How Hip Hop and Rap Music Can Affect How We Feel About Women

I decided to write this article based on a conversation I was having with a friend some time ago. Part of the conversation was how people are affected by music. In this post I decided to write about how music can affect how we feel about women. This is quite relavent since what we listen to has the power to affect our thoughts, our emotions and even our actions. With that said, it makes a lot of sense to really be careful of what we allow ourselves to take in. So that we don’t fall victim to the common misconceptions that a number of people apparently have about women.  I understand that peer pressure is powerful but how powerful it is depends on the individual. And who or whom they choose to associate with. Which brings us back to music

So now would it be wise to regularly associate with an individual or group that feel as though a woman exists solely for the purpose of pleasing males? Or who regularly refers to females in the most derogatory ways merely for the sake of making record sales? 

After all isn’t it true that an artist produces music that are really a reflection of how they feel, the things they think about and therefore see doing so as a means to earn income for themselves?

The answer is quite obvious.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that certain types of music are just another way for misogynist thinking to be advertised as something that is OK.  Now to be misogynist means to literally hate or dislike women, and often the ones doing such things claim to be heterosexual, but that being the case one would expect their lyrics to be more kinder to the ladies.  This is definitely not the case. And yet there appears to be no shortage of so called video girls. (I thought that would be a nicer term to use).

It seems that more often than not, women get the bad rap (pun fully intended) and it is often in Hip Hop and Rap especially gangsta rap that that is indeed the case.  You see a guy is considered “soft” or a coward if he doesn’t objectify or otherwise dehumanize a woman. The lyrics may be catchy, the beat very moving but what are they talking about?  Are they praising women for being a gift from God? Or,  are they talking about the two sexes living in harmony?  Is it harmless? Well honestly think about it.

Now you are probably wondering why the focus on rap and hiphop? Aren’t there sexist attitudes towards women in virtually every musical genre out there? Well yes there is sadly, but I decided to focus on hip hop and rap because these genres are the ones I am the most familiar with.

In part 2 we will go into this topic more, until then TAKE CARE. lol!