I was teaching my anthropology students about gender and one of the groups in the class came up with this YouTube video in Italian & English about stereotypes. I showed it to two sections of my course and in both cases I was amazed at how often students said "It's true!" Like seeing a video of stereotypes sets life aright. AHHH. There! It's gonna be alright.
But what of the exceptions among the 6.7 billion men and women on the planet? What of tomboys and men who love fashion (gay or straight)? Are they doomed to be wrong because they are not true to 'form' in the land of stereotyping? So much of what we relate to in relationships is based on stereotypical expectations about the opposite sex.
For clarity's sake, let me say that though I am a heterosexual, my interests in the opposite sex are bigger than romance and sex. Men and women have to deal with a world of interactions that come up when dealing with the opposite sex no matter what your sexual orientation (lesbian, gay, hetero, bi- or trans-) or gender identity expression (i.e., drag queens and pants-wearin' female bosses).
Finally, some footage of black folks protesting the quality of broadcasting on networks devoted to black people. Get your sh*t together BET. We ain't just protesting on the Mall any more. This video was taken outside the BET HONORS taping. The protest was led by a Maryland female pastor (shout out to my homies in Maryland where I'm from!). All this was reported in a Washington post article
The blog also points to a story featured on 60 Minutes called THE WAR ON WOMEN about rape as a norm of war, as a form of social terrorism. It is a must see. Black women are more and more the victims of all kinds of crimes and misogyny. Check out what's going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More genocide has taken place there than even Darfur.
Also if you're interested in learning more about BLOGGING there is a conference coming up in JULY called BLOGGING WHILE BROWN you should check out.
Last November NBC Nightly News did a series called African American Women: Where They Stand. It included the video linked above. In it, Irv Gotti, a hip-hop producer/director argues that some women just can't help themselves on the video set and claims no responsibility in the matter. The head of The Inc (Formerly Murder Inc.) record label, Gotti says it's hard to market female emcees because they have to be good to look at, too, and he says he asks his 15 year old daughter to confirm if the women in his "scantily-clad videos" look hot. He uses her as a litmus test!! Train 'em young in the art of misogyny and women will keep the practice going -- that's hegemony at its best. Why they don't call me on these shows as an expert?!??!! I could say I don't know, but I am starting to realize it's because they don't know I am here. Press releases, baby! I haven't gotten my own word out in that realm. That's what 2008 is about - getting on the top of the roladex.
This past week, I finished a essay about misogyny relative to the music and videos of Nas for a book to be published in 2008 by Michael Eric Dyson. This essay might be my PR in this larger conversation about hip-hop, gender stratification, and power. Wanted to share some "axioms" I came up with the generate thinking outside the box. They are ratehr obvious but they are not generalizations in the manner we mostly here about misogyny.
Here's a sample:
Years ago, I read a chapter by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a queer studies scholar, that had me question the limits of my available thinking about sexuality despite my expertise in the study of gender and the body. As a professor of hip-hop music, her writing left me with a provocative thought: What would help students interested in hip-hop question the limits of their own thinking about misogyny and its impact on women and men? Hip-hop discourse rarely steps away from cliché conversations about misogyny, so I created a list of axioms following Sedgwick's lead concerning Nas and masculinity in hip-hop. The list includes ideas most know but don't seem to consider in their analysis of hip-hop (cf. Sedgwick 1993):
Sometimes Nas [and other male artists] spends a lot of time rapping about manhood and masculinity, other times not.
Some male and female hip-hop heads, of all races and all classes, experience Nas's portrayal of masculinity as deeply embedded in a matrix of gender meanings and differences. Others do not.
Many male and female heads have their richest mental/emotional/kinetic involvement when Nas rhymes about acts they don't do, or even don't want to do ("Understandable smooth shit that murderers move with" - "The Thief's Theme" from Street's Disciple).
Sometimes Nas's performances are embedded in gendered contexts resonant with meaning, narrative, and connectedness to actual relationships in his life (e.g., brothers in hip-hop, his father, his wife, his daughter, to children); sometimes it is important that they not be (murderers, Mafia bosses); at other times, it may not occur to Nas, his audience, or his critics that they might be.
