Final Draft, Final Polish

December 9, 2012

Hip-Hop Culture and Gender Roles

Dear Hip-Hop Fans and Listeners,

In a time when more and more rappers are taking over our radio and internet streams with their unproven talents and misogynistic raps, we as a society have grown to adapt ourselves to characteristics of said genre. Filled with pervasive sexism and gender discrimination, these lyrics have had a profound impact on how our civilization acts. The most unfortunate part of this crisis is the fact that it is affecting everyone without most of them realizing it. As an avid hip-hop fan and unofficial expert of the genre for the past 7 years, I have an undeniable love for the music, but it is not an unforgiving one. We must be aware of the hatred and objectification towards women that our current state of hip-hop is influencing, and use this as the first step towards healing the pain that it expresses. By analyzing and comparing lyrics from different generations of hip-hop, as well as detailing the resulting statistics and standard occurrences, we can better comprehend the negative effects that today’s rap music inflict. It is time for us to act like responsible citizens and understand how the current state of hip-hop influences negative gender roles on society.

Back when hip-hop was just called hip-hop and the song lyrics were not all harsh and stinging words directed towards male dominance and female objectification, rappers actually spoke about more good things than bad. Hardships growing up in impoverished conditions as well as more positive notes toward life were common themes of hip-hop songs back in the day. Influential groups like A Tribe Called Quest told stories through their rhymes and took the listener through bright and imaginative narratives, a trait today’s rappers are lacking. One of the group’s most popular songs, “Can I Kick It,” has member Q-Tip reciting positive attitudes and feelings through rhyme: “Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz, Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug, If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug, Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug.” The rapper is inviting listeners to bring their feel good dancing mood onto the metaphorical “rhythm rug,” and if they feel at all down, there is always someone there to give them a warm hug to brighten their spirits. Q-Tip’s rhymes are intelligent, artistic, and take a more playful lyrical approach than most of today’s rappers. At the the peak of the group’s popularity in the early 1990’s, one could easily say that the level of hyper-masculinity and objectification of woman were not as severe as they are today. Listeners of 90’s era hip-hop took to heart the words spoken by those rappers, and embodied those qualities and approaches into their own lifestyle, resulting in little gender-based issues. Rappers didn’t convey the image of men always out looking for some person to bang, and as a result, most women did not have to dress slutty in order to grasp the attentions of other men. This effectively resulted in society not demanding such ridiculousness in terms of gender inequality, with men not forced to flaunt their extreme power and masculinity, as well as women not being forced to throw their bodies out as pure sexual instruments in order to keep up with what society believed to be the norm.

Unfortunately, things have changed over the past 10 years. More and more incompetent rappers are releasing their music to the public that contain no skilled form of song-writing. The main message in today’s raps are essentially, “I make a lot of money, I get a lot of women, and I do a ton of drugs and drinking.” Surely artists rapping these messages are not the best type of role models when it comes to our youth. This is especially true since the most prevalent aspect of their raps contain endless rhymes of being the macho-man who have sex with countless women daily, something men think they must accomplish now in order to be “normal,” which, in the process, results in society almost degrading women into mere “sex-portals,” and nothing else. For example, we have rappers like Lil’ Wayne who write rhymes such as “Shawty wanna thug, Bottles in the club, Shawty wanna hump, And oh I like to touch ya lovely lady lumps, She wanna lick the rapper.” First and more obviously, any person can obviously detect the amount of talent and skill needed to produce such lyrics, which really takes away from the quality of today’s music. Secondly, when our generation’s most influential rapper only raps about the sexual desire of men wanting to “grind” on women in the club and having the ladies “lick [their] rapper,” the approach here is far less intelligent and imaginative. Not only does this type of lyricism transcend on to the males of society, but the females’ standards and overall moral beliefs lower significantly in order to meet the needs and expectations of those rappers and other various males who now take on these female-degrading and masculine-favoring manners.

