Critical Investigation:
“Yeah you running now, you running, I’ma put this p*ssy on you” In the video ‘Look back at me’ why are artist such as Trina represented in such a sexualized manner? And can their success be depicted without conforming to stereotypical conventions?
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Female hip hop has now become more tendentious in the sense that ideologies such as sexism and self misogyny are now integrated into the construction of contemporary texts. These artists form “a new wave of feminism” , Trina in particular uses ‘sex punanny power’ to generate mass revenue and to liberally self objectify themselves. It is now obvious that ‘male record label executives have begun to capitalize off the exploitation of black female bodies’. At present, artists such as Nicki Minaj perform degrading sexual dances in videos such as ‘Stupid Hoe’, where medium shots of her dancing like an animal in a zoo are used to reinforce ideologies of patriarchy within this male dominated society. Prior to the emergence of Nicki Minaj, artists such as Lil Kim used “Sex as a part of her arsenal to deploy when necessary definitely for money.” This is evident in her verbally explicit lyrics from ‘How many Licks’ in 2000, “Kim got your d*ck hard, startin’ fights in the yard”; how did female hip hop turn in to this? These contemporary artists have almost misconstruded their sexual appetite as a means of power; ultimately the crux is that the many influences in society have altered the representation of these females. Contrasting these artist to previous female rappers such as Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shante and Queen Latifah, it’s evident that change has occurred. “All my ladies don’t stop, keep fighting, we’re gonna’ show em’ we’re just as strong as the brothers” , famous lyrics taken from Roxanne Shante’s ‘Roxanne’s Revenge’ in 1984. It’s evident that Shante wishes to be liberally empowered through her lyrics in stark contrast to the queen of the South Khia. In 2002 she released a song with the introductory lyric: “All my ladies pop your p*ssies like this”. Both artists are inclusive - they wish to dominate their audiences with instructions. While Shante wants all her ladies to keep fighting, Khia wants all her ladies to pop p*ssy. From a postmodern perspective its clear these contemporary female artists intentionally wish to underrepresent themselves. This essay will investigate why female hip hop artists have subverted previous representations, and answer the question as to why an artist like Trina would wish to construct herself in such a sexualised manner.
In the video ‘Look Back At Me’ by Trina, it’s evident that “Hip-hop and pornography are going into business together” . Her lyrics often reinforce the fetishisation upon her in many shots of the video; this interestingly conforms to Phillip Sturgess technical language theory, he argued that technical and language based approaches are taken into consideration and are thus molded by producers in order to make a seamless sync of verbal language and technical viewing. In the beginning of the video Trina’s first lyric is “I got an a** so big like the sun” as she says this a close up shot is used to showcase her behind, not only is she pleasuring the male gaze’s as Laura Mulvey argued she is describing her assets in a degradable way, which according to Trina make her successful. "The female body is rarely a site of empowerment except when it is being objectified to define female strength through heterosexist sexiness” . Nietchez’s perspective contradicts Sturgess argument because audiences are able to create their own perception of a text, Trina believes she is successful due to her physique, many audiences possibly even black females will be disgusted by her lyrics and videos, they may think this because Trina’s lyrics lead people to believe that “black women are all no good b*tches with no morals” , they think in view of Paul Ricoeur, he argues that “Meaning depends on individual interpretation” . The male gaze interpret Trina’s videos as ‘successful’ because their needs are being appeased and her body is constructed in a aesthetically appealing way, whereas the secondary female viewing audiences are entitled to their alternative perceptions “as the concluding interpretation depends on the individual”. “Hip-hop owes its success to the ideology of woman-hating. It creates, perpetuates and reaps the rewards of objectification” Trina subverts these ideologies, one could argue she wishes to be represented as a “no good b*tch with no morals” , its becoming more evident that Trina must do these things to cause controversy between audiences and to invite male gaze.
