scholarly journals FEMALE HIP HOP ACTIVIST. AN INTERSECTIONAL CROSSROAD

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Zona ◽  
Martina De Castro ◽  
Fabio Bocci

With the demise of twentieth-century social classes, the intersec-tion of gender, race and class no longer seems to constitute a para-digm, but rather a construct with a variable structure in which, from time to time, one of the three constituent elements emerges as the driving force. This also has repercussions inthe field of art and cul-ture. In the context of Hip Hop, for example, African American female rappers propose a female image in which the vindication of one’s blackness is accompanied by an awareness of the fluidity of sexual identity and the need to break certain stereotypes for which political commitment must necessarily coincide with “sobriety” of behavior. Intheir video clips there are frames that recall the Black Panthers or the Black Lives Matter movement, one can fight against racial and class discrimination without renouncing a politics of de-sire, which opens up interesting educational reflections.

Modern Italy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-212
Author(s):  
Susanna Scarparo ◽  
Mathias Sutherland Stevenson

Hip hop, reggae/raggamuffin, and fusions between these genres, emerged in the Italian island of Sardinia in the 1980s and 1990s. In this article, we examine the ways in which these transnational music forms have found fertile terrain in post-colonial Sardinia across generations and cultures through the music of the historic hip hop crew, Sa Razza, the next generation ‘rappamuffin’ artist, Randagiu Sardu, and the Senegalese-Sardinian Afro-reggae musician, Momar Gaye. Through the analysis of selected tracks and video clips we explore how overlapping cultural, social, and political discourses of decolonisation are framed and narrated through language, music, and images as a means of expressing cultural and political agency, critiquing the impacts of exploitation and colonisation, and consciously and self-reflexively reinterpreting and celebrating marginality.


Author(s):  
Ya.M. Yanchenko

The goal of the article is detection and description of the main linguistic peculiarities of the discourse of hip-hop subculture. The lack of research devoted to hip-hop language and high popularity of rap music give grounds to consider this problem relevant to solve. The article examines the factors of the formation of the subculture and their impact on the linguistic representation of the mental world of the hip-hop culture representatives. It is concluded that there is a direct connection between conditions and lifestyle (economic instability, high crime rates, racial decimations) of hip-hop representatives and the use of language. The article confirms the importance of the category of participants in the discourse, which leads to a high level of axiology and subjectivity of hip-hop discourse. The presence of intertextuality, which is manifested both in the structure of the text of rap songs and in their content, is explained. The article describes the specific character of creolization of songs of this genre, which assumes its materialization at two levels: visual (video clips) and melodic (tempo, rhythm of music).


Author(s):  
Priscila Álvarez-Cueva ◽  
Mònica Figueras-Maz ◽  
Pilar Medina-Bravo

Representations of masculinity and femininity within the most listened-to commercial music and its evolution, based on a system of our own elaboration of 11 analytical categories of gender stereotypes that explore gender binarism, are examined. In so doing, qualitative and quantitative content analyses of 50 video clips of the most listened-to songs in two periods (2009 and 2019) are carried out. From a post-feminist critical perspective (Gill, 2007, 2017), the study verifies that gender binarism is maintained over time, albeit with important nuances in both years. The results conclude that the most prominent stereotypes are Western hegemonic femininity, associated above all with romantic narratives (mainly in 2009), and Western pariah femininity including dialogs with elements of greater sexualization (especially in 2019). On the other hand, Western Protestant masculinity is present in most of the songs associated with musical genres such as rap or hip-hop, in both periods; while Occidental assured masculinity, which is evident in 2019, is associated with the need to maintain the heteronormative and hegemonic representation of masculinity, even when not fitting the sexuality of the artist. The article concludes that, in ten years, there is an evolution of the heteronormativity among the most popular music videos, where dominant masculinity stereotype continues to be the heterosexual hegemonic masculinity model, in both the romantic and sexual context, while the representation of femininity shows some confrontation with the traditional model. This study contributes to other work on masculinities and femininities as it establishes categories that may be applied to different cultural products and social realities. Resumen Se examinan las representaciones de masculinidad y feminidad dentro de la música comercial más escuchada y su evolución, a partir de la elaboración propia de un sistema de 11 categorías analíticas de estereotipos de género que exploran el binarismo de género. Para ello, se lleva a cabo un análisis de contenido cualitativo y cuantitativo de 50 videoclips de las canciones más escuchadas en dos cortes temporales (año 2009 y año 2019). Partiendo de la perspectiva crítica postfeminista (Gill, 2007, 2017), se comprueba que el binarismo de género se mantiene en el tiempo, aunque con importantes matizaciones en ambos años. Los resultados concluyen que entre los estereotipos más destacados se encuentran: la feminidad hegemónica occidental, asociada sobre todo a narrativas románticas (principalmente en el año 2009), y la feminidad paria occidental, que dialoga con elementos de mayor sexualización (sobre todo en 2019). Por su parte, la masculinidad protestante occidental se encuentra presente en la mayoría de las canciones de géneros musicales como el rap o el hip hop en ambos periodos de tiempo; mientras que la masculinidad asegurada, que se evidencia en 2019, se asocia con la necesidad de mantener su representación heteronormativa y hegemónica, aunque la sexualidad del artista no encaje en ella. A partir de la muestra analizada, el artículo concluye que, en diez años, ha habido una evolución de la heteronormatividad en los videoclips musicales más populares, donde el estereotipo de masculinidad dominante sigue siendo el modelo de masculinidad hegemónico heterosexual, tanto en el plano romántico como en el sexual; mientras que la representación de la feminidad muestra algunas confrontaciones con el modelo tradicional. El estudio supone una aportación a los estudios sobre masculinidades y feminidades pues establece categorías que pueden aplicarse a diferentes productos culturales y realidades sociales.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Christopher Kendrick

