Women in Rap Music

In her book, Cecelia Reclaimed:Femenist Perspectives on Gender and Music, Susan C. Cook explains how women are portrayed in rap music, especially black women. Cook stresses on the idea that there are "negative, stereotypical female roles within music" (Cook 184). Since music is a business, rappers use the idea of sex to sell records. With the idea of sex comes women stereotypes. A woman should have the perfect body, perfect hair, etc, and those women are usually prostitutes and/or whores. According to Cook, a few terms used for women within rap music are, "skeezers, hoes, sluts, whores, and bitches". Not only is the view of women potrayed as negative, but rap music is a male-dominated industry. Not many women are wel-known rappers, and if there is a woman rapper, then she is seen as being a lesbian or aggressive. On a positive note, Cook explains how women are starting to stop being the "objects" in rap songs, but rather be the "subjects". Women are starting to get their voices heard and producing songs. WOmen are bringing in a different tone to rap music and starting to change the views that the industry portrays. It took a while for female rappers to be taken seriously, but progress has been made. The first female rap duo was Salt n' Pepa and they had a hit called "Express Yourself". Salt n' Pepa were feminists that expressed their views and feelings about women through their music. A segment from their song says, "I'm not a man, but I am in command. Hot damn, I got an all girl band". These lyrics really show how important it was to change the view on women within the rap community.
Although their are still negative views of women within rap music, progress is being made and hopefully one day the stereotypical ideas will no longer exist.

By Toni

Works cited

Cook, Susan C. "The Conflicting Nature of Females in Rap Music." Cecilia Reclaimed: Femenist Perspectives on Gender and MUsic. 183-96. Print.