Another epidemic that is a direct result from the current era of rappers is the idea and experimentation of video vixens and dancers for live performances. Video vixens are essentially females who wear little-to-no clothes and are placed into rap videos as props throughout the background. They are volunteers who do not look for any sort of pay, just the self-gratifying feeling that they were able to literally donate their body to a famous rapper’s sexually themed video. Joan Morgan, a music writer and hip-hop magazine editor, talks about how no one is addressing what is wrong with these vixens. Morgan questions our morality towards them, asking, “wouldn’t it be more productive to address the failing self-esteem of the 150 or so half naked woman who were willing, unpaid participants?” (Morgan 447). Morgan’s point is extremely valid and brings up the fact that no one calls into question the service of these volunteers who will do anything to be in these rap star’s music videos. I have a friend of mine who is attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and was jumping for virtual joy when she posted on her Facebook that she had been “casted” to be one of 20 vixens to appear in a music video for   popular rapper ASAP Rocky. She ended her announcement by saying, “See you on MTV [expletive]s!” The joy and self-fulfillment women get from being chosen to flaunt their naked bodies in these rapper’s music video is not right, and should not bring them this amount of happiness. This also further proves the fact the most women will do anything, even if it is to make a fool of themselves in public, in order to bring any type of attention upon them, all a direct result of what women believe rappers want out of them.

On top of this, we have women dancers and entertainers who are similar to video vixens but perform their duties on stage during concerts while also receiving pay. Fittingly and unsurprisingly, these women are dressed in tight-fitting, revealing clothing, accentuating the typical lady assets: legs, breasts, and ass. These ladies perform grotesque and overly-sexual actions towards the rapper on stage, all to the “awe” of the audience. During a Lil’ Wayne performance for the aforementioned song “Lollipop,” women dancers would come on stage to grope Lil Wayne, sometimes kneeling on either side of him to pull on his belt in a suggestive manner. The lesson? Lil Wayne has droves of sexy women at his disposal, illustrating his masculinity through the command of female bodies, thus further proving the distorted field of gender equality. While the women's expression of sexuality is completely their own business, it is still evident that it is not a personal expression, but rather an expression that is for the heterosexual male gaze, uplifting Lil Wayne's own expression of masculinity in such a way that it completely overshadows the women's obvious talent as singers and dancers beyond the scope of their sexual parts.

Beyond this, mainstream rap has solidified the role of woman as a recipient of male domination and insult through lyrics, music videos, and commercial radio. As noted above, these music videos relegate women to adornments to the male artist. The young people who are repeatedly exposed to these sounds and images tend to habitually act them out in their own social situations. The American Medical Association estimates that almost four million men severely assault their intimate female partners or spouses each year. The leading cause of injury for women is also caused by men’s violence against their female partners, as it also results in at least 35 percent of all emergency room visits. The derogatory and misogynistic overtones in today’s mainstream rap music truly cloud our youth’s judgement and self-esteem, and as a result has our future generations being led in the wrong direction. All of these messages put out by today’s rap stars continue to promote gender inequality.

It is easy to see how all these factors from today’s mainstream rap contribute to the growing sexism and overall negative gender roles that have been conceived. But some people want to discredit the hip-hop industry of being the main culprit towards gender inequality by saying that the rappers aren't necessarily telling the listeners to mirror what they are saying. While this may be true, it is hard for our youth to try not to emulate their favorite idols, as it is almost inevitable that the listeners will try to reflect the words of their favorite rappers. So by contrasting the lyrics of artists from two different generations of hip-hop music, we can get a better idea of how much the genre has changed and how the change has shifted our society’s idea of masculinity, female objectification, and overall gender roles. And with more and more females believing that they will be publicly accepted and appreciated by becoming video vixens or live dancers for today's rappers, it becomes apparent how this perception is caused by mainstream rap. By also understanding how the rise in domestic violence is correlated to the rise in popularity of mainstream rap, we can finally begin to correct the issue at hand. We want our future generations to embody a type of character that we all would be proud of. It would be difficult to see our kids grow up to become something we are all ashamed of. We must be educated on the issue, correct the issue, and bring hip-hop back to the roots it was founded on!

