Furthermore, Griffin commonly sites credible studies and explores historical moments to provide context and support for her claims. One article in particular written by Griffin (1971) demonstrates her masterful use of ethos, “Rape: The All-American Crime.” This article was the first of its kind as it discusses rape from a feminist perspective and challenges common beliefs about rape. Up until this point rape and sexual violence was rarely discussed and when it was it was by a man. Griffin begins the article by explaining her credentials, describing her personal experiences with rape culture in America, and illustrating the urgency with which women and victims need to be heard.
Rape myths are at the center of the problem of how rape and sexual assault cases are looked at, and treated as in society. Rape myths vary, some excuse the rape, others try to minimize the severity of the situation, while others doubt the act even happened in the first place (Levit and Verchick, 196). Some examples of rape myths include: a victim was “asking for it,” a victim’s previous sexual history, regretful sex is not rape, a woman’s “no” means “yes,” and women lie about rape all the time. Rape myths are targeted towards women, not the rapist. Despite, rape myths being proved false by empirical evidence, they are still prevalent in society.
In rap music, rappers minimize women to “ass and tits” and “bitches and hos”. She goes on to say how black-on-black love is decreasing while black-on-black crimes are starting to increase. Rappers affect the meaning of true black love. The reason they call women names is because they don’t love themselves and are unable to love others. Rap also promotes drugs, murder, and gangs.
“Society 's posture on rape, and the manifestation of that posture in the courts, help account for the fact that so few rapes are reported” (Anonymous 247). This quote from The Rape of Mr. Smith relates to this scene because Brandon went through a terrible thing, that no person should have to go through, and he was interrogated about it and shown no compassion. “The law discriminates against rape victims in a manner which would not be tolerated by victims of any other crime” (Anonymous 246). This quote also
Peterson Dorelus Enc1101 9:30 Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru shaker was born in New York 1971; known by his stage name 2pac was an American rapper. ‘’Shakur received an education in radical politics from his mother, but he also saw some of life's hardships through her struggles with substance abuse’ ‘Tupac was like an Elvis to hip hop in my eyes. Tupac was known for his rapping, his many talents like acting, Also his beef between the East coast and the West coast. To begin, ’‘I hear Brenda's got a baby
“Gangsta Rap and American Culture” is an enlightening essay written by Michael Eric Dickerson, where he counters the claims made by political activist, Senators, and other Congressmen to censor “Gangsta Rap”. Dickerson made a highly effective, fair, and accurate argument by bringing to light several reasons on how “Gangsta Rap” could possibly represent the voice of the outspoken and oppressed people of the black community; As well as larger underlying issues plaguing society that need to be focused on before we condemn rappers and their music. Dickerson’s background and current position as a professor and minister, along with his open-minded view on the allegations paved the way for a superb rebuttal to censorship of “Gangsta Rap.” First
Novelist, Roxane Gay, in her essay “The careless Language of Sexual Violence”, voices her concerns about rape culture and how it is perpetuated in today’s society. She uses anaphora, imagery, and rhetorical questions in order to demonstrate how society “carelessly” (131) normalizes rape. In her essay, Gay uses rhetorical questions and anaphora to further stress her concerns and talk about how writers are gratuitous when talking about rape. She opens her essay using anaphora comparing “crimes” to “atrocities.
In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her arduous battle for racial equality in the brutal town of Little Rock, Arkansas in the late 1950s. When she was only twelve years old, Melba survived attempted rape by a white man. Scared and confused, Melba went home and told her family. However, they instructed her to keep quiet about the abuse because they believed getting the police involved would only make things worse. Unfortunately, thousands of sexual assaults still go unreported for a myriad of reasons, including distrust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the possibility that the abuser will not be punished, and victim blaming, a common occurrence in our society.
In her essay “hip hop’s betrayal of black women,” Jennifer McLune implies that “(h)ip-hop owes its success to the ideology of women-hating” (193). She does not agree with Kevin Powell’s article that hip-hop does not mean to “offend” black women, but instead artists are only letting out their temper throughout their music. McLune feels infuriated that many artists in hip hop (including black men) rap about their community and downgrade their own women. In the hip-hop genre, sexism is mainly used, not only by black men but also by many other race hip-hop artists. Artists assume that women-hating in their rap songs will be accepted by women, but do not realize that it is affecting all women.
Sexual assault has effected many people like Melba and is still a big problem now. Underprivileged groups are often taken advantage of and are scared to report the assaults. One example of this is that “rape appeared to be a growing problem as data collected by the FBI displayed that the rate of reported rapes began to increase dramatically in the 1960s as women entered the workforce in larger numbers. ”(Columbia). This quote shows how rapists and assaulters take advantage of groups like newly employed women.
In the space Bound lyrics of Eminem he say’s, “ Gained my trust don’t play games it will be dangerous, If you… cause If I get burnt I’ma show you what it’s like to hurt.” Yes, the Eminem lyrics and what Elonis posted online. Eminem lyrics pretty much says that If they play him or that he will hurt them It’s a threat as Elonis threatened his wife. Yes, these should be held up to the same standard No, hip hop/rap is not the only type of music that has misogynistic lyrics. There is one that is called “santeria” and is a hip hop or rap, but has misogynistic lyrics.
Along with the creation of music videos, hip-hop’s popularity has soared and changed in many ways. Men and women are depicted in distinct and vivid ways in the media – particularly music videos – that may subconsciously affect our views of the norms of today’s society. That is, catchy songs and glamorous music videos that society thinks are harmless entertainment actually shape our worldview and can cause people to accept false impressions of women (Shrum & Lee, 2012). For example, as Sarnavka (2003) posits, women are victims of violence in society, as well as victims of violence in media (as cited in Bretthauer, Zimmerman, and Banning, 2007).
Dr. Dre abused his ex-fiancé, Michel 'le, for years and didn 't receive any repercussions for decades (Blay). In 78% of Eminem 's lyrics, he raps about abusing women including his ex-wife and his own mother (Fernandez). These iconic artists show that violence against a significant other is validated and that, like them, the person committing the crime will
“Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Summary This movie was a broad discussion about hip-hop music (or more specifically gangster rap) and what kind of social issues the music not only showcases but seems to promote. The producer of this film, Byron Hunt, interviewed people involved in all aspects of the hip-hop industry, including famous rappers, to try to get to the bottom of this. Some of the most prominent issues discussed in the film were the over-sexualization of women, gun violence, and anti- homophobic attitudes. Hunt would ask those involved in the industry about why they think these themes are so prevalent.
And while that is true, the artist’s intent was not to glorify drugs, sex, and violence, but to just write songs about those topics to express what they see and give insight into what a day to day life is like growing up in their communities ("Hip-Hop and Rap Music" para 10). And although many songs were filled with negative sayings, there are many songs that contradict that statement. As previously stated, many rap artists that have written songs with positive messages. For example artists such as Public Enemy seen that they could use their platform to uplift the black community and talk about other important topics. In Public Enemy’s song “Give It Up,” the group stated “I never did represent doing dumb shit, some gangsta lying - I’d rather diss Presidents” (Public Enemy).
