning social hierarchy.

MUSIC VIDEOS: DO THEY INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES

Black adolescents’ favorite and most admired people consistently include music artists such as late rapper Tupac Shakur, according to L. Monique Ward [2004]. However, Ward also found that the greater Black adolescents’ exposure to music videos, the lower their self esteem [2004]. Additionally, Ward and her colleagues [Ward, Hansborough & Walker, 2005] found both long-term and short term associations between video viewing and gender stereotyping and stereotyped beliefs about sexual relationships. They found that the more

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videos these high school students watched, the more sex-role stereotyped their beliefs were about men and women. In the experimental manipulation phase of the work, they found that after viewing music videos either replete with stereotypes or low in stereotypic content (selected from commercially available rap and hip-hop videos frequently aired on Black Entertainment Television), the students who viewed the stereotype laden videos expressed more stereotyped views about gender roles and sexual relationships (e.g., men are sex-focused, women are objects for men’s sexual needs) than those in the low-stereotype condition. The strength of this particular research is that Ward and her colleagues demonstrated that short-term priming does occur after viewing music videos. Additionally, because of the long-term association found between viewing stereotyped videos and stereotyped attitudes in the students, Ward et al. argue that the two methods (experimental and correlational) together offer “powerful evidence of the potential contribution of music video exposure in shaping young viewers’ beliefs about how women and men should look, act, and behave” [2005, p. 159].

Because youth often define themselves by their music genre preferences, and because music listening is a top media activity for later teens in particular [Roberts & Foehr, 2004], the content of music popular with youth is important to study. Ward [2004] found that music and sports exposure predicted negative self evaluations for Black adolescents, whereas exposure to other genres of media consumption did not show the same negative correlations. For example, she found that identification with Black characters such as Darrell on The Hughleys was associated with higher self esteem for Black adolescents. Ward speculated that part of the issue may be that the presentation of wealthy lifestyles and sexual desirability promoted in Black music videos may make Black adolescent viewers feel inadequate by comparison.

In regards to hardcore/‘gansta’ rap music videos specifically, Wingood and her colleagues [2003] studied 522 African-American girls between the ages of 14-18 years of age who lived in urban, lower socio-economic neighborhoods. They found that, longitudinally, the girls who had more exposure (14 or more hours per week) to these videos were far more likely to engage in a variety of negative behaviors. This included, but was not limited to, hitting a teacher, getting arrested, having multiple sexual partners (associated with a corresponding increase in the likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted disease), and using drugs. The authors speculated that a particularly damaging aspect of viewing ‘gangsta’ rap videos is that while being sexually available to the rappers is modeled by the women in the videos, the long-term negative consequences of such behavior is certainly not illustrated. For the girls in this particular demographic, the short term gain of being associated with a rich, powerful man may be worth modeling in spite of the very real negative consequences such behavior has in their lives.

With all of this in mind, we set out to investigate how a sample of mostly White young adults (reflecting the primary consumer group for rap music) felt about hardcore/‘gangsta’ rap music. We were primarily interested in five research questions: what were their perceptions of the content of hardcore/‘gangsta’ rap music, what were their perceptions of the content of hardcore/‘gangsta’ rap videos, what were their perceptions of how women in were portrayed in hardcore/‘gangsta’ rap, what were their perceptions of the typical (male) hardcore/‘gangsta’ rapper and finally what were their perceptions of any effects this genre might have on its listeners?

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METHODS

Participants

198 (64 male, 134 female; average age 19.4 years) students from a private, liberal arts college in the southeast participated while enrolled in an introductory sociology class or introductory psychology class; the racial make up of these classes was consistent with the predominantly White student body of the college. Of those whose race was known, 72.7% were White and 10.2% were Black. This is compared to US Census statistics reporting a breakdown of 75.1% White and 12.3% African-American in the US, and 72.1% White, 21.6% Black in North Carolina [US Census Bureau, 2008] as well as the statistic cited earlier that 75% of the rap music audience is White. All students were treated in accordance with APA’s guidelines for the ethical treatment of participants.

Materials and Procedure

Students completed an informed consent form indicating that they freely and voluntarily agreed to participate in the survey and understood that they could quit at any time or leave and leave blank any item they chose. They then answered an eighteen item questionnaire assessing their listening/viewing habits of rap music/videos and their opinions about their content and effects. Students were thanked for their time and dismissed.

