Hip Hop Misogyny
I found this article from Essence.com interesting: They Weren’t Talking About Me Blogger Gina McCauley tells why she used to dance to degrading rap lyrics—and what made her stop Growing up in the South, I’ve always had a firm grasp on racism. It meant the loss of life, like that of Loyal Garner, Jr., a Black man who was beaten to death while in police custody up the road from me in Hemphill, Texas, when I was 12. Racism had consequences that were concrete and tangible. Sexism, on the other hand, was a fuzzier concept. I viewed it as a mild annoyance. Sexism in hip-hop wasn’t a threat to me when I was growing up because the music was different then. When we danced to “Parents Just Don’t Understand” or “U Can’t Touch This,” we were all invited; the girls were more than mere party favors. The group 2 Live Crew, best known for the hit “Me So Horny,” was considered controversial. So I kept dancing, even as misogynistic lyrics and images crept into the mainstream. When Dre rhymed that “bitch...