Sincerely yours,




Iman Shahmiri

Annotated Bibliography

Dove-Viebahn, Aviva. "Future of Feminism: Hip Hop Critiques Gender." Ms. Magazine. Liberty Media for Women, LLC, 26 Mar. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2012. <http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/03/26/future-of-feminism-hip-hop-critiques-gender/>.

This electronically published magazine article attempts to explain how the genre of hip hop music has absolutely no relationship with with the idea of feminism, and how the genre essentially plays the role of the ultimate villain to the feminist culture. The author, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, is an avid writer and blogger for feminist magazines and recently received her PhD from the Program in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester with a Graduate Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies from the Susan B. Anthony Institute. The article does a great job showing the reader how today's mainstream rap shares a central theme of promoting negative gender roles. This article was helpful for my research because the writer provided song lyrics that directly showed her claim and allowed me to better understand the claim to my own research.

Morgan, Joan. "From Fly-Girls To Bitches and Hos." When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My  Life as a Hip-hop Feminist. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. N. pag. Print.

This excerpt from Joan Morgan's book was written to help people confront and understand, and not simply condemn, the hatred and objectification of women from hip-hop today as well as the disconnection of the black community. Overall, Morgan did an effective job persuading the reader to understand her claim as a critical crisis in the world today that must be faced and amended. Morgan uses many verified statistics as well as various lyrics from popular hip-hop songs. This work is extremely applicable to my research, as it is my main source on the topic of feminism and its place in hip hop, as well as a great starting point on the division of the male role throughout the black community.

Phillips, Brittinee. "Gender Roles in Hip Hop Music." Daily 49er. N.p., 20 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.daily49er.com/news/gender-roles-in-hip-hop-music-1.1724115>.

This article published on the Daily 49er by Brittinee Phillips touches on the dismemberment of hip hop as well as examines images of gender roles in hip-hop and rap music. The author questions how representations of masculinity in hip-hop shapes the way men represent their respective creative areas of dance and writing. Phillips attends an event that was attempting to raise awareness during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and gained many valuable quotes from noted speakers and guests. The author does a great job addressing and backing up her claim with substantial evidence. This reading was a great resource for my paper as it provided a lot of insight on the topic at hand.  

*Note: Blogger would not allow me to properly format my annotated bibliography.

Final Draft

December 3, 2012
Hip-Hop Culture and Gender Roles

Dear Hip-Hop Fans and Listeners,

In a time when more and more rappers are taking over our radio and internet streams with their unproven talents and misogynistic raps, our society has grown to adapt the characteristics from the pervasive sexism and gender discrimination that is present in the lyrics of said musicians. As an avid hip-hop fan and unofficial expert of the genre for the past 7 years, I have an undeniable love for the music, but it’s not an unforgiving one. We must be aware of the hatred and objectification towards women, as well as the disconnection of the male black community, that our current state of hip-hop is influencing, and use this as the first step towards healing the pain that it expresses. The most unfortunate part of this crisis is the fact that it is affecting everyone without most of us realizing it. By analyzing and comparing lyrics from different generations of hip-hop, as well as detailing the resulting statistics and standard occurrences, we can better comprehend the negative effects that today’s rap music inflict. It is time for us to act like responsible citizens and understand how the current state of hip-hop influences negative gender roles on society.

Back when hip-hop was just called hip-hop and the song lyrics were not all harsh and stinging words directed towards male dominance and female objectification, rappers actually spoke about more good things than bad. Hardships growing up in impoverished conditions as well as more positive notes toward life were common themes of hip-hop songs back in the day. Influential groups like A Tribe Called Quest told stories through their rhymes and took the listener through bright and imaginative narratives, a trait today’s rappers are lacking. One of the group’s most popular songs, “Can I Kick It,” has member Q-Tip reciting positive attitudes and feelings through rhyme: “Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz, Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug, If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug, Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug.” The rapper is inviting listeners to bring their feel good dancing mood onto the metaphorical “rhythm rug,” and if they feel at all down, there is always someone there to give them a warm hug to brighten their spirits. Q-Tip’s rhymes are intelligent, artistic, and take a more playful lyrical approach than most of today’s rappers. At the the peak of the group’s popularity in the early 1990’s, one could easily say that the level of hyper-masculinity and objectification of woman were not as severe as they are today. Listeners of 90’s era hip-hop took to heart the words spoken by those rappers, and embodied those qualities and approaches into their own lifestyle, resulting in little gender-based issues. Rappers didn’t convey the image of men always out looking for some person to bang, and as a result, most women did not have to dress slutty in order to grasp the attentions of other men. This effectively resulted in society not demanding such ridiculousness in terms of gender inequality, with men not forced to flaunt their extreme power and masculinity, as well as women not being forced to throw their bodies out as pure sexual instruments in order to keep up with what society believed to be the norm.