I want to get people to think about, consider, that there is little willingness in hip-hop to go to the edge of what's familiar and look beyond simply labeling songs and videos as misogynist to discover what drives not only individual misogyny, but the institutional subordination of girls and women relative to wealth (economic power), power (political power) and prestige (social status) (cf. Weber 1968).
Irv Gotti's logic escapes me but I've heard it before. Doesn't even matter what he said. What I am left with is how often men are asked questions about the misogyny in hip-hop and their answers tend to be cliché, accomodating, justified, and a rationalization at best. They have no compassion or sensitivity to the real lives affected by the subordination of women in rap videos.
“If is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it” - Upton Sinclair
This quote appeared in Al Gore's film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and it's so fitting relative to what this male directors are up to and up against.
Irv Gotti: "People with real jobs and real lives ...just want to be entertained!" You could say the same thing about when whites loved to gather around and watch black men (and in some cases women) being hanged. It was a social event and the murderous activity was also an incovenient truth back when. This is one of the things that is at the heart of the lack of intimacy, trust and generosity among the black youth and in our communities.
January 2008! Our next theme is COMMITMENT: Where Are You Stuck? For two months, I've been developing a series on how to DESIGN YOUR OWN OWNER'S MANUAL for relationships. Out of a breakdown and a breakthough, I discovered the foundation for that conversation: Exploring where you have been stuck around your commitment to be in a relationship.
For me it has been in being lonely, giving up/resigned, disliking my body image, and the clich being single. Would you be willing to face where you are stuck openly in conversation with others? Take courage, but I promise you a breakthrough like no other.
Why pay $35 for this Brooklyn event? Most people pay $35-40 for a night of speed dating. You get some nice chit-chat, maybe a number and a call. Even fewer get a date. But most get a night out at best. This is worth your time and money and you'll want to come again and again to be with people of the opposite sex in a new way.
Light snack, wine and a great sense of intimacy like you don't experience with people you've known all your life. Join us! Click the red MEETUP button to the left for more info.
Many black women I know complain about their resentment when they see black men with white women. In the Oprah clip above, Oprah suggests that black men are not available "the numbers just don't pan out". Actually a Speed Dating research study published in 2008 (Review of Economic Studies 75, 117–132) showed a strong preference among black women for same-sex romance. By contrast, men of all races do not hold the same view and are open to interracial dating. So perhaps it is not about black men but rather about what black women prefer and are waiting for. Maybe we should explore more.
The study included Columbia graduate students of white, black, Asian and Hispanic descent. It considered state and country of origin as well. Here are some key findings:
- "black women strongly prefer men of their own race, while black men do not exhibit a significant preference for black women over others" (caution: based on a small sample).
- "same-race preferences are negatively correlated with education" (in other words, the more educated you are, the more open to interracial dating)
- "Men are generally willing to date someone of another race, but women are more reluctant, especially African-American women."
- "Older subjects and more physically attractive subjects exhibit weaker same-race preferences."
- "Attractiveness may play an important role in the determination of racial preferences, especially those against Asian men.... Female Asian partners are consistently rated as less attractive, though we also find that black females receive significantly lower ratings relative to whites."
One may be left with all kinds of reactions and thoughts about these findings. Here are some questions:
What factors contribute to black women being rated as less attractive consistently? What cultural and historical factors cause us to resist interracial dating in an age where we are less likely to ever mary given that decision?
My friend Atiba turned me on to this clip from the DVD What Black Men Think that sets the record straight on the stereotypes generated by erroneous statistics about them.
The video talks about misconceptions about black men and AIDS transmission to women and stats about black men in prison vs. college. This is a must see.
I am getting so present to we think we know things but we never check our sources. I've be learning more about the world from YouTube videos like this that beg me to question what I think I know about black people, black women, black men and the world.
ORIGINALLY POSTED 11/13/07 at 10:22am.
