Gender Identity

I think that hip-hop does have an effect on our gender identity. Music is an important part of my life, and hip-hop is the only music I listen to with a common uber-masculine figure. Yet at the same time, hip-hop has helped me grow to have more feminist views. For example, Tupac asked, “Tell me why we take from our women why we rape our women do we hate our women?”

In my Critical Theory class this semester, we watched 50 Cent’s “Still Kill” video, as well as clips from Beyond Beats and Rhymes. In “Still Kill” 50 does stuff like box and look angry. Beyond Beats and Rhymes really questions hip-hop’s idea of a man. A man has to put down women and never show weakness or feminizing qualities. I found 50’s explanation of a “bitch ass nigga” particularly troubling. Ja Rule, as well as men in general, cannot do something like cry because they will no longer be men? In hip-hop, you can never slip up, and you always have to be tough. I find it ridiculous, and unfortunate.