Unfortunately, things have changed over the past 10 years. More and more incompetent rappers are releasing their music to the public that contain no skilled form of song-writing. The main message in today’s raps are essentially, “I make a lot of money, I get a lot of women, and I do a ton of drugs and drinking.” Surely artists rapping these messages are not the best type of role models when it comes to our youth. This is especially true since the most prevalent aspect of their raps contain endless rhymes of being the macho-man who have sex with countless women daily, something men think they must accomplish now in order to be “normal,” which, in the process, results in society almost degrading women into mere “sex-portals,” and nothing else. For example, we have rappers like Lil’ Wayne who write rhymes such as “Shawty wanna thug, Bottles in the club, Shawty wanna hump, And oh I like to touch ya lovely lady lumps, She wanna lick the rapper.” First and more obviously, any person can obviously detect the amount of talent and skill needed to produce such lyrics, which really takes away from the quality of today’s music. Secondly, when our generation’s most influential rapper only raps about the sexual desire of men wanting to “grind” on women in the club and having the ladies “lick [their] rapper,” the approach here is far less intelligent and imaginative. Not only does this type of lyricism transcend on to the males of society, but the females’ standards and overall moral beliefs lower significantly in order to meet the needs and expectations of those rappers and other various males who now take on these female-degrading and masculine-favoring manners.

Another epidemic that is a direct result from the current era of rappers is the idea and experimentation of video vixens and dancers for live performances. Video vixens are essentially females who wear little-to-no clothes and are placed into rap videos as props throughout the background. They are volunteers who do not look for any sort of pay, just the self-gratifying feeling that they were able to literally donate their body to a famous rapper’s sexually themed video. Joan Morgan, a music writer and hip-hop magazine editor, talks about how no one is addressing what is wrong with these vixens. Morgan questions our morality towards them, asking, “wouldn’t it be more productive to address the failing self-esteem of the 150 or so half naked woman who were willing, unpaid participants?” (447). Morgan’s point is extremely valid and brings up the fact that no one calls into question the service of these volunteers who will do anything to be in these rap star’s music videos. I have a friend of mine who is attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and was jumping for virtual joy when she posted on her Facebook that she had been “casted” to be one of 20 vixens to appear in a music video for   popular rapper ASAP Rocky. She ended her announcement by saying, “See you on MTV [expletive]s!” The joy and self-fulfillment women get from being chosen to flaunt their naked bodies in these rapper’s music video is not right, and should not bring them this amount of happiness. This also further proves the fact the most women will do anything, even if it is to make a fool of themselves in public, in order to bring any type of attention upon them, all a direct result of what women believe rappers want out of them.

On top of this, we have women dancers and entertainers who are similar to video vixens but perform their duties on stage during concerts while also receiving pay. Fittingly and unsurprisingly, these women are dressed in tight-fitting, revealing clothing, accentuating the typical lady assets: legs, breasts, and ass. These ladies perform grotesque and overly-sexual actions towards the rapper on stage, all to the “awe” of the audience. During a Lil’ Wayne performance for the aforementioned song “Lollipop,” women dancers would come on stage to grope Lil Wayne, sometimes kneeling on either side of him to pull on his belt in a suggestive manner. The lesson? Lil Wayne has droves of sexy women at his disposal, illustrating his masculinity through the command of female bodies, thus further proving the distorted field of gender equality. While the women's expression of sexuality is completely their own business, it is still evident that it is not a personal expression, but rather an expression that is for the heterosexual male gaze, uplifting Lil Wayne's own expression of masculinity in such a way that it completely overshadows the women's obvious talent as singers and dancers beyond the scope of their sexual parts.