Survey

Students completed a survey (full survey included in Appendix) titled “Entertainment habits and opinions.” This questionnaire was labeled “Form 2B: Music Genres – Hardcore Rap.” This was to give the impression that there were multiple forms of media and multiple forms of music being studied – something that was also communicated in the instructions. The purpose of suggesting that multiple forms of media were being researched was to reduce defensive or reactive tendencies that are sometimes evoked by the perception that a form of media is being criticized. In suggesting that the researchers were asking questions about many forms of media, we hope the responses were more even handed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Exposure, both in listening to the music and watching the videos, showed marked sex differences with males significantly more exposed to rap in all ways assessed: how often do you listen to hard core/’gangsta’ rap (χ2 = 14.48, df = 4, p < .01, Cramer’s V = .27), how much time do you listen to hard core/’gangsta’ rap each day (F(1,194) = 10.146, p < .01, η2

= .05; male = 1.27 hours/day, s = 1.47 hrs, female = 0.74 hrs/day, s = 0.83 hrs) how often do you watch hard core/’gangsta’ rap videos (χ2 = 19.74, df = 4, p < .01, Cramer’s V = .316), how much time do you watch hard core/’gangsta’ rap videos each day (F(1,195) = 14.267, p <

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.001, η2 = .068; male = 0.84 hours/day, s = 1.27 hrs, female = 0.35 hrs/day, s = .55 hrs) and how often do you buy hard core/’gangsta’ rap (χ2 = 18.49, df = 4, p < .05, Cramer’s V = .306).

The differences between males and females were striking and consistent across all the subjective measurements. When asked how often they listened to hard core/‘gangsta’ rap, 46.8% of the males and 53.6% of the females responded “never or rarely”, 14.1% of the males and 29.8% of the females responded “sometimes” and 39% of the males and only 16.4% of the females responded “regularly or often.” This same pattern was reflected in how often they reported watching hard core/‘gangsta’ rap videos: 64% of the males and 81.3% of the females responded “never or rarely”, 17.2% of the males and 15.7% of the females responded sometimes, while 18.75% of the males responded “regularly or often” yet only 2.9% of the females responded “regularly” (with no females saying “often”). Most of the students reported not buying hard core/‘gangsta’ rap music, but the same pattern between the sexes was once again observed: 68.5% of the males and 89.4 % of the females responded “never or rarely,” 12.5% of the males and 6.7% of the females responded “sometimes,” and 18.7% of the males responded “regularly or often” while only 3.7% of the females responded “regularly,” again, with no females saying “often.”

Most participants did not have a favorite hardcore/gantsta rapper. Of those who did list a favorite, the most often mentioned were L’il Wayne/Weezie (43), 50 Cent (30), Jeezy (21) and Eminem and Jay Z (17 each).

When asked who they believe is most likely to listen to hardcore rap, both males and females were in agreement about which sex and which race listens to hardcore rap most frequently. The students agreed that males listen to significantly more hardcore rap than females (χ2 = 151.76, df = 2, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .619), and this impression was certainly accurate for the self-reported listening frequency for this sample. They were in near universal agreement that hardcore rap is most frequently listened to by Blacks (χ2 = 235.67, df = 2, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .792) as opposed to Whites, Asians, Native Americans or Others. Of the students who chose only one response to who listens most frequently to hard core/‘gangsta’ rap, the breakdown was as follows: 13.3% thought all races listened to hard core/‘gangsta’ rap equally frequently, 1.1% believed Whites listen most frequently, and 85.6% believed that Blacks listen most frequently.

Perception of the Content of Hardcore/‘gangsta’ Rap Songs

Students listed the top five things they believed were heard in hardcore rap songs. According to participants, sex was the most common topic of rap songs (listed 146 times). Drugs (either the selling or using)was the next most common topic (listed 134 times), followed by money (listed 79 times), women in general (63 times) and violence (listed 53 times).Only 6 responses to this item spontaneously mentioned degrading women. When comparing males’ and females’ perceptions of the content of songs, differences emerged on the three most frequently mentioned song subjects. Sex was the most frequent overall, but females (76.8%) believed this was more frequent than males (60.9%), (χ2 = 5.418, df = 1, p < .05, Cramer’s V = .165). Drugs, were mentioned next most frequently as a song subject, and this did not differ between the males (73%) and females (67%), (χ2 = .8, df = 1, p > .3,

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Cramer’s V = .064). The third most frequently listed topic of money did differ between males (50%) and females (32.8%), (χ2 = 5.395, df = 1, p < .05, Cramer’s V = .165)

Perception of the Portrayal of Women in Hardcore/‘gangsta’ Rap Songs

When asked what the most common way that hardcore rappers referred to women, out of the 623 descriptions given, the oft-quoted “bitches” (123 mentions) and “hos” (120) were the most common terms listed. Sluts was the third most common term (45) followed by “whores” (35) “shawty/shorty” (33) and sexy or “sexy thang” (25). If one combines “hoes” and “whores,” then ho/whore becomes the top portrayal with 155 mentions.

