scholarly journals Azealia Banks's “212”: Black Female Identity and the White Gaze in Contemporary Hip-Hop

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES MCNALLY
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Black Female ◽  
The Political ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Public Rhetoric ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Black Female Identity ◽  
White Gaze

AbstractAzealia Banks's 2011 hit single “212” established her as one of hip-hop's rising stars, with critics highlighting the song's provocative lyrics and Banks's ability as an MC as standout qualities. Banks would later receive attention for her public dispute with white rapper Iggy Azalea, whom she accused of exploiting black musical culture. This article integrates an analysis of “212” with a discussion of Banks's recent public rhetoric in order to examine the ways in which Banks rearticulates the figure of the black female rapper and criticizes white fascination with black female sexuality and black cultural forms. I conclude by situating this discussion within the broader context of contemporary “post-racial” politics, in which the political elements of hip-hop and the systemic racial inequalities they address have become increasingly marginalized in favor of “color-blind” conceptions of United States society and popular culture.

City Girls, hot girls and the re-imagining of Black women in hip hop and digital spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyesha Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Gender Performance ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Digital Spaces

Through a hip hop feminist lens, how are we to interpret black girls’ and women’s self-identification in digital spaces that visibly resonate with new/remixed images? And more importantly, what happens when black female rap artists and their fan base disrupt, subvert or challenge dominant gender scripts in hip hop in order to navigate broader discourses on black female sexuality? Drawing on the work of Joan Morgan and hip hop feminist scholarship in general, this essay aims to offer a critical reading of ‘hot girl summer’. Inspired by Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s lyrics on ‘Cash Shit’, where she raps about ‘real hot girl shit’, the phrase has morphed into a larger-than-life persona not only for Megan’s rap superstar profile, but also for a number of black girls. According to Megan, a hot girl summer is ‘about women and men being unapologetically them[selves] […] having a good-ass time, hyping up their friends, doing [them]’. What does ‘hot girl summer’ tell us about significant changes in the ways that black women cultivate community in digital spaces, how they construct their identities within systems of controlling images and grapple with respectability politics? In order to address these questions with a critical lens, using an interdisciplinary approach grounded in black feminism and hip hop feminism, this essay offers a theoretical approach to a digital hip hop feminist sensibility (DHHFS). Too little has been said about black women’s representation in digital spaces where they imagine alternative gender performance, disrupt hegemonic tropes and engage in participatory culture.

“That They May All Be One”

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond S. King ◽  
Rogers M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Core Concept ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Racial Policy ◽  
Policy Arenas

This chapter sketches the main points derived from the overall structure of American racial politics and why it matters. It looks into the policy challenges that racial inequalities pose in modern America, and considers a few clues about the political guidance needed to move further toward their resolution. The chapter then elaborates this volume's core concept of rival racial policy alliances. Finally, it explains how the subsequent chapters use the idea of alliances to analyze the evolution of American racial politics historically, and the ways today's racial alliances shape and often distort decision making across a wide range of modern policy arenas.

scholarly journals Black Women's Groups, Life Narratives, and the Construction of the Self in Late Twentieth-Century Britain

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jessica White
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Female Self ◽  
Black British ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
White Gaze ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Abstract Black British women's centres and groups evolved out of black women's combined exclusion from male-dominated anti-racist activism and the resurgent feminist movement of the late 1960s. And yet, despite their stable presence in many of Britain's inner cities, black women's centres and groups, and the lives of the women who forged them, have evaded historical interrogation. This article explores how black women's centres provided women with the space and time to nurture their personal experiences of sexism and racism, achieve a sense of self-sufficiency, and celebrate their heritage, which placed every member on a path towards self-discovery. This centring of the black female self was not, as black male activists believed, set on undermining the Black liberation movement, but was considered as a vital tool in the overarching mission to defeat white global supremacy. Drawing on a collection of oral history interviews, this article explores how black female activists constructed a sense of self that turned away from the homogenizing white gaze of post-war Britain. Teasing out the complexities around black female activism, selfhood, and memory, this article contributes substantially to the growing body of literature on late twentieth-century black British history.