Beyond this, mainstream rap has solidified the role of woman as a recipient of male domination and insult through lyrics, music videos, and commercial radio. As noted above, these music videos relegate women to adornments to the male artist. The young people who are repeatedly exposed to these sounds and images tend to habitually act them out in their own social situations. The American Medical Association estimates that almost four million men severely assault their intimate female partners or spouses each year. The leading cause of injury for women is also caused by men’s violence against their female partners, as it also results in at least 35 percent of all emergency room visits. The derogatory and misogynistic overtones in today’s mainstream rap music truly cloud our youth’s judgement and self-esteem, and as a result has our future generations being led in the wrong direction. All of these messages put out by today’s rap stars continue to promote gender inequality.

It is easy to see how all these factors from today’s mainstream rap contribute to the growing sexism and overall negative gender roles that have been conceived. But some people want to discredit the hip-hop industry of being the main culprit towards gender inequality by saying that the rappers aren't necessarily telling the listeners to mirror what they are saying. While this may be true, it is hard for our youth to try not to emulate their favorite idols, as it is almost inevitable that the listeners will try to reflect the words of their favorite rappers. So by contrasting the lyrics of artists from two different generations of hip-hop music, we can get a better idea of how much the genre has changed and how the change has shifted our society’s idea of masculinity, female objectification, and overall gender roles. And with more and more females believing that they will be publicly accepted and appreciated by becoming video vixens or live dancers for today's rappers, it becomes apparent how this perception is caused by mainstream rap. By also understanding how the rise in domestic violence is correlated to the rise in popularity of mainstream rap, we can finally begin to correct the issue at hand. We want our future generations to embody a type of character that we all would be proud of. It would be difficult to see our kids grow up to become something we are all ashamed of. We must be educated on the issue, correct the issue, and bring hip-hop back to the roots it was founded on!




Sincerely yours,


Iman Shahmiri

Rough Draft

November 30, 2012
Hip-Hop Culture and Gender Roles

Dear Hip-Hop Fans and Listeners,

In a time when more and more rappers are taking over our radio and internet streams with their unproven talents and misogynistic raps, our society has grown to adapt the characteristics from the pervasive sexism and gender discrimination that is present in the lyrics of said musicians. As an avid hip-hop fan and unofficial expert of the genre for the past 7 years, I have an undeniable love for the music, but it’s not an unforgiving one. We must be aware of the hatred and objectification towards women, as well as the disconnection of the male black community, that our current state of hip-hop is influencing, and use this as the first step towards healing the pain that it expresses. The most unfortunate part of this crisis is the fact that it is affecting everyone without most of us realizing it. By analyzing and comparing lyrics from different generations of hip-hop, as well as detailing the resulting statistics and standard occurrences, we can better comprehend the negative effects that today’s rap music inflict. It is time for us to act like responsible citizens and understand how the current state of hip-hop influences negative gender roles on society.

Back when hip-hop was just called hip-hop and the song lyrics were not all harsh and stinging words directed towards male dominance and female objectification, rappers actually spoke about hardships growing up in impoverished conditions as well as more positive notes toward life. Influential groups like A Tribe Called Quest told stories through their rhymes and took the listener through bright and imaginative narratives, a trait today’s rappers are lacking. One of the group’s most popular songs, “Can I Kick It,” has member Q-Tip reciting positive attitudes and feelings through rhyme: “Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz, Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug, If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug, Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug.” The rapper is inviting listeners to bring their feel good dancing mood onto the metaphorical “rhythm rug,” and if they feel at all down, there is always someone there to give them a warm hug to brighten their spirits. Q-Tip’s rhymes are intelligent, artistic, and take a more playful lyrical approach than most of today’s rappers. At the the peak of the group’s popularity in the early 1990’s, one could easily say that the level of hyper-masculinity and objectification of woman were not as severe as they are today. Listeners of 90’s era hip-hop took to heart the words spoken by those rappers, and embodied those qualities and approaches into their own lifestyle, resulting in little gender-based issues. Rappers didn’t convey the image of men always out looking for some person to bang, and as a result, most women did not have to dress slutty in order to grasp the attentions of other men. This effectively resulted in society not demanding such ridiculousness in terms of gender inequality, with men not forced to flaunt their extreme power and masculinity, as well as women not being forced to throw their bodies out as pure sexual instruments in order to keep up with what society believed to be the norm.

