Chapter 40: There are Bitches and Hoes Summary

Tricia Rose takes a deep look into hip hop and rap music of our society today in this chapter. Her main purpose for writing is to explain how the lyrics of the songs impact our society, specifically the black community and women. Rose opens the article by elaborating on pimp culture and how our society views pimp culture. She talks about how pimp culture's ideology and expression in pop culture are fundamentally exploitative to women by explaining how the rap music features lyrics that depict domination of prostitutes, and how street pimps use physical violence as well as emotional and psychological manipulation to control prostitutes. She dives even deeper into pimp culture and provides a "fundamental pimp attitude", which she believes is that women are bitches, and bitches are whores and prostitutes. After laying the framework of the article with information on pimp culture, Rose moves on to how hip hop and rap affect the young women in our society today.

Rap and hip hop lyrics have a tremendous impact on young women according to this article. Rose explains that rap songs encourage young women fans to emulate the behavior of bitches and hoes to get attention, to be desired, and to be considered sexy. This behavior is explained by the prominence of gangsta rappers who receive a lot of money and fame for their hip hop music. To contrast, for some women the only means of making any gains is through behaving in hyper sexual ways. All in all, rap and hip hop lyrics are causing young women to exploit themselves similar to the way rap artists exploit women.

After talking about the impact rap and hip hop have on young women, Rose shifts gear into the perspective of the rap artist. She includes quotes from artists like Snoop Dogg and many others. Some rappers try to defend themselves by saying their songs aren't about women. Snoop Dogg explains that the reason for the exploitation of women in hip hop are because of the artist's upbringings. Most of them grew up living life in tough, poor neighborhoods, which is what the songs represent. Rose doesn't offer an opinion on the matter, but continues on to explain that the rapper needs to exploit "bitches and hoes" because they add a status and value to their pimp images. She says that the process of locating, labeling, partying with, then discarding a black woman is part of enhancing their performance as gangsta and pimp style rappers. Rose concludes the article with a call to action, calling on empowered women to be in charge of their own sexual imagery and give themselves freedom to express themselves as they see fit.

Chapter 1: Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture Summary

With this article, Douglas Kellner writes to inform the reader about cultural studies and their place in society. His purpose is to inform the reader about media culture, to teach the reader how to study media culture, and to give the reader guidance on where to find media culture's impact on society. It is very clear that Kellner believes the media plays an extremely large role in our society today by teaching people to conform to the norms while also impacting peoples thoughts and behavior.  In the article, he defines the media as the radio, television, film, popular music, internet, and social networking products that provide materials out of which we forge our very identities including our sense of selfhood, our notion of what it means to be male or female, and our conception of class, ethnicity, race, nationality, and sexuality (Kellner 7). He further elaborates on his definition by explaining the impact media has on our society. Kellner talks about how the media images shape our view of the world and our society's deepest values; including what we consider good or bad, positive or negative, and good or evil. He believes the media are forms of pedagogy that teach us how to dress, look, consume, react to different social groups, how to be popular, and how to conform to the dominant system of norms, values, practices, and institutions (Kellner 7). Following his description of media culture, Kellner transitions into the components of studying media culture, offering a few things to focus on to properly and effectively engage in cultural studies. The first main topic is production and the political economy; Kellner emphasizes the importance of being aware of the global networks that produce and distribute culture in the interests of profit and corporate hegemony (Kellner 10). Secondly, Kellner requires textual analysis of the various forms of media (Kellner 12). It is required to analyze the various forms of discourses, ideological positions, and narrative strategies. He mentions that the textual analysis of cultural studies should combine formalist analysis with critique of how cultural meanings convey specific ideologies of race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, and other ideological dimensions. Kellner's third aspect of cultural studies requires attention to the reception of the audience and the use of media culture from the audience (Kellner 14). What he means by this is the study of how people respond to the media and how they use the media in their daily lives. Kellner advises cultural studies to follow those three main points; to be multi-perspective to get the perspectives of the political economy, textual analysis, and the audience reception. To conclude the article he mentions that cultural studies attack sexism, heterosexism, racism, and bias against specific social groups. After reading this article, it is clear that cultural studies can help us improve society and create a better life for ourselves.

I Tube, YouTube, We All Tube

Following Gender roles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl_q1qPnYuE

Defying Gender Roles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcN392H2jx0

 

In our society today, the male gender role is to be athletic and physically strong. In the first of the two videos, Derek Jeter and many other men are playing baseball, following the male gender role of being athletic and strong. Masculinity and strength are on full display as Derek Jeter crushes baseballs to all fields in this highlight video. Many men strive to fulfil their gender roles as physically impressive people like Derek Jeter. In the first video, Derek Jeter’s gender role is to be athletic, fit, and good at sports.

            Oppositely, a women’s gender role in our society today is to be more of a caretaker and someone who is supposed to cook dinner for the family and watch the kids. This stereotypical gender role for women is challenged by the film “A League of Their Own”. The second video is a trailer for the film and shows women defying their gender role as caretakers and being athletes. The women challenge their female gender role in society by creating their own professional baseball league. Instead of following many modern stereotypes which involve cooking dinner and other household activities, the women in “A League of Their Own” go outside of their comfort zone and gender role by challenging the assumption that women can’t play baseball and deciding to create their own baseball league to prove people wrong. In the film, the gender role they display is one of playing sports, getting dirty, and being tough.

            Lastly, "A League of Their Own" targets women and sends the message that women can play sports and compete just like men do. The film gives the impression that women are capable of playing tough sports and getting dirty just like men are expected to do. The film demolishes gender barriers and shows how men and women are not limited to what they want to do no matter what society expects them to do. Women can be just as tough if not more tough than men in some cases, and they can compete physically just like men do. The message "A League of Their Own" sends to its audience is very compelling and persuasive, convincing the audience that all people can play sports and be active, regardless of gender. I also think the video is meant to target men as well. The video places women into one of the most highly regarded sports by men. It is often unheard of for women to play baseball. “A League of Their Own” effectively proves to men that women are capable of handling the physically demanding sports that make men “manly”. All in all, the movie does a great job of proving to men that women are capable of more than they think and that girls can compete in sports just like men do.