hip women

Baldwin talks about women in his piece, Black Empires, White Desires and he says that much of hip-hop is degrading and sometimes violent towards women.  While anyone who has heard (or seen) Tip Drill by Nelly would be forced to agree with that assessment, he makes the point that there are many artists breaking out of that role and pushing women into bigger and better roles.  One of my favorite songs is by Lil Kim and Christina Aguilera: Can’t Hold Us Down.  The lyrics include

“If you look back in history

It's a common double standard of society

The guy gets all the glory the more he can score

While the girl can do the same and yet you call her a whore

I don't understand why it's okay

The guy can get away with it the girl gets named

All my ladies come together and make a change

And start a new beginning for us, everybody sing

This is for my girls all around the world…”

The whole songs talks about double standards for men and women and about how women should be proud of who they are and not feel the need to just sit quietly and back up their men, but to either meet them on equal grounds (whatever that requires) or ditch them.  It also talks about how women get called names or get rumors made up about them whenever it looks like they might be achieving the “male” level of fame and success, which Baldwin also addresses in his writing when he talks about “a long musical history of black women taking a stance for sexual and economic self-satisfaction”. 

Another one of my favorite black female artists is Queen Latifah.  She does fall somewhat into the African queen stereotype that Baldwin talks about, partially because she’s decided to call herself a Queen, but she’s amazing to me.  She participates in the hip-hop aesthetic (some even call her hip-hop’s first lady), but she also does so much more.  She participates in movies and plays wonderfully strong women with amazing spirit and verve.  She played the kind of black community mother in Hairspray, which is a movie that addresses serious race issues along with the somewhat more frivolous storylines.  She spends a large portion of her role in the movie making sure that her kids (and their friends) do not feel any less important or insignificant because they just happen to have darker skin.  She stands up to the white authority figures and she pushes the black kids to make their own stands.  Queen Latifah also plays Matron Momma Morton in Chicago, a role that seems to be a sort of secondary character, but it turns out at the end of the movie that she was pulling most of the strings throughout the whole drama.  She was definitely more powerful than the whiny, lying lead roles and more vibrant, too.  Her entrance into the movie is sexy, powerful, and arrogant without conforming to any black stereotypes or any female stereotypes.  She doesn’t have a stick thin body—she flaunts and owns the body that she does have, and for that is more beautiful than any of the starving lead roles.  Along with Broadway musicals come to the silver screen, Queen Latifah plays roles in movies predominantly aimed towards black audiences and staffed with black actors (Brown Sugar, Beauty Shop, etc.) which is another important element to her career. 

Beyonce is another incredible black female role model.  She is absolutely beautiful, classy, sexy, old-school Hollywood, cutting edge fashion…the list could go on for ages.  Like Queen Latifah, she doesn’t have the currently fashionable model stick-thin body—she has her own, natural, healthy body that is absolutely perfect for her and gorgeous.  She keeps up with current trends and wears amazing clothing but she also dips back into classic Hollywood whenever she feels like it.  She follows trends, but doesn’t let them take over her life (or her wardrobe).  Irreplaceable came out in the last couple of years and while I’ll admit that it got played to death, it has an excellent message.  She talks about a man being unfaithful to her and she’s not going to listen to his excuses or reasons—she’s done.  She kicks him out and tells him that he can get his stuff and go; but don’t touch anything that she bought, cuz that’s just hers.  She also says that he’s crazy if he doesn’t think she can find another man like him—he’s not irreplaceable.  Songs like that are so empowering to women in general and to black women in particular.  Baldwin talks about the binaries between male and female in his piece and defends hip-hop for coming up with new material that doesn’t follow the old style of male superiority.

Of course, hip-hop isn’t the only music that’s doing this.  Sara Bareilles sings about someone who doesn’t deserve a love song, Gretchen Wilson knows that men don’t change, Carrie Underwood’s going to fuck up his truck when he cheats on her, Taylor Swift knows that in the end of a relationship he’s just another picture to burn…the list can go on forever.  Female artists are rising, not at the expense of men, but at their same level, or maybe even above it.  They are an important part of society because people are listening and hopefully learning something from their songs.