Unfortunately, things have changed over the past 10 years. More and more incompetent rappers are releasing their music to the public that contain no skilled form of song-writing. The main message in today’s raps are essentially, “I make a lot of money, I get a lot of women, and I do a ton of drugs and drinking.” Surely artists rapping these messages are not the best type of role models when it comes to our youth. This is especially true since the most prevalent aspect of their raps contain endless rhymes of being the macho-man who have sex with countless women daily, something men think they must accomplish now in order to be “normal,” which, in the process, results in society almost degrading women into mere “sex-portals,” and nothing else. For example, we have rappers like Lil’ Wayne who write rhymes such as “Shawty wanna thug, Bottles in the club, Shawty wanna hump, And oh I like to touch ya lovely lady lumps, She wanna lick the rapper.” First and more obviously, any person can obviously detect the amount of talent and skill needed to produce such lyrics, which really takes away from the quality of today’s music. Secondly, when our generation’s most influential rapper only raps about the sexual desire of men wanting to “grind” on women in the club and having the ladies “lick [their] rapper,” the approach here is far less intelligent and imaginative. Not only does this type of lyricism transcend on to the males of society, but the females’ standards and overall moral beliefs lower significantly in order to meet the needs and expectations of those rappers and other various males who now take on these female-degrading and masculine-favoring manners.

Another epidemic that is a direct result from the current era of rappers is the idea and experimentation of video vixens and dancers for live performances. Video vixens are essentially females who wear little-to-no clothes and are placed into rap videos as props throughout the background. They are volunteers who do not look for any sort of pay, just the self-gratifying feeling that they were able to literally donate their body to a famous rapper’s sexually themed video. Joan Morgan, a music writer and hip-hop magazine editor, talks about how no one is addressing what is wrong with these vixens. Morgan questions our morality towards them, asking, “wouldn’t it be more productive to address the failing self-esteem of the 150 or so half naked woman who were willing, unpaid participants?” (447). Morgan’s point is extremely valid and brings up the fact that no one calls into question the service of these volunteers who will do anything to be in these rap star’s music videos. I have a friend of mine who is attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and was jumping for virtual joy when she posted on her Facebook that she had been “casted” to be one of 20 vixens to appear in a music video for   popular rapper ASAP Rocky. She ended her announcement by saying, “See you on MTV [expletive]s!” The joy and self-fulfillment women get from being chosen to flaunt their naked bodies in these rapper’s music video is not right, and should not bring them this amount of happiness. This also further proves the fact the most women will do anything, even if it is to make a fool of themselves in public, in order to bring any type of attention upon them, all a direct result of what women believe rappers want out of them.

On top of this, we have women dancers and entertainers who are similar to video vixens but perform their duties on stage during concerts while also receiving pay. Fittingly and unsurprisingly, these women are dressed in tight-fitting, revealing clothing, accentuating the typical lady assets: legs, breasts, and ass. These ladies perform grotesque and overly-sexual actions towards the rapper on stage, all to the “awe” of the audience. During a Lil’ Wayne performance for the aforementioned song “Lollipop,” women dancers would come on stage to grope Lil Wayne, sometimes kneeling on either side of him to pull on his belt in a suggestive manner. The lesson? Lil Wayne has droves of sexy women at his disposal, illustrating his masculinity through the command of female bodies, thus further proving the distorted field of gender equality. While the women's expression of sexuality is completely their own business, it is still evident that it is not a personal expression, but rather an expression that is for the heterosexual male gaze, uplifting Lil Wayne's own expression of masculinity in such a way that it completely overshadows the women's obvious talent as singers and dancers beyond the scope of their sexual parts.

