Sexism in Rock, Pop and Rap Lyrics

In pop, rock and rap music sexuality is considered to be the key to man's identity or the actual core of the human being. Considering this, it is understandable that many pop icons and rapper act macho. They think they tell their listeners something about their personality through this. In mainstream rock and pop there often appears a kind of sexism that deals with feministic statements. On the other hand sexism and misogyny occur very strikingly and brutal in HipHop, for this kind of music is mainly made by men. In HipHop the language of the lower classes is used intentionally. Even and especially rappers who come from bourgeois families use this "language of the ghetto" to emphasize their authenticity.

Most often the rule: The more brutal the language the more authentic is your "ghetto flair", works.

In some sub genres of HipHop, for example "porno rap", women wre nothing more than decoration. They are usually titled "whores" or "bitches" who only want to get a man's money. Often this sexism goes hand in hand with homophobic statements.

Against these developments there appear more and more emancipatory tendencies like "Homo-Hop".

Women took part in the HipHop movement, too, and tried to break their sexistic image. This is for example Missy Elliott, who turned sexistic phrases like "bitch" into something positive ("For me a bitch is a self-confident girl") and acts very offensive. Similar to Lady Saw in the dancehall scene, who became an icon for all female dancehall fans through her "dirty talking" and by acting sexually very offensive (on the cover of her album "Striptease" she shows a plunging neckline and wide spread legs). However, HipHop is not sexistic in general. Neither are rock and pop. Most often sexism only becomes obvious in HipHop.