Before I even begin an entry on popular hip hop culture I have to shout out that I went to see Lupe Fiasco and Talib Kweli last night and it was fantastic. It reminded me of the amazing work some rappers are doing in the face of 'pimp' and 'ho' culture, to keep hip hop tied in to what it has always been about, liberation through beats and rhymes.
So while bopping my head to some educated lyrics, including critiques of the Iraq war to that crazy notion of respecting women, I was forced to ask, what the hell is up with this 'pimp chic' business and what impact is it having on young women and men today. Is there anything empowering about young men calling themselves 'pimp' or trying to be a pimp and young women acting like 'hoes'?
Kira Cochrane from the Guardian says. . .
When did the verb "to pimp" become a positive thing? What it means is "to exploit and degrade women" - to sell them for sex and take the profits.It's this attitude that, in recent years, has allowed the term pimp to become a hugely successful marketing hook, with the rapper Nelly hawking the drink Pimp Juice, The Pimp Watch becoming a timepiece of choice; It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp winning last year's Oscar for best song, and pimp Halloween costumes (big hats, bling and exotically-lapelled suits) being marketed to pre-teens.
I think we can agree glamorizing sex trafficking is just not okay. But I am also cautious to evaluate the racialized underpinnings of the movement. We see pimp chic culture playing out in young communities of color and naturally the blame goes on their shoulders. But are young *urban* youth to blame? And are they the only consumers? Hell no.
'Pimp chic' is a capitalist commodity that is carefully assembled and distributed as a product to be consumed. What makes it dangerous is that it is a cultural commodity, so it is not just about buying pimp juice, but actually acting out the parts and believing that it is cool to do so. In a culture that values consumerism as a basic tenet, it is no wonder that something so clearly not empowering to communities of color, can be distributed and consumed with such success.
Cochrane continues. . .
The mainstreaming of the word pimp obviously does damage with its disregard towards women and its degradation of male and female relationships. It also does damage to young black men. Every mainstream stereotype we have of young black men is negative, and the pimp stereotype - pimps are usually portrayed as being black - is perhaps the most prominent and the most negative of all.In popular culture, powerful black men aren't generally lawyers or doctors or politicians - as they are in real life - but men who beat and control and steal from women. As film director Spike Lee has said: "We are bombarded by these gangsta images again and again and again ... [and] they do make a difference to human behaviour. No one gets upset any more that pimpdom gets elevated on a pedestal." Perhaps it's about time that we did.
And to just add to that, who is responsible for the circulation of these images? And how does white America benefit from youth of color internalizing these images?
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Pitfalls of 'pimp chic.'.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/3917
"but men who beat and control and steal from women." and "'Pimp chic' is a capitalist commodity that is carefully assembled and distributed as a product to be consumed. " You nailed it with that comment. Capitalism finds it easier to make a buck if they can simplify the opinions of the masses about what they want and deserve out of life. Convince men that their highest aspiration is to be a pimp, and its quite easy to sell them Cristal, gold teeth, big wheels for their cars, and cocaine.
I also saw Talib Kweli recently. I was initially drawn to his lyrics (like in the song about birthing processes, which talks about forced c-sections, etc.) but really respect him.
Another hip hop artist, KRS-ONE is pro-woman. The first time I heard him was at a rave *years* ago--he started about by saying he hated when rappers called when hos and bitches.
I fell in love with KRS then and there, and listen to his music to as recent as this morning.
And how does white America benefit from youth of color internalizing these images?
I don't have a direct (correct?) answer to this, but I wonder if it has to do with creating a straw man we (meaning white America) can beat on to make ourselves feel better? I'm guilty of this myself, but how often does one see a group of gangsta-bling laden young men of color and, at the very least, mentally smack your forehead and wonder what they're thinking?
At the very least, it makes them look like a group of people ignorantly perpetuating their own stereotypes. At the worst, they look like the worst perpetrators of mysogyny and violence against women. Either way, white people feel better about themselves. No matter how mysogynyst a white man (or woman) may be, at least he/she is not a self-described pimp blinged out for his/her "hoes". It's another way of creating a reason why "we" are better than "them"; mainstream white american can attribute the struggle of people of color to their screwed up morals, and it makes them feel better because they have a hard-line reason to keep them on the fringe of society, and it also gives a nice reason to discriminate.
Well, ambitious, driven younger members of subordinated groups, who are for various reasons prevented from achieving success in legitimate enterprises have traditionally turned to illegal enterprises--this is why every wave of immigrants has given rise to gangs and organized crime. Because of lack of familiarity with the language, or access to decent education, or lack of money, or plain old bias. And running prostitution rings has always been a part of such rackets.
But it seems to me that in this particular case, mainstream culture has latched on to the fantasy of the (black) pimp, and at a guess, I would say that this is not unrelated to racist mythologies about the sexual rapaciousness of black men.
"And how does white America benefit from youth of color internalizing these images?"
Few benefits are gained from another's losses in livelihood. The bully on the playground that kicks the kid with the pocket protector may laugh about it, but doesn't get rewarded with better grades or an increase in family income.
If some teenager down the street from me is going to live a gansta or pimp lifestyle, I don't see any way it will benefit my white buttocks.
Has anyone else noticed that AOL is now offering ways to "PIMP YOUR IM" on the AIM homepage? This pimp glorification trend is so disturbingly mainstream.
I'm sorry, but I don't see any evidence that this is anything but normal amelioration. Some words just lose their previous pejorative connotations via metaphor: "to lynch" becomes "to verbally harass," "to pimp" and "to whore" become "to shamelessly advertise," "to kill" becomes "to delete" or "to erase," etc.
I mean, when I say I shamelessly blog-whore, I don't mean I make my blog have sex with other blogs for money... at least, I think I don't.
I so strongly agree with you on this. My 13 year old sister loves to watch the video hits, and one morning I sat and watched them with her, and was horrified to see all the female popstars acting like whores, hanging off the black male rappers who were 'bustin nasty rhymes' and saying the most awful things. I had a discussion with my little sister about this, about how it's great to be sexy and strong, but that's totally different to what is being shown in this video clip where the 'pimp' character loads up a cattle-truck full of women in slinky night-club clothing, smacking their backsides as they line up to be herded into the truck and I guess smuggled across some border. He's meanwhile calling them things like 'ho's & saying how he knows they want him, which they all affirm. It just shows how fragile the male ego is that they need that pimp power, and how low women's self esteem, that they gain some by behaving as if they exist merely to be ogled & groped. Luckily my thirteen year old sister has a good head on her shoulders, I don't expect to ever see her behaving so ridiculously.
buy wow gold
cheap wow power leveling
my wow gold
cheapest wow power leveling
BUY wow gold
cheap wow power leveling
CHEAP rs gold
good wow power leveling
MY lotro gold
CHEAPEST aion gold
buy wow gold
cheap wow gold
CHEAPEST wow gold