Has society played a part in the sexualization of female hip-hop? Writer David Zlyer argued “Many women simply chose the easy way, by appealing to men’s baser instincts-in effect they cheat” . Has Trina chosen the easy way? Is she cheating? One would conclude yes, however, the clothing a woman decides to wear plays a powerful part in the perception of her entity. This sexual dominated society encourages women to dress provocatively to get what they want, “As the best-looking woman, and therefore Alpha-female, she can extract favors from the men who hope to sleep with her” . The best-looking woman in female hip hop is known as the Baddest B*tch, Trina has called herself this in many video’s, because Trina wishes to be the ‘Alpha female’ the ‘favors’ she wishes to extract could be profit from her male gaze, by her showcasing her assets which supposedly symbolize ‘success’ she will be rewarded with ‘favors’ which will help maintain her career. This could be the reason why she follows the theory of structuralism, reoccurring narrative patterns and ideologies of sex and power allow her audiences to identify with present social perceptions of women dressed provocatively, if her audiences voyeuristic needs are repeatedly being appeased they will continue to repay her with ‘favors’ (profit).
Based upon the dramatic changes in history, one could argue that a female rapper has to promote different ideologies to represent their success. In the 1980’s rappers such as Queen Latifah and MC Lyte seeked to be empowered liberally through their lyrics, in the video ‘Ladies First’ in 1989 she raps about the hidden power women possess “some think that we cant flow, stereotypes that go to go, I’m gon’ flip the scene with a little touch (of what) ladies first” . Although the video was filmed using certain angles to gracefully manipulate the power given to Queen Latifah, the language however is what she uses to represent her success; David Graddol suggested there are two models implemented in to text to convey linguistic meaning the schemtaic model argues that “Producers encode messages and directly transmit them to audiences”. This is also a form of the hypodermic model It’s the idea that Queen Latifah the producer is carrying messages which she believes will represent her as successful and because she has decided to construct this linguistic representation for her audiences they can ‘recover’ the meaning. By Queen Latifah saying she is going to ‘flip the scene’ , she could mean she is going to change the common representation of women in society. Writer Maria DiCenzo describes women as a ‘struggling minority’ ; she argues that history has contributed the misrepresentation of women, which may be the reason, why Queen Latifah wishes to ‘flip the scene’ . The twentieth century suffrage of women devalued the worth of the common women through a variety of misogynistic laws confining them to a life of grieve, one of particular importance which also covers economic values present today is that women were required to work for minimum wage until the supreme court declared this as unconstitutionally in 1923. “Women would never achieve economic independence as long as laws treated them like children in need of protection” ; the feminist movement took women to a pinnacle of independence and today they are still fighting for equal rights as Julie Hayward a victorious feminist who set the land mark for the equal pay right still fights for the barrier to be broken. We now have a clear idea of what Queen Latifah meant when she was trying to ‘flip the scene’ , because of the obstacles society has created for women it is difficult for them to be successful which is possibly why Trina juxtaposes the movement of feminism through her sexually liberal representation.
In the Video ‘Ladies first’ by Queen Latifah, she conforms to Chomsky and Hermans manipulation theory as she has manipulated the population of the mise en scene in order to make her the only strong women in the scene. A particular scene of relevance is where she is dressed in all black controlling the ‘military movement’ of women, the close up shots were used to emphasize where the movements would take place next, miniature statues of women were placed all over the table which had a map of the world. The fist statue, which possibly represented male dominance and misogyny were being pushed of the table by Queen Latifah, the female statues were placed all over the world to signify the possibly dominance women will have over society. The writer Jessica Valenti would describe Queen Latifah as a feminist as she is “working her a** of for the cause she believes” through Queen Latifah’s lyrics her audiences can decode what makes her ‘successful’, its now evident that social, political and economical factors have had a part in the sexualization of female rap.
Every woman wishes to exert dominance and power as soon as they walk in to the room, they wish to be a ‘alpha women’ , the alpha women are trendsetters and are powerful iconic women; audiences will aspire to be like them making it more likely for the audience to buy their music. Trina wants to be the sexual, liberal, self-objectified leader of the female hip-hop market, Trina’s extensive audience interest could possibly be derived by the ‘truth’ she speaks. “All women are whores” If what Dick Masterson is saying is true Trina is now the ‘Alpha whore’ and women want to aspire to become like her. Dick Masterson suggests that “women have nothing to validate their self-worth except how much a man will pay for access to their vagina” . Trina often expresses that her “loving don’t come for free’ and that a ‘n**ga gotta’ spend a lud’ of money to get this p**sy” . So in some aspects Dick Masterson is correct, because Trina is self-expressive about her sexuality her audiences know this and adore this about her, which is why she has generated such mass revenue. Her music can be described as verbal pornography due to the sexual actions she describes, if all women aspire to be an ‘alpha whore’ that means a women can only be successful if she is an ‘alpha whore’. According to the hypodermic model, Trina sets the agenda; she and other female rappers have made it almost impossible for their success to be depicted in an alternative light as they have decided to conform to these ideologies of sex, glamour and money. That is what ‘success’ means to a female rapper, to be the most attractive, wealthiest and most sexual, performer which they often perpetuate in their lyrics as being ‘Da’ baddest b*tch in the game’.
