Gender Identities: Treatin' ladies with respect since 1988

I've never considered a girl a dime-piece. Incredible, I know. Also, I've never thought that lifting weights or spittin' game was the way to attract a woman. So in that sense, yeah, hip-hop has affected my gender identity. I think listening to and seeing the gender roles defined within hip-hop (that, in my opinion, has evolved into all parts of pop culture) has formed my identity as a man: I do the opposite. I'm not saying I'm a hero. I just know that a smile, a held door and a mixtape is my substitute for protein shakes and eye-f*cking. I think hip-hop and pop culture have evolved women these days into thinking that all they are to men are sexual objects. And I thank hip-hop for allowing me to see what women think I want, then go against that notion, and form a relationship. As I said before, I think the masculinity and warped femininity found in hip-hop has fused into pop-music and the culture that comes with it. Therefore, I think many more younger people are affected by this, and you can see it. Go anywhere and you see more little punks and divas than you could ever imagine. In my generation, just a few years prior, these ideals and images didn't really reach pop culture the way it does now, and that shaped me. I definitely go against the prescribed gender roles that the media, including hip-hop, throws at me. Frankly, I do the exact opposite as they tell me, and I'm pretty damn happy because of it.