When analyzing the portrayal of women by rap songs, some of the most interesting sex differences emerged. Across the top three most frequent descriptors of how rappers portray women (“ho,” bitch and “slut” respectively), a greater percentage of males (81.25, 76.5, and 37.5% respectively) were consistently more likely to report each of these terms than females (61.9, 53.7 and 20.1% respectively). Given that this sample of women reported listening to hard core/‘gangsta’ rap infrequently, they may be less aware than men of the portrayals. Though the frequencies are lower for women than for men, they are still sizeable.

Perception of the Content of Hardcore/‘gangsta’ Rap Videos

Of the 720 items mentioned, students listed girls/women as the most common thing seen in hardcore rap videos (151 mentions) followed by cars (113), money (73), jewelry or bling (55) and dancing, described in a variety of ways, (34). Virtually all the descriptors of girls/women referred to their sexuality if not overtly (e.g., “vixens – oversexed, under-dressed girls”), then by their character (e.g., slutty, loose, etc.).

Interestingly, in spite of the fact that the women in our sample were less likely to report that women were negatively portrayed in rap songs, they were equally likely (75.4%) as the men (73.4%) to report that women were the most likely thing to be seen in hard core/‘gangsta’ rap videos. Males (70%) were more likely than females (50.7%) to report cars appearing in videos (χ2 = 6.768, df = 1, p <.01, Cramer’s V = .185) and the males (54.7%) were also more likely than the females (28.3%) to report that money appeared in videos (χ 2 = 12.9, df = 1, p <.01, Cramer’s V = .255)

Perception of the Influence of Hardcore/‘gangsta’ Rap

The students overwhelmingly (regardless of sex) believed that listening to rap changed the attitudes of the listeners (χ2 = 81.63, df = 2, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .458). However, they were nearly evenly split in terms of whether they agreed (42.1%) or disagreed (36.0%) with the idea that listening to rap causes young people to lessen their emphasis on education (21.8% reported not knowing). The students’ perceptions fell into 6 categories of how the music could change listeners: attitude change, participation in illegal or dangerous behaviors (e.g., selling/using drugs, violence), interpersonal relationship changes (e.g., treating people,

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including sexual partners, poorly), language changes, changes in simple behaviors (e.g., dancing or clothing styles) and a general description that as a type of media music will influence the listener, as media do generally (total changes described = 189). There were no sex differences across any of the categories.

Somewhat surprisingly, 47.6% of the responses fell into the media influence category. This reflects a relatively enlightened view that is not generally seen with young adults [see Brenick, Henning, Killen, O’Connor & Collins, 2007]. The next most common expectation was that hardcore rap would change simple behaviors (22.8%), followed by attitude changes (11.1) and interpersonal relationship changes (6.3%) and language changes (6.3%). Only 5.8% of the responses indicated a belief that hardcore rap would influence illegal or dangerous behaviors.

In their own words. Some examples of participants’ responses to the question of whether hardcore rap exposure changes attitudes or behaviors are provided here for illustration.

“No – I think people realize that these are fake situations.” “No – I think most people don’t really pay attention or base their attitudes on what they see one TV.” “No – Because people are who they are and aren’t going to change because of a song.”

“Yes (even if they don’t realize it). They may not consciously change, however I’m sure it does affect them.” “Yes – Because of rap music and its constant degrading of women, it is more socially acceptable to call women sluts, whores, bitches, etc. Also it seems ‘cooler’ to be violent and only think about sex.” “Yes – I think it is unhealthy to watch, but if I see it, it is appealing to one as a man, however, it should not be.” “Yes – I went to a “gansta” high school and at pep rallies they would play hardcore/”gangsta” rap. When these songs would come on the people would go crazy and do things that would scare me.”

