Resonance

A few weeks ago, some of you (well, at least two, anyway) expressed concern about misogyny in rap — or, more to the point, concern that critics such as myself aren’t more exercised about it. Certainly, nobody I’ve read seems to have given a second thought to the casual use of the b-word in Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” nor have questions about his attitude toward women kept the song out of numerous Top-10 lists. Maybe having such a nice girlfriend makes our Mr. Carter above suspicion.

Still, I suppose the fact that there are concerns at all is progress. After all, just a decade ago most of the music press was so blinkered in its view of gender roles in music that the fact that women could make worthwhile recordings was considered headline news. Back in the dark ages before hip-hop was even heard of, the Rolling Stones managed to demean women in all sorts of ways (think “Under My Thumb,” “Brown Sugar,” the notorious Black and Blue ad, “Miss You”) and only endured tepidly doctrinaire attacks from the feminist left. Obviously, we’ve come a long way. Baby.

On the other hand, there are also those who believe that dead horses must continuously be beaten, and to that end we can’t repeat too often that Misogyny Is Bad. Mm’kay? It’s a stupid, hateful prejudice, and deserves to be stamped out along with other forms of sexual, racial, cultural and religious intolerance.

If only the question of misogyny in rap were similarly so black-and-white. Sure, someone who believes that any use of the terms “bitch” or “ho” is by definition misogynist (unless applied to female dogs and streetwalkers) will easily find rap guilty on all charges. But such an absolutist view is more than a little foolish, as it leaves no room for satire or sarcasm, among other things.

Focus on at the way specific rap songs address women instead of merely obsessing on foul language, and it begins to become possible to draw useful distinctions. Start with the distinction between seeing a woman as sexually desirable, and seeing women only as sexual appurtenances; the latter is by definition misogynist, whereas the former is, at worst, merely rude. But what about a rap like Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” which can be taken as a statement of black pride (in his rejection of “white” notions of physical beauty), or an utter objectification of womanhood (notice he doesn’t say anything about the women’s personalities)? It could even be both, although the notion that a work of art can embody contradictory ideas is one that gives a lot of people headaches.

Or take raps that refer to women as bitches and ho’s, and look at how the the men are being portrayed. Often, they’re thugs and players, killers, dealers and thieves. Not exactly positive role models, are they? At the same time, a song populated only by hustlers and hos isn’t exactly an accurate portrait of life in the big city (unless you actually think Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a real place). Nor is it intended to be. It’s a fiction, a fantasy, a figment of somebody’s (possibly warped) imagination, and while the picture it paints may be nasty, it doesn’t necessarily mean the artist believes all people are like this.

Of course, after years of palaver about “keepin’ it real” and how rappers are really “musical documentarians,” it’s no surprise that some listeners — particularly those too young, suburban and un-read to remember the lessons implicit in such arguments as Norman Mailer’s The White Negro — can’t discern the difference between actual attitudes and a professional bad-boy stance. Whatever its status as street culture might have been, hip-hop these days is as much a business as movies or video games.

“Misogynist,” like “racist” and “fascist,” is too serious a label to be applied lightly; indeed, the ease with which they’ve been tossed around threatens to make them as meaningless as “liberal” has become in American political discourse. Questioning what’s being said and why is important, as is looking at how the underlying social content is received by its audience.

But if all you want is a simple litmus test to determine whether something is bad and should be shouted down, well, fuck off. One Tipper Gore is more than enough for this world.