Beyond this, mainstream rap has solidified the role of woman as a recipient of male domination and insult through lyrics, music videos, and commercial radio. As noted above, these music videos relegate women to adornments to the male artist. The young people who are repeatedly exposed to these sounds and images tend to habitually act them out in their own social situations. The American Medical Association estimates that almost four million men severely assault their intimate female partners or spouses each year. The leading cause of injury for women is also caused by men’s violence against their female partners, as it also results in at least 35 percent of all emergency room visits. The derogatory and misogynistic overtones in today’s mainstream rap music truly cloud our youth’s judgement and self-esteem, and as a result has our future generations being led in the wrong direction. All of these messages put out by today’s rap stars continue to promote gender inequality.

It is easy to see how all these factors from today’s mainstream rap contribute to the growing sexism and overall negative gender roles that have been conceived. But some people want to discredit the hip-hop industry of being the main culprit towards gender inequality by saying that the rappers aren't necessarily telling the listeners to mirror what they are saying. While this may be true, it is hard for our youth to try not to emulate their favorite idols, as it is almost inevitable that the listeners will try to reflect the words of their favorite rappers. So by contrasting the lyrics of artists from two different generations of hip-hop music, we can get a better idea of how much the genre has changed and how the change has shifted our society’s idea of masculinity, female objectification, and overall gender roles. And with more and more females believing that they will be publicly accepted and appreciated by becoming video vixens or live dancers for today's rappers, it becomes apparent how this perception is caused by mainstream rap. By also understanding how the rise in domestic violence is correlated to the rise in popularity of mainstream rap, we can finally begin to correct the issue at hand. We want our future generations to embody a type of character that we all would be proud of. It would be difficult to see our kids grow up to become something we are all ashamed of. We must be educated on the issue, correct the issue, and bring hip-hop back to the roots it was founded on!




Sincerely yours,


Iman Shahmiri

Proposal #2

Proposal

Title:  Hip-Hop Culture and Gender Roles
Author: I am an 18 year old first year student at Cabrillo College, and I am an avid hip hop listener and unofficial “expert.”
Date: Written during the fall of 2012, a time when more and more rappers are taking over our radio and internet streams with their unproven talents and misogynistic raps.
Topic: The industry of hip-hop and the negative gender roles it inflicts on society.

Exigence: The current state of rap and hip hop today, and how it has been affecting everyone without them actually realizing it.
Intended Audience: All hip-hop fans and listeners.
Purpose: To inform fans of hip-hop of the hatred and objectification of women, as well as the disconnection of the black community (mainly between the males), 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 between genders of all races.

Ethos: As a self-proclaimed hip-hop expert and a member of the generation of people who account for the highest percentage of the genre’s listeners, I can easily say that I see and hear lyrics from the music day after day. I have been listening to the music for over five years now, and the countless rap songs I've heard that incorporate lyrics promoting gender inequality is extremely substantial. I've also researched the topic by reading short essays, articles, and books from authors who have the credentials to write on the topic, including hip hop magazine editors and music writers.

Pathos: Hip-Hop has also influenced the way men believe they must act in order to exert power and dominance over females as well as other men. This unfortunately sets a strange standard for our generation in terms of how they fell they must treat their significant other. Women also believe that their so called “reputation” increases with every sexual encounter they they have with rappers and anyone of that level in pop culture, lowering their standards significantly. Video vixens are also 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[.]” Unfortunately it has come to this point where women of society have dropped to an all-time low, craving attention from rappers, the media, and the general public, and being more than willing to display their naked bodies free of charge.

Logos:  Various data, facts, and statistics from credible sources, including figures such as the number of black two-parent households having decreased from 74 percent to 48 percent since 1960 (U.S. Census Bureau). Also, 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. Numerous rap lyrics from several prominent hip hop artists also show how the rapper’s own words, both purposely and inadvertently, portray the overlooked aspect of gender discrimination.