One young Black woman responded, “Yes – Because me being a black female many people stereotype me and my race by the videos. Just because I’m black doesn’t mean I live in the ghetto, sell drugs, on welfare, and know how to dance.”

Overall, these data do suggest a nascent recognition among young adults that this kind of media is capable of influencing harmful treatment of others. Dill et al [2008] have demonstrated that relatively brief viewing of derogatory images in video games alters judgments about sexual harassment and MAD Theory [Dill & Burgess, in press] predicts that similar effects would occur with the kinds of degrading presentations of women found in hardcore rap lyrics and videos. That even a small sample of students is aware of such possible changes is encouragement for the design of media education interventions.

Perception of the Benefit of Hardcore/‘gangsta’ Rap Songs and the Characteristics of a Typical Hardcore/‘gangsta’ Rapper

When asked who benefits from hardcore rap, among students who had an opinion, they almost universally favored the recording artists (44.2%) and the record label owners (33.1%) over the community from which the music originated (1.1%) or no-one (5%). This is an interesting finding give that the rhetoric is that rap helps the (Black) community from which it originates. Our predominantly White sample, paralleling the largest group of buyers, does not see this.

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Further, as if illustrating their very contention that hardcore rap is not beneficial to the Black community from which it emerges (as opposed to the largely White Media executives), when asked to describe the typical (male) hard core rapper, the students generated 562 descriptors. Of these myriad possibilities, only 90 (16%) of them were clearly positive. Alternatively, 333 (59.3%) were overtly negative characteristics. The five most common descriptors were gangster (45 mentions), African-American/Black (45 mentions) -It should be noted that 10 of these were expressed as variations of the word “nigger”) Thug was mentioned third most often (31) followed by variations related to the concept wealthy (27) such as “knows how to make money.”.Finally, responses meaning disrespectful to women were mentioned 21 times. Males and females were equally likely to describe the rapper as a gangster (χ2 = .278, df = 1, p >.5, Cramer’s V = .037) and as African-American (χ2 = 2.892, df = 1, p >.05, Cramer’s V = .121), yet males (25%) were more likely than females (11.2%) to label rappers as thugs (χ2 = 6.252, df = 1, p <.05, Cramer’s V = .178). Certainly having Black male rappers considered as “gangsters” and “thugs” is questionable in its benefit to the Black community or to Black men specifically.

CONCLUSION

The second author mentored an African American girl from a local high school on a research project about media violence. The girl related a story about why she became interested in the influence of mass media. At about the age of 7, her little brother had begun listening to rap music. One day he approached her, quite innocently she thought, and asked her, “Are you a ho?” This story illustrates how social learning takes place through media exposure. If young women like his sister are portrayed as “hos” in rap music lyrics, then his sister – and the girls at his school – might be hos too. Peers may reinforce what started out innocently. The images of male power and dominance might become enticing to African American boys, particularly those of limited means. Ward and her colleagues [Ward et al, 2005] have demonstrated that teens striving to understand dating, sex and relationships may take their cues from the images of Black youth they see in music videos and hear about in rap songs.

Whites also may learn from these images that Black men are powerful, aggressive and oversexed and that Black women are objects of sexual desire and violence – thus degrading and marginalizing both Black men and women. If rap and hip hop began as a means of fostering artistic expression and celebrating the Black community, they have devolved into a big business controlled largely by Whites, sold largely to White suburbanites selling messages of racism and sexism. Whites thus learn negative messages about Black men and Women. Black men are the dangerous minority [Burgess et al, 2008]. Black women are demeaned and degraded objects.

Wilson, Gutierrez and Chao [2003] discuss how individuals use the media, consciously or unconsciously, as a means of learning about the world around them. This learning that is derived from the media is particularly powerful when what is being taught about an ethnic minority relies not on reality but on stereotypes. The case of hardcore/‘gangsta’ is an excellent example of this point. While rap has its origins as music of political conscience and protest, and even retains that message today, albeit buried beneath a layer of misogyny and

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general violence [Haskins, 2000], this largely White sample of young adults has not learned this scenario. Rather, this group of young adults, resembling the largest demographic group of consumers of hardcore/‘gangsta rap, has better learned the negative stereotypes of Black men (violent gangsters and thugs dressed in ‘bling’ and driving fancy cars procured through drug money) and Black women (bitches and hos, sexually available to rich men).

