ASRC 4402 - Women in Hip Hop

(crosslisted) ANTHR 4102, AMST 4402, FGSS 4402, LGBT 4402
(CA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

O. LaBennett.

Hip hop has been dependent on women’s contributions, yet female artists have had to work hard to contest their marginalization and objectification in the music and culture. Some of the most heated debates surrounding feminism, identity politics, and Black women are framed within the broad contours of hip hop. 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 peripheral female artists use hip hop to affirm their sexual power, articulate Black feminism, and create spaces for their artistic expression. We will utilize Black feminist theory, performance studies, and queer of color critique to complicate the ways in which women, gender, and sexuality are represented in hip hop music. While our analyses will center on music and on the United States, we will also consider art, fashion, and dance within Black, Latina, and Caribbean interactions with hip hop. We 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 these topics.