The video ‘Look Back at Me’ by Trina has various pornographic traits, in one scene Trina is sitting on a chair making a sex phone call, this is to identify with a much more contemporary audience as “phone sex is a free and more modern way to create orgasms” the shots take a particular fetish upon her legs and lips this could be because “the sensation of lips cause orgasms” according to writer Robert Rosen. Trina makes orgasmic grunts and facial expressions which are accompanied by a smile to reinforce that she sets the agenda via hypodermically, because her immoral actions are accompanied by a smile she invokes acceptance in to her audience, almost suggesting that her actions are acceptable. ‘Look back at me’ is one of many “hip hop video’s that objectify female sexuality” The close up of her lips tilt slightly to her eyes were Trina winks at the audience, the wink confirms the agenda as Trina confirms that the existing sexual equilibrium throughout the video will not be intervened by any morally conscious narrative codes (the disequilibrium). In MacKinnon's words, any form of pornography represents “sex forced on real women so that it can be sold at a profit to be forced on other real women” . In view of the video ‘Look back at me’ MacKinnon is suggesting that Trina's body is trussed and maimed and to some extent raped, she is turned into a tool to become ‘attained’ and ‘accessed’ . From 1998 – 2011, the longevity of her career and instant success of her first selling album the ‘Baddest Chick’ made her sexual antics more reoccurring. Female rappers including Trina construct themselves conforming to the self-objectification theory; the theory argues that these women represent themselves in a powerful independent way, and are sexually provocative inviting and controlling the male gaze. It is now evident that they must conform to these conventions in order to be ‘successful’; one could quite easily argue that in order to conform to this genre of music these are ideologies you must promote.
It’s not just Trina who uses her ‘p*ssy’ as a weapon, “Maybe it’s time to put this p*ssy on your side burns” “This p*ssy is a monster, don’t make it have to eat you!” “N***a did you hear, her p*ssy be crazy”. From a contemporary perspective, many female hip hop artist sensationalize their sexual appetite and behavior to entice audiences, However, their ‘success’ often represented in a sexualized way is now at the stage of regulation. Ofcom are now warning broadcasters that “material ranging from swearing to sexual content and violent and dangerous behaviour. Even the depiction of drug-taking, smoking or the imbibing of alcohol” must not be featured in programs primarily for children. Institutions such as MTV, 4Music and Kiss encourage the viewership of younger audiences. This means artist such as Trina, Lola Monroe and Rasheeda will be unable to appease these audiences due to restrictions. So to a small extent their ‘success’ will be hindered.
To conclude, Trina is constructed in a sexualized manner because her audiences expect her to do these things because they are ‘implied’, her success cannot be depicted without conforming to these conventions because her success is derived from these conventions. These female artists are conscious of their self-objectification; they know that if they appease their male gaze (their secondary audience) and appease their primary audience who are females they can expect to make profit. Trina and Lola Monroe and Rasheeda have had longevity due to the expected needs they appeased of their audiences; the genre of hip-hop is structalised upcoming female artists will need to conform in order to meet perpetuated voyeuristic needs of the present and future audiences.
Word count: 2,339
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Moving texts and music
Lola Monroe
‘They be talking’ (2011)
Blue Rose
United States
Queen Latifah
‘Ladies first’ (1989)
Ro Smith
Tommy boy records
United States
Rasheeda
‘Bossy B*tch Music’(2010)
Superstar entertainment
United States
Trina
‘Look back at me’ (2009)
M Cuttah
Slipnslide
United States
Young Money
‘Bed rock’ (2010)
Cash money entertainment
United States
The Internet
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