Consistent with what is known about the influence of media on aggression, this sample powerfully illustrates what is known about desensitization to violence [Funk, Baldacci, Pasold, & Baumgardner, 2004]. The most common terms listed for the portrayal of women in hardcore/‘gangsta rap were negative (bitch, ho, slut, etc.), and yet, in the general questions about hardcore rap content, fewer than one percent of the statements generated about the content of the songs mentioned disrespecting women. Degradation and disrespect has become commonplace and is no longer seen as degrading and disrespectful. Interestingly, they mentioned disrespecting women as one of the most common responses to being asked to describe Black, male rappers.

At this point it is important to consider the terms that we have labeled as degrading and disrespectful. There is disagreement over whether various words, bitch and nigger among them, are always derogatory, or just when used by certain individuals [Mis-Education about the n-word, 2003). One side of this argument is that the words are always demeaning, regardless of who is using them when. The other side of this argument is that when used as terms of affection or inclusiveness by an acceptable person the terms are not derogatory (e.g., a man refers to his girlfriend as his bitch, or a young Black man refers to his Black friends as niggas); rather they only become derogatory when used by a person in a position over power over another, and power is compounded by differences in racial background.

Of the terms generated by our sample “shawty” or shorty is probably less well known to general audiences. Shawty originally meant a child, but now has come to mean an attractive woman and is used as a term of affection for one’s girlfriend. It is interesting that shawty, of course, refers to height and children and women are generally shorter than men. It could also be taken as a term of dominance in that shorter people may be less powerful.

The plurality of our sample is aware that male rappers call women “bitches,” and “hos” in music lyrics. Over three fourths of men and two thirds of women believe that men call women “bitches” in hardcore/gangsta rap songs. To better understand the meaning and implications of this finding, a deeper analysis of these terms is in order. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word “bitch” [bitch, n.d.] is an offensive term meaning: “1. A woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing. 2. A lewd woman. 3. A man considered to be weak or contemptible.” An intriguing aspect of these definitions is that a bitch is a derogatory term for a woman, and also for a weak man. This implies that women are inferior to men and weak men are inferior to other men. Furthermore, only a lewd woman, not a lewd man, is a bitch.

We believe the definition of bitch as used in rap music is a little different from the more common usage. We therefore accessed the web site urbandictionary.com, which bills itself as “the slang dictionary you wrote,” meaning users submit definitions according to how they use the slang terms. The results (see Table 1) were intriguing. Bitch, in urban slang, means a servant, sexual or otherwise – someone who is at your disposal and who is beneath you. This usage is similar to a male prisoner calling another prisoner “his bitch” in the sense of his sexual servant—the one who submits to his will. One user defined bitch as “a woman that will have sex with everybody but you,” [bitch, n.d., #13] implying anger caused by perceived

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sexual rejection from someone who you believe should submit to your will. These lyrics from Like a Pimp by David Banner [2003] tell such a story:

‘Bitches aint shitI tried to told yaDat most girls really freaksAnd dis is how they gottamake they money every week…

Real girls get down on the flo' on the flo' [2x]Like a pimp

Now don't you hate them ole'Lying ass hoesWearing her best friends clothes…Lil' Flip and David BannerWe got all of the butts andAll of they sluts andAll of the hoesSo drop it like its hot girlTouch yo fucking toes

Consider, finally, another definition from urbandictionary.com:

“A bitch is a female dog…or a female human who, like a dog, will whimper, growl, and occasionally bite back. When someone calls a woman a bitch, the message is that she is straying from the quiet, obedient "feminine" ideal. She is uppity - and needs to be controlled.” [urbandictionary.com, n.d., #25]

Slut can mean a dirty woman, a servant or a bitch, according to Webster’s dictionary [slut, n.d.]. Ho is close in meaning to slut, being a derogatory term for someone who prostitutes herself or is sexually easy, and can have the connotation, as bitch does, that the woman is attractive or dressed and groomed to be provocative.

Examining these definitions, it is easy to see that people perceive hardcore rappers as using the most coarse and derogatory language towards women. These words demean women by comparing them to animals, by painting women’s sexuality as crude and dirty. There is no acceptable sexual expression for women within these labels. Bitches and hos may be sexually attractive, but they are also servile, dirty and targets of aggressive language and behavior.

In her book Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women, Vanderbilt African-American Studies scholar Tracy Sharpley-Whiting [2008] argues that the pervasive misogyny of rap lyrics is most damaging to African American women because they are virtually invisible in other forms of mass media. Therefore, since Black women are common in rap videos, this oversexed, degraded vision of Black women as bitches and hoes is a stereotype digested by the largely White audience of rap music.