Prospects of the House Divided

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond S. King ◽  
Rogers M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Racial Inequalities

This chapter reflects on how Americans can achieve further progress in their long national struggle to reduce enduring material race inequalities. It first returns to the structure of American racial politics as analyzed in previous chapters, before discussing its present state. The chapter then suggests that the effects of the clash of the modern racial alliances have been debilitating on many fronts, illustrating through charts and graphs the effects of these racial alliances, and offers projections on how Americans can tackle current incarnations of racial inequalities, and why progress in that regard seems so slow. Finally, this chapter makes some recommendations for breaking out of the “stalemate” on race that Barack Obama perceived in 2008.

Masculinity Left to Be Desired

Contracultura ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Brazilian Society ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Sexual Repression

Chapter Five explores social and cultural practices that challenged traditional conventions of gender and sexuality in Brazilian society. In the late 1970s, emergent feminist and gay movements succeeded in expanding the range of leftist political debates to include discussions around gender roles, sexual desire, corporal pleasure, and other issues previously regarded as personal or private and therefore outside the realm of the political. These activists sought to link political repression to diverse forms of sexual repression such as the maintenance of male dominated gender relations, the policing of female sexuality, or the violent suppression of homosexuality. Here the author draws on the alternative press, especially the largest gay journal Lampião da Esquina. He examines here the influential work by performers who subverted gender norms, like former tropicalists Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the gender-bending troupe Dzi Croquettes, and gay icon Ney Matogrosso. The author also discusses left-wing intellectuals, including former guerillas such as Fernando Gabeira, who sought to redefine notions of masculinity during the final phase of military rule.

scholarly journals Beyoncé’s Slay Trick: The Performance of Black Camp and its Intersectional Politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 406-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Black Female ◽  
American Artist ◽  
Queer Culture ◽  
Black Queer

Abstract This article pays attention to African-American artist Beyonce Knowles and her performance of black camp. Beyonce’s stage persona and performances invite multiple ideological readings as to what pertains to her interpretation of gender, sexuality, and race. While cultural theory around the icon of Beyonce has focused on her feminist and racial politics as well as her politicization of the black female body, a queer reading applied from the perspective of camp performance will concentrate on the artist’s queer appeal and, most importantly, on her exposition of black camp, an intersection of feminist, racial and queer poetics. By examining video and live performances, the scope of this article is to underline those queer nuances inherent in Beyonce’s dramatisation of black femininity and the cultural pool she draws from for its effective staging. More specifically, since Beyonce plays with tropes and themes that are common in camp culture, her performance relies on a meta-camping effect that interacts with African-American queer culture. This article, thus, traces black queer traditions and discourses in the artist’s praxis of black camp.

scholarly journals Azealia Banks: ‘Chasing Time’, erotics, and body politics

Popular Music ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-174
Author(s):  
Kai Arne Hansen ◽  
Stan Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Body Politics ◽  
Female Subjectivity ◽  
Methods Of Analysis ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Critical Investigation ◽  
Performance Strategies

AbstractDuring the 2010s a new generation of queer hip hop artists emerged, providing an opportunity to engage with a set of politics defined by art, fashion, lyrics and music. A leading proponent of this movement was Azealia Banks, the controversial rapper, artist and actress from New York. This study instigates a critical investigation of her performance strategies in the track and video, ‘Chasing Time’ (2014), offering up various perspectives that probe into queer agency. It is suggested that techniques of sonic styling necessitate a consideration of subjectivity alongside genre and style. Employing audiovisual methods of analysis, we reflect on the relationship between gendered subjectivity and modalities of queerness as a means for demonstrating how aesthetics are staged and aligned to advanced techniques of production. It is argued that the phenomenon of eroticised agency, through hyperembodied display, is central to understanding body politics. This article opens a space for problematising issues of black female subjectivity in a genre that is traditionally relegated to the male domain.

She's Gotta Have it: The Representation of Black Female Sexuality on Film

1988 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felly Nkweto Simmonds
Keyword(s):  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Black Female
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