RA #3

Title: From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos
Author: Joan Morgan, music journalist (has written for publications such as Essence, The Village Voice, Vibe, Ms., and Spin)
Date: 1999
Topic: The pervasive sexism in lyrics from today's hip hop, as well as the mindset of the men behind those lyrics.

Exigence: The damage that today's rap and hip hop inflict on women, as well as the underlying effect it has on the men who express it.
Intended Audience: Men and women of the world, especially those who enjoy hip hop and other related types of music.
Purpose: To help people confront and understand, not simply condemn, the hatred and objectification of women, as well as the disconnection of the black community, and use this as the first step towards healing the pain that it expresses.
Claim(s): The misogyny of rap is a symptom of crisis and division in the black community. 

Main Evidence: At the beginning of Morgan’s reading, the author cites the U.S. Census Bureau, stating that the number of black two-parent households has decreased from 74 percent to 48 percent since 1960. Morgan also writes that the leading cause of death among black men ages of fifteen to twenty-four is homicide, and that the majority of them will die at the hands of other black men. Personal experiences with friend and family are also recalled to help support her claim, including an account where a family friend was found “beaten and burned beyond recognition” (445) and her murderers “were brown men whose faces resembled her own” (445). Various hip hop artists are referenced, including Notorious B.I.G., stating “when brothers can talk so cavalierly about killing each other and then reveal they have no expectation to see their twenty-first birthday, that is straight-up depression masquerading as machismo.” (445). Video vixens are also cited as a problem to address, saying that ‘it would be more productive to address the failing self-esteem of the 150 or so half-naked young women who [are] willing, unpaid participants[.]” (447).

Writer’s Strategy #1: Morgan herself was an executive editor of numerous hip hop magazines and has the respect and pedigree to express her claims. The impression she gives off to the reader  shows that she is dedicated to what she writes about and that her claim is actually worth listening to.
Writer’s Strategy #2: The author provides general statistics from various credible sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, and also cites lyrics from several prominent hip hop artists that show how their own words portray the overlooked division of the black community.
Writer’s Strategy #3: By incorporating her own personal experiences and the struggles that friends and family had endured, Morgan is able touch the reader’s heart and forces them to see how misogyny is really impacting the world as we know it.

Reader Effect #1: Gives the author credibility in terms of her argument and allows the reader to see the author’s dedication towards what she is writing about, resulting in the reader taking the essay more seriously.
Reader Effect #2: Reader is effectively persuaded by the author’s use of logical connections to statistics as well as the evidence shown by music lyrics, which positively increases her general use of reasoning.
Reader Effect #3: By appealing to the readers emotions with heartfelt events and personal experiences, Morgan effectively enhances her argument.

My Response: Overall, Morgan did a effective job persuading me to understand her claim as a critical crisis in the world today that must be confronted and amended. As an avid hip hop listener myself, I can easily see exactly what the author is taking about in terms of music being an avenue for musicians to express their feelings and regrets. While the general misogyny is present in the hip hop I listen to, it is not as prevalent as today's excuse for rap. I choose to listen to "real" hip hop, mostly artists and groups from the 1990's, and while they do objectify women and talk about their struggles growing up in "the hood," I believe that artists today like Drake and Lil' Wayne are the biggest offenders of what the author is taking about. Beside all this, I feel like this reading is an efficient first step in educating our society in the true damage that today's misogyny is causing. It is indeed an enormous problem to correct, but every complex process begins somewhere, and I believe this essay is the perfect place to begin.