In HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, author Kevin Powell
says, “We live in a society where manhood is all
about conquering and violence…. And what we don’t
realize is that ultimately that kind of manhood ultimately
kills you.” But this preoccupation with violence
is not unique to hip-hop culture. As author, teacher
and radio host Michael Dyson says, “When you think
about American society, the notion of violent masculinity
is at the heart of American identity.” From the
outlaw cowboy in American history to the hypermasculine
thug of gangster rap, violent masculinity is an enduring
symbol of American manhood itself.
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This scene from a hip-hop video shows the gun as a symbol of masculinity and power |
Such
violence has become so pervasive—not just in popular
culture forms such as music, movies and video games,
but also in military culture and sports—that many
Americans have become desensitized to it, supporting
violent culture through consumerism, even unwittingly.
“America is a very hypermasculine, hyperaggressive
nation,” filmmaker Byron Hurt says. “So
it stands to reason that a rapper like 50 Cent can be
commercially palatable in a nation that supports a culture
of violence.”
Hip-hop culture itself was born out of the devastated
South Bronx ghettoes, where thousands of residents,
mostly poor and black or Latino, were all but abandoned
by the city. Music, dance and rapping became not only
a way to respond to violence in the community, but also
to reflect what was happening within it. As many poor
neighborhoods of color became further devastated in
the 1980s and 1990s, gangster rap lyrics proliferated,
echoing the proliferation of guns, gangs and prison
culture—mentalities stemming from what Kevin Powell
refers to as a “forced environment.”
For many young men and boys, hypermasculinity is inextricable
from race and class. Anti-violence educator Jackson
Katz explains it: “If you're a young man growing
up in this culture and the culture is telling you that
being a man means being powerful… but
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50 Cent embodies the stereotype of hip-hop masculinity |
you don't have a lot of real power, one thing that you
do have access to is your body and your ability to present
yourself physically as somebody who's worthy of respect.
And I think that's one of the things that accounts for
a lot of the hypermasculine posturing by a lot of young
men of color and a lot of working class white guys as
well. Men who have more power, men who have financial
power and workplace authority and forms of abstract
power like that don't have to be as physically powerful
because they can exert their power in other ways.”
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The Public Enemy logo depicts a male figure at the center of a target |
The images of hypermasculine men of color, in hip-hop
culture and elsewhere, play into both myths and realities.
Professor and writer James Peterson uses the example
of the Public Enemy logo—a black male figure within
the target of a gun—as one way in which black
men navigate the inner city. Hypermasculine posturing
can also serve as a defense mechanism. As history professor
Jelani Cobb explains, “The reason why braggadocio
and boast is so central to the history of hip-hop is
because you’re dealing with the history of black
men in America. And there’s a whole lineage of
black men wanting to deny their own frailty. In some
ways you have to do that… like a psychic armor.”
One method of countering limited modes of masculinity
is to create more diverse ways in which young men and
boys can communicate—ways that might include,
but also go beyond, traditional notions of what it means
to “be a man.”
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Aspiring rappers at BET’s annual Spring Bling |
Author
William Pollack blames these stereotypical expectations
of what it means to be male for punishing boys that
do not conform while demanding “stoicism and silence
at an enormous emotional cost.” This either/or
scenario leaves few options for young men and boys to
act beyond stereotypes of hypermasculinity and violence.
What’s the solution? HIP-HOP: Beyond the Beats and Rhymes filmmaker Byron Hurt mentions that
getting “men to take a hard look at [them]selves”
might be one way to reach beyond the limits of stereotypical
masculinity. “We’re in this box,”
he says, “and in order to be in that box, you
have to be strong, you have to be tough, you have to
have a lot of girls, you gotta have money, you have
to be a player or a pimp, know you gotta to be in control,
you have to dominate other men, other people, you know
if you are not any of those things, then you know people
call you soft or weak or a pussy or a chump or a faggot
and nobody wants to be any of those things. So everybody
stays inside the box.” Through introspection and
an opportunity to engage in dialogue around what masculinity
means, young men and boys could find ways to move outside
of the box.
Learn about misogyny and homophobia in hip-hop »
Take a look at hip-hop lyrics and tell us what you think »
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