ASRC 4402 - Women in Hip Hop

(crosslisted) AMST 4402
(CA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

Co-meets with AMST 6402/ASRC 6402.

O. LaBennett.

This course will explore how women are portrayed in hip hop music and culture, addressing women both as consumers and producers. We will draw on texts that analyze misogyny in hip hop music and music videos, while also looking at how both mainstream and marginalized female hip hop artists contest sexually exploitative images of women. The course will utilize Black feminist theory, consumption theory, and youth culture theory to help students interpret and critique the ways in which women are represented in hip hop music, art, fashion, and dance, and in its surrounding culture. Considering analyses of African American, Caribbean, Asian-American, South African, and Latino interactions with hip hop, the course will investigate how youth construct gender and ethnic identities as they negotiate notions of African Diasporic belonging vis-à-vis hip hop. We will employ ethnographic, historical, sociological, literary, and interdisciplinary texts to explore questions such as: What do the sexual politics of rap music reveal about broader gender constructions? How can we compare the portrayal of women in hip hop to representations of women in related musical genres? How are hetero-normative gender ideologies reinforced in hip hop culture? Does hip hop allow a space for alternative femininities? The course will also address broader questions related to representations of Black femininity, minorities in the media, gender and sexual identity construction.