Among a number of contemporary science and speculative fiction writers who identify as left-wing, China Mi&eacute;ville stands out, not only for the quality of his literary production, but also for the critical character of his political commitment, dedicated equally to socialism and to fantasy. In addition to his fictive works, he has written articles and given lectures on the nature and value of speculative and fantasy fiction; edited a collection of essays on Marxism and fantasy in an issue of the journal <em>Historical Materialism</em>; and, not least, published a list of "Fifty Sci-Fi and Fantasy Works Every Socialist Should Read." I wish to discuss here the form and thematics of the early novels known (after the alternate world in which they are set) as the Bas-Lag trilogy&mdash;which remains, if you take it as a single work, his most ambitious and memorable achievement. But since Mi&eacute;ville is a serious critic and advocate of fantasy fiction, I will approach the books with a brief discussion of his aesthetic positions and program, gathered from essays and talks as well as from his literary works.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-9" title="Vol. 67, No. 9: February 2016" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-229
Author(s):  
Nicholas Di Taranto

Few postwar cities grew as quickly as Phoenix, as suburban, pro-growth policies created a sprawling metropolitan area, but also problems like acute traffic congestion, which policymakers attempted to solve with an urban freeway. The Papago Freeway revolt highlights that transportation policy, like other aspects of suburbanization, had deep roots in intentional and incidental race and class discrimination at all levels of government and private decisions. Moreover, the debate reveals the changing relationship between the federal government and cities under President Nixon and the incendiary political, social, and cultural forces fracturing metropolitan America. The revolt led to design changes that mitigated some of the negative impacts of the freeway, but the Papago still resulted in inequitable outcomes for minorities and low-income populations in the inner city. Most important, it shows that ignoring historical inequities in policy decisions runs the risk of continuing or, worse, exacerbating them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tainá da Rocha Val

ABSTRACT In this paper the author introduces graffiti in Rio de Janeiro as a method for creative activism, drawing on scholarly work and her experience since 2015 as a graffiti writer. Combining these elements, the author demystifies graffiti and untangles the multiple prejudices attached to this peripheral artistic culture. Locating graffiti within its roots in Hip Hop culture and drawing upon the memories and experiences of seven graffiti artists she introduces theories of memory and knowledge production to analyze the role of graffiti in constructing and deconstructing the city and its culture. The artists in this paper recount stories of how gender, race, and class have structured Brazilian graffiti and the reactions that it provokes, constructing a storyline stretching from the 1990s until today, a registry of knowledges about the culture of the city which have been constructed through an art which is always and already a form of activism from the periphery.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Luiz Bastos ◽  
Aluisio J. D. Barros ◽  
Roger Keller Celeste ◽  
Yin Paradies ◽  
Eduardo Faerstein

Although research on discrimination and health has progressed significantly, it has tended to focus on racial discrimination and US populations. This study explored different types of discrimination, their interactions and associations with common mental disorders among Brazilian university students, in Rio de Janeiro in 2010. Associations between discrimination and common mental disorders were examined using multiple logistic regression models, adjusted for confounders. Interactions between discrimination and socio-demographics were tested. Discrimination attributed to age, class and skin color/race were the most frequently reported. In a fully adjusted model, discrimination attributed to skin color/race and class were both independently associated with increased odds of common mental disorders. The simultaneous reporting of skin color/race, class and age discrimination was associated with the highest odds ratio. No significant interactions were found. Skin color/race and class discrimination were important, but their simultaneous reporting, in conjunction with age discrimination, were associated with the highest occurrence of common mental disorders.


Author(s):  
Harry Olafsen ◽  
Mohammed Ali ◽  
Mikayla McCord ◽  
Roxana Cazan

Dissatisfied with the decisions of the Western political class to remain uninvolved in helping settle the conflict in Syria, many hip-hop, rap, and pop artists from Syria and the surrounding region have been creating and performing politically charged music that promotes liberty, and justice in the Middle East. One artist in particular, Omar Offendum (in the United States), writes and brings to the stage his hip-hop music in a way that continues and enhances this political-artistic movement across the Atlantic. Employing rhymes and rhythms that foster commotion and make noise, Offendum breaks the global indifference accumulated around the topics of the Syrian war and the unsolvable debates about allowing a certain number of Syrian asylum seekers to apply for refugee status in Western nations. He underscores that apathy is not an option for those who oppose the oppressor. In this paper, we argue that Offendum’s music constitutes an effective tool of political propaganda that can raise social consciousness of the needs of Syrians today and inspire social justice. Because the political-ideological space that feeds his creative act is set in a civil-rights-conscious U.S., Offendum often appeals to a heritage, reminding the listener of the activism of the Black Panthers, the legacy of Malcom X, and the freedom battles of Rodney King and his followers. In many of his songs, Offendum uses Arabic, both as a means of highlighting the authenticity of his hybrid identity and as a method of marking a cultural space for a diverse audience to come together. In this paper, we offer a brief historical look at the role of hip-hop in the struggle for civil rights in the US in order to locate the legacy Offendum’s music builds on and to assess its power. We then perform a close analysis of three of his most famous songs and conclude with a brief discussion of the impact of Offendum’s on social media platforms globally. KEYWORDS: Hip-Hop; Activism; Social Justice; Omar Offendum; Social Consciousness; Syrian War; Syrian Refugees; Civil Rights


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