Application

When Dr. Cantwell, a humanities teacher at the Webb school was asked about her thoughts surrounding feminism and hip-hop, she offered the insightful advice that it’s not a black and white issue in terms of feminism and how it relates to hip-hop. Female rappers have positive messages for women, however, there’s always been a longstanding tradition of sexualizing women which can be seen through music videos. There’s no concrete definition of what a feminist is. Like rap music does not make you a bad person. There is no such thing as a “bad feminist.”

“One thing our culture is dealing with right now is although it may seem like the line between deciding if someone is good or bad is concrete, it is in fact quite blurred. If you start ruling out artists who have issues in their personal lives and face allegations, no artists are going to be left.”

What’s dangerous in our culture is thinking it is ok to judge people based on what they like or don’t like. It is extremely negative to judge each other on what they feel comfortable with when it comes to music, especially because it is such a personal preference.

It’s important when analyzing this type of music to not draw a connection between lyrical statements and the personal views of an artist or the listener.  Oftentimes a tough persona is just that — a persona — so when is a sexist message ironic or subversive, and when it is a hateful call to action?

One could argue that feminists have a duty to continue to listen to Hip-Hop and participate in Hip-Hop culture, acknowledging its misogyny while building up equality. After all, it’s not only one’s responsibility to preserve the culture you love, but to make it better.