videogiocando.info
Hip Hop has been often accused of depicting a degrading image of women, used as sexual objects and not treated with respect. However, Michael Eric Dyson, even if attacking some of the most explicit lyrics and video clips, he also suggests not to treat this music genre as a scapegoat and to dig a little deeper. Let’s!
Critics argue that the sexist representation of women in rap music can be connected to the crisis of black masculinity: “From the perspective of men-in-general, the concept ‘crisis’ involves the realization that their power and authority can no longer be taken for granted. […] The ‘crisis of masculinity,’ then, is about the generalized feeling among men-in-general that they are no longer capable of fully controlling the world. They have lost their collective nerve, their self-assurance, their sense of certainty” (S. Craig Watkins, “Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema.” Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998. P. 220).
Historians argue that the low status of black men within the family started with slavery. W.E.B. Du Bois asserts that for black men “slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice.” He also describes the status of black men as “emasculated by a peculiarly complete system of slavery, centuries old” (W.E.B. Du Bois. “The Souls of Black Folk.” New York: Pocket Books, 2005. P. 25).