Rapper Nelly released the single Tip Drill [Nelly, 2003], named after a slang term for a sexual act where a woman allows multiple men to have sex with her sequentially in exchange for money [Jhally, 2007]. Some lyrics to the song follow:

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“I said it must be ya ass cause it ain't ya faceI need a tipdrill, I need a tipdrill… Now come on girl you know what we came here forIs You a tipdrill, we need a tipdrill”

The video to Tip Drill raised much controversy because of the crass objectification and sexualization of women that it contained. Infamously, Nelly swipes a credit card down the backside of a thong-wearing, gyrating Black woman (see Figure 1).

As crude and derogatory as these images are, Shapley-Whiting believes the extremity of their coarseness may actually motivate more women to speak out against the derogation of women in mass media. Black women may have difficulty publicly critiquing Black men, in part she says, because of factors in Black American history. Black men in the past were lynched for even talking to White women, for example. Those factors do not excuse the denigration of Black women, of course. In fact, part of the problem may be the low social status of Black men encourages them to take out their anger on Black women since they are often considered socially inferior because they are a so called “double minority.”

There has, in fact, been strong criticism against misogyny in rap music lyrics, though it is just as strongly defended. In 2005, Essence magazine started a public campaign to encourage discussion of misogyny in rap and hip hop called, Take Back the Music [http://www.essence.com/essence/takebackthemusic/]. In 2004, the AP reported that Black women at Spelman College protested the degrading depictions of Black women in rap videos, especially Nelly’s Tip Drill.

Figure 1. Nelly swipes a credit card down a sexually objectified Black woman in the video for the song “Tip Drill,” off the CD “Da Derrty Versions.”

One student commented, “Black entertainers have become the new myth makers, showing gangsters and bikini-clad women with hyperactive libidos. For non-black children it creates a gross misrepresentation of the black experience." [Willens, 2004, ¶15] From the perspective of social learning in general, and MAD theory [Dill & Burgess, in press] in

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particular, this student captured the very essence of what is so troubling about the perception of these terms, and their presumed meanings, in the world of hardcore rap music: bitches and hos are not terms of affection, but rather terms indicating power differential and disrespect, and the use of these terms is associated with real degradation, and tolerance of real harm to real women.

One aspect of the degradation by Black men of Black women in rap videos that is not often discussed is the effect that it may have on the perception of Black men by the predominantly White consumers of rap music. We have mentioned the perpetuation of Black men as the dangerous minority. But in so crudely debasing and abusing women of their own race, it also sends the message to White consumers that Black men are grossly uncivilized and have very low moral standards. It perpetuates the view that this is the way Black men treat Black women in addition to the message that Black women submit to this unacceptable treatment. It is crucial to expose viewers to positive images of Black men and women and images of Black people in healthy relationships. Certainly some of those images do exist, moreso in other forms of media. For example, seeing Barack Obama presenting an image of an African-American of great character, a man held in high esteem by so many people, is a powerful force for positive change. Seeing him interact in a warm and loving way with his wife and two daughters is an important vision to uplift the image of Black men and women. As damaging as the negative depictions in hardcore rap are in general, positive media images of Black men and women can do a great deal of good.

In conclusion, this work raises some unsettling, but not necessarily unexpected issues. Hardcore/‘gangsta rap, among predominantly White young adults, is viewed as music about sex, drugs and violence performed by Black ‘gangstas’ and the videos feature sexually available women referred to in degrading terms. In spite of the contention of rap-defenders that the music benefits the Black community from which it originates, not only did this sample believe it only benefitted the artists and producers, but their views of the artists themselves could hardly be construed as beneficial. These results are consistent with much social psychological theory that deals with media influence. According to predominantly White students’ perception of hardcore rap, and consistent with past content analyses of rap lyrics, men in these videos very often see women as their “bitches.” Rather than the traditional meaning of a bitch as an overbearing woman, rap references to women as bitches are power plays. Being someone’s bitch means submitting to their will, being their servant in every way, including sexually. Calling a woman a “ho” degrades her sexuality, suggesting that relationships between men and women, including sexual ones, are hostile and antagonistic. These characterizations leave no room for a healthy autonomous woman whose sexuality is also positive and healthy. Furthermore, this work supports MAD Theory’s basic principle that derogation breeds derogation [Dill & Burgess, in press; see also Dill, Brown and Collins, 2008]. Demeaning images of women prime men to be more tolerant of aggression of women.