Annotated Bibliography #2

Morgan, Joan. "From Fly-Girls To Bitches and Hos." When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-hop Feminist. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. N. pag. Print.

This excerpt from Joan Morgan's book was written to help people confront and understand, and not simply condemn, the hatred and objectification of women from hip-hop today as well as the disconnection of the black community. Overall, Morgan did an effective job persuading the reader to understand her claim as a critical crisis in the world today that must be faced and amended. Morgan uses many verified statistics as well as various lyrics from popular hip-hop songs. This work is extremely applicable to my research, as it is my main source on the topic of feminism and its place in hip hop, as well as a great starting point on the division of the male role throughout the black community.

Phillips, Brittinee. "Gender Roles in Hip Hop Music." Daily 49er. N.p., 20 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.daily49er.com/news/gender-roles-in-hip-hop-music-1.1724115>.

This article published on the Daily 49er by Brittinee Phillips touches on the dismemberment of hip hop as well as examines images of gender roles in hip-hop and rap music. The author questions how representations of masculinity in hip-hop shapes the way men represent their respective creative areas of dance and writing. Phillips attends an event that was attempting to raise awareness during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and gained many valuable quotes from noted speakers and guests. The author does a great job addressing and backing up her claim with substantial evidence. This reading was a great resource for my paper as it provided a lot of insight on the topic at hand.

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.

RA #2

Title: The Death of Macho
Author: Reihan Salam
Date: June 22, 2009
Topic: How the male-dominant leaders of the financial world helped create the recent recession and its impact on gender roles in the workforce today.

Exigence: The 2008 economic meltdown and the collective crisis that ensued for millions of working men around the globe.
Intended Audience: Individuals in the labor force, as well as the general population of all developed nations.
Purpose: To help convey the momentum-gaining idea that men are no longer the primary income earners of the household, and how this change in status quo is occurring throughout the world.
Claim(s): That the “era of male dominance is coming to an end,” and the recent recession impacted men much more than females (with 80% of the total job losses occurring to men). 

Main Evidence:  Right from the beginning of the article, Salam brings up various statistics regarding out-of-work men in the U.S. and across Europe, including the stat that 28 million men are expected to be put out work by the end of 2009 (the article was written earlier that year). He compares these statistics to the women losing work, and shows that economic sectors traditionally dominated by men are declining faster and faster compared to those traditionally dominated by women. Salam also references nations around the world transitioning from male leaders to female head of states, including Iceland and Lithuania, with a banned newspaper headline from the latter stating, “The country is to be saved by a woman.” The housing bubble is also brought up, in which the author states that “[the] bubble actually represented an economic policy that disguised the declining prospects of blue-collar men” (#).  The stimulus package introduced by President Barack Obama is mentioned to show how the jobs that are to be created from said plan would be primarily focused in education, healthcare, and other social services, fields in which women are the predominant work force.


Writer’s Strategy #1: The author states countless statistics and researches from various credible sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American Journal of Public Health, and various economists and scientists from accredited institutions like Princeton.
Writer’s Strategy #2: Salam’s choice of words effectively use emotion as a form of persuasion, along with his overall passion shown by his extensive research.
Writer’s Strategy #3: Brings into picture “staggering” facts and statistics regarding our world economy and the horrific predicted state of it in order to convince the reader that what he is proposing is truly damaging to our society. 

Reader Effect #1: Gives the author credibility in terms of his argument and allows the reader to take the author more seriously because of this.
Reader Effect #2: Shows the reader that the author is dedicated to what he is writing about, allowing the reader to take the author’s point to heart.
Reader Effect #3: Reader is effectively persuaded by the author’s use of logical connections to statistics and by his general use of reasoning.

My Response: I believe the author does an overall effetive job in using Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to persuade the reader to understand the point he is trying to present, although I do believe he could have used a better emotional approach. Personally though, I felt as if I couldn't understand at first what side he was speaking for at first. I also believe that the point the author is trying to make isn't as significant as he is making it seem. The author would have persuaded me more if he presented more counter points in order to show a more balanced argument.