家具材料,断罪之花伴奏,七里八里
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Furthermore, the negative image that is promoted is not the only drawback of black female rappers concerning feminism and emancipation of black female in American society and culture. The fact, which has already been underlined above, that many of them started at a very young age resulted in the lack of consciousness of their mission as representatives of pop music, of art and primarily as representatives of probably the most deprived part of American society black females which, in order to be really independent and equal to other members of society, have to use all opportunities to promote their positive image, not negative one.
Naturally as teenagers, these young black female rappers were mainly concerned with the money they were making than with the image they were portraying and they could hardly be aware of black feminist movement or womanist ideology. At the same time it was quite natural that their discourse and the message they send to their audience was significantly influenced by surrounding reality and mass culture, which, as it has been already emphasised, were full of stereotypes and there were a lot of prejudices concerning black female and their image. Moreover,, being too young, they could not think absolutely independently. This is why they tended to create the image the audience traditionally expected from them such as exaggerated sexuality and basically negative image. In such a situation there remained little or even no room for feminist ideology and wider representation of real black female image, which was significantly different from stereotyped view on them. In other words, they did not fully realise the opportunity to change public opinion in relation to black females, on the contrary they only reinforced the negative image mistakenly perceived by the vast majority of the audience as traditional and typical for black females.
Probably because of their age they could not act otherwise but at the same time it is necessary to realise that such a situation has not gone to the past. Moreover, now the black female rappers’ discourse tends to be far from what may be treated as really feminist discourse oriented on the protection and promotion of rights of black females, in contrast sexuality and servile emphasis on the audience’s stereotypes are promoted and what is even worse new black female rappers choose such an image and use similar discourse over and over again.
As a result portraying controlling images, being ruinous for black female rappers as representatives of black feminist movement, are getting to be more and more popular and widely spread nowadays.
4、The dominant sexual and racial ideologies in American culture在美国文化中的主导性和种族意识形态
A logical question that arises, when the situation with black female rappers is analysed, is the question concerning the reasons of such a discourse which obviously lacks feminists promotion and is rather subordinated to stereotypes. In addition to the reasons mentioned in previous chapter, it should be said that black female rappers willingly or not are a part of American culture and consequently they are subordinated to the dominant ideologies which are accepted by the vast majority of American society and which, in fact, they should change but currently they fail to.
It is an undeniable fact that the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in American culture are very discriminating in relation to black females and consequently black female rappers had to obey to these ideologies in order to gain popularity of the possibly wider audience but, on the other hand, it is necessary to realise that by doing so they can hardly gain real respect neither the audience at large nor black females in particular.
Speaking about the dominant ideologies it is necessary to clearly realise that they are developed and belong to white males and the changes that got started in American society are too slow to change the dominant ideology somehow. Naturally, in such a situation, black female rappers has a little choice to do and their choice in favour of popularity, even though it weakens dramatically black female movement, is quite pragmatic and natural. It is noteworthy to refer to George Nelson who estimated that “for much of hip-hop’s history, it has been a truism that the male rap consumer, white and black, simply won’t accept females” (1998, 185).
In fact rap has always been considered a private and male dominant space. This is why at the beginning it was extremely difficult for black female rappers to gain success and the breakthrough made in mid-1980s was particularly significant. Remarkably, this breakthrough coincided with the work of such a black female rapper as Queen Latifah who was probably the most eager rapper who strived for promotion of an image of a black female different from standardised and this image was obviously very successful for her as an artist but not in commercial aspect. However, such a position of Queen Latifah and to a certain extent similar to her MC Lyte led to their severe critique and “it is significant that the females who get the most respect in hip-hop’s primarily male domain – Queen Latifah and MC Lyte – are relentlessly dogged by rumours that they are lesbians. Whether these rumours are true or not, the message is evident: a female can’t be tough or strong or clear or exceptionally skilful at hip-hop unless she has sacrificed the thing that makes her a ‘real girl’” (Smith 1995, 127). Furthermore, as Tricia Rose estimates, such female rappers often “felt that they were being used as a political baton to beat male rappers over the head, rather than being affirmed as women who could open up public dialogue to interrogate sexism and its effect on young black women” (1994, 150).
Naturally, it is impossible to speak about equality and independence of black female rappers and their creative work since, being few compared to the mass of male rappers, they could hardly change stereotypes and dominant ideologies in a day, a year or even a decade because as a rule they have been viewed as “interlopers – either butchy anomalies or cute novelties who by some fluke infiltrated a boy’s game” (Light 1999, 177).
On facing such a resistance, from the part of the mass audience influenced by the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in American culture black female rappers, as one of them Kid-N-Play said, “have to work twice as hard [as males] to get half the credit” (Rose 1994, 146). As a result, it is not surprising that many black female rappers are harsher to one another than to male rappers that may be also explained by low number of black female rappers compared to males and by their intention to please the predominantly male audience for the sake of commercial success. This often led to limiting female rap songs to verbal ‘catfights’ and the typical ‘battle of the sexes’, especially in 1980s.
Furthermore, it should be pointed out that since 1980s there have been two main ways on which black female rappers could achieve success. On the one hand, there is the ‘I am as tough and as good just as the next ‘man’ role but very few black female rappers have chosen this way to success, though those who have chosen it are the most respected. On the other hand, there is an alternative that the majority of black female rappers have chosen and nowadays it gets to be more and more popular, is simply to sell sexual images that is not surprising because it is acceptable by the dominating male ideology in the industry for “that sex sells is the first axiom of advertising, and sexual ads are everywhere. And in order to titillate a sexually jaded society, you have to push the boundaries. You have to be a bit more brazen than the last hot little number, a little more ‘edgy’” (Burford et al. 1999, 72) and this is exactly what many of black female rappers are currently doing to be successful.
Unfortunately, the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in American culture result in the situation when “portraying African-American women as stereotypical mummies, matriarchs, welfare recipients, and hot mommas helps justify US black women’s oppression… These controlling images are designed to make racism, sexism, poverty, and other forms of social injustice appear to be natural, normal, and inevitable parts of everyday life” (Collins 2000, 70). Moreover, often black female rappers are portrayed as ‘hootchies’ since men allowed many of them to rap. ‘Hootchies’ is a term used by Joan Morgan in her book “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost” (2000) and it signifies women who use sex to get what they want from men. An example of such a type of black female rappers is Lil Kim.
Consequently, the controlling image of black females becomes more and more widely spread and in general it is influenced by the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in which males play the main role and the desire to achieve commercial success force black females to create images the most attractive for the wide audience but unfortunately it results in the creation of an extremely negative image of black female that is very dangerous for the progress of black feminist movement.
Thus, taking into considerations all above mentioned, it is possible to presuppose the future of black females in American culture at large and rap music in particular. The recent trends in the development of black female rap are quite disturbing, particularly an unparalleled commercialisation of the industry, but it is necessary to point out that the similar trends are typical not only for females but for males as well as for other industries of pop culture. Nonetheless, this trend is basically the result of male dominated ideology that makes the progress of black female rappers not so effective as it could be. |