Hardcore/‘gangsta rap’ does feature ‘gangsta’ males and scantily clad females [Lena, 2006; Jhally, 2007] who are portrayed in the most degrading and pornographic ways. These portrayals do incite real harm to real individuals, as illustrated by Imus’ degrading comments about the Rutgers’ basketball players and the young woman whose brother assumed she, like all women, must be a ‘ho.’ Taken in conjunction with Ward et al’s [2005] and Wingood et al’s [2003] work, both illustrating harm in the form of degrading and stereotyped sexual

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beliefs, and various physically dangerous behaviors, respectively, this work calls for research into ways to mitigate hardcore/‘gangsta’ rap’s negative influence.

APPENDIXENTERTAINMENT HABITS AND OPINIONS

Section 1 – HabitsForm 2B – Music Genres: Hardcore Rap

1) Which of the following most describes how often you listen to hardcore/’gangsta’ rap? (Circle one.)

0 1 2 3 4Never Rarely Sometimes Regularly Often

2) How often do you watch hardcore/’gangsta’ rap videos? (Circle one.)0 1 2 3 4Never Rarely Sometimes Regularly Often 3) How much time per day do you listen to hardcore/ ‘gangsta’ rap music? (Circle one.)0 less than 1 hour 2 3 4 5 6+hours

4) How much time per day do you watch hardcore/’gangsta’ rap videos? (Circle one.)0 less than 1 hour 2 3 4 5 6+hours

5) How often to you purchase hardcore/’gangsta’ rap music (cds, mp3s, etc.)?0 1 2 3 4Never Rarely Sometimes Regularly Often

6) Who are your favorite hardcore/’gangsta’ rap artists? (list up to 5)a)b)c) d)e)

7) I am (check one) : _____Male _____FemaleMy age: ______

Section 2 – Impressions

8) In your experience, what are the most common subjects that hardcore/’gangsta’ songs usually cover? (List up to 5 subjects covered in rap songs.)

9) In your experience, what are typical things you see in a rap music video? (List up to 5.)

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10) What words do hardcore male rappers usually use to describe women in their songs? (List up to 5 words or terms).

11) What words or phrases would you use to describe a typical male hardcore rapper? (List up to 5 words or phrases).

Section 3 - Opinions

12) Who do you think listens to hardcore/ ‘gangsta’ rap more often? (Circle one.)

_____Males ______Females _____no difference

13) Is there a certain racial group that listens to hardcore/ ‘gangsta’ rap more often than others? (Circle the group that you think listens most.)

White Black Hispanic Native American Asian Other: _______

No difference in racial groups

14) Some adults say young people shouldn’t listen to hardcore/’gangsta’ rap. What do you think?

15) Do you think people change their attitudes or behaviors based on what they see in a rap video or hear in rap lyrics?

Circle one: Yes No don’t know

Explain your views on this.

Section 4: Macro effects

16) The profits generated from the sale of hardcore/gangsta rap help to elevate the status of the community from which the music originates.

a. agreeb. strongly agreec. disagreed. strongly disagreee don’t know

17) Hardcore/gangsta’ rap actually causes young people to lessen their emphasis on education.

a. agreeb. strongly agreec. disagreed. strongly disagreee don’t know

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18) The people who benefit most from the sale of hardcore/gangsta rap area. recording label ownersb. the artists themselvesc. the community from which the artist originatesd. nobody benefitse. don’t know

Please write any other comments you have below:

AUTHOR NOTE

The authors wish to thank Jessica Rowe for invaluable assistance with this project, especially for categorizing and tallying the open-ended items.

REFERENCES

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Waldron, C. (1996). Effects of rap music on today’s black men. Ebony Man, June: 50-54. Ward, L.M. (2004). Wading through the stereotypes: Positive and negative associations

between media use and Black adolescents’ conceptions of self. Developmental Psychology, 40(2), 284-294.

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Ward, L.M. (2005). Children, adolescents, and the media: The molding of minds, bodies and deeds. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 109, 63-71.

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Documents

Chapter 1 - WordPress.com€¦ · Web viewIn April, 2007 the Rutgers’ Women’s Basketball team won the Division I NCAA Championship. Shortly afterwards, Don Imus, a radio “shock-jock,”