How today’s American Rap Music Negatively Influences
Teenagers by Promoting Misogyny
Discrimination against Women
Today’s North American Rap Music expresses many things that happen in our society. More often, rap music includes tough lyrics that portray social realities that promote awareness towards its audiences. However, some of the famous rap compositions not only inspire its listeners, but it also promotes misogyny in terms of expressing hatred towards women due to its explicit lyrics. Specifically, misogynic messages were being transformed into a composition and unfortunately, being patronized by many teenagers nowadays. Women are being exploited through rap music, which teenagers adapt eventually. Unfortunately this kind of exploitation has been accepted and continuous to be patronized in rap music culture.
Many rap music are becoming popular not only because of its beat, but because of the messages, images and even videos being promoted and electronically transmitted showing negative images of women (mysistahs.org).
These kinds of contents are being shown in many forms such as internet, television or radio. As teenagers have many ways to access these contents with minimal restrictions, they were able to adapt not only the message of this misogynic rap music, but they can also watch how women were being used to promote sex as part of the lyrics and its video. In addition, almost all of the rap music and its videos nowadays show women dancing wearing only bikinis with their sensitive body parts focused on the camera while surrounded by two or more men (mysistah.org).
This is a good example of how rap music influences teenagers nowadays as it promotes misogyny by portraying that women are sex symbols and may only be good for sexual relationship. That is why some teenagers, especially male who patronize rap music, have more sexual perception towards women. Of course, not all rap songs have misogynic theme and not all male teenagers think the same way, but big percentage in this music culture do.
Misogyny Adaptation by Teenagers
As many teenagers listen and patronize rap music with misogynic contents, there is a possibility that violent such as hatred against women can be adapted and be practiced in their real lives. Sid Kirchheimer (2003) asserts that teenagers who spend most of their time listening and watching rap music portraying violence and sex depicted in rap music’s “reel” life has a high possibility of being put into practice by teenagers. Based on his research, Kirchheimer compared teenagers between ages fourteen and eighteen based on how long these teens watch and listen such type of rap music. The results showed that teenagers who watch misogynic music video for fourteen hours or longer are more likely to have destructive behaviors. Those teens in have higher possibility of hitting their teacher, have twice the probability to get arrested as well as having multiple sexual relationships and worse, these teenagers have more probability to drink alcoholic beverages, use drugs and even acquire sexually transmitted disease (Kirchheimer, 2003).
The revelation that Kirchheimer wrote shows how simple rap music can put the teenagers to risk as they eventually listen or watches rap music that promotes misogyny. As teenagers listen to this music, they get to memorize the message contained in the lyrics. So as they grow up, they learn to realize the deeper meaning of its message, turning them into a reality by practicing what they thought to be acceptable because many people of the same age patronize the same music. It is a negative influence in terms of learning inappropriate doings from being an audience of such type of music.
Many teenagers may also have the feeling of belonging as their friends also watch and listen to misogynic rap music and as a result, the risk of negative effects spread throughout these teenagers.
Explicit Contexts towards Violence
The North American rap music nowadays, given that most of them have explicit contents, may put risks to teenagers in terms of being fully exposed to violence against women. Contents may not just merely violence, but physical violence through rap music misogyny. Hundreds of thousands teens are listening to this kind of music, which bring them to realize that they need to use violence so as they can survive or win in life’s battle.
Rhetorically thinking, imagine every teenager in the United States listens to this kind of music; it is like outnumbering the total jail population all over the country in terms of law offenders. This scenario may be very destructive to our teenagers. On the other hand, the rap music nowadays may be strength for good, but there is a large probability of teens gaining negative effects from this type of music such as learning to practice bad behavior and attitude (teenink.com).
As most of us noticed that rap music promotes sex as a form of pure pleasure, it adds negative thinking for male teenagers that sex is just part of acquiring happiness and physical pleasure, which unfortunately disgrace and violates women’s rights.
One other study that was conducted was with seven hundred fifteen-year-old teenagers whom one third of them were put on sexually explicit rap music and the other two thirds were then exposed to sex-degrading rap music lyrics. The research exposed that after these teens were exposed and asked about their sexual thoughts, alarming results showed that most of their responses were about degrading sex, based on the lyrics that they heard (teenink.com). These results are in fact, the reality that happened and continuous to happen as teenagers listen to rap music that promotes misogyny and the longer time these teens listen and expose themselves to explicit contents, the more risks in being more violent they acquire.
In addition to the results of the research, it showed that teenagers who are exposed to misogynic rap music are more likely to be four times more violent than others who are not exposed to this type of music. The violence that they can absorb from these rap music are mostly about having a rough sex to women, hatred to women.
Zettler Clay (2013) claims that the misogyny issue is larger than hip-hop and rap music. This type of music, he added, demeans women in our society in the form of many genres, especially rap music (Clay, 2013). It is true that most of the rap music always include lyric that condescending toward women. Big part of the rap music industry is promoting their albums and compositions by highlighting hatred against women as it is the cultural way rap music has been created. Since the old generation teenagers were started to patronize this type of music many years ago, it evolved to more violent, explicit and sexually contained context that unfortunately still being liked by teenagers nowadays.
Rap musicians are able to gain more teenager audiences as they are using acceptable and entertaining form of beats and videos. John McWhorter (2003) claims that rap music composers use edgy lyrics that capture teenagers’ attention making them more avid fans of this music type. The music also includes drugs, street wars, and promiscuity and physical abuses toward women after sexual intercourse (McWhorter, 2003).
Teens Becoming Sexual Aggressive
It is very common for rap music to have misogynous message that contributes to teenagers’ negative behavior and attitude against women such as being more aggressive to casual sex. Listening to misogynic rap music can be aligned to pornographic act of watching sex videos. Christy Barongan and Gordon Nagayama (1995) claim that women are often depicted as being the main subject only for the purpose of men as well as male teenager’s sexual satisfaction. Additionally, it involves violence and rape (Barongan & Nagayama, 1995).
Alarmingly, this reality shows that misogynic rap music leads to a teenage thinking that their attitude being sexually aggressive against women can be justified as it being written in a form of music. This type of music often portray rape as an enjoyable on the victim’s part, some teenagers may not realize that their sexual aggressiveness may not be good towards women, and worse may be harmful and offensive to the victim. In addition to the negative behavioral effects, teenagers may think that aggressive sexual intercourse or rape may is socially allowed and considered normal.
As a teenager grows up being exposed with rap music promoting misogyny, there is a high possibility that hatred against women may be exercised once they grow up and have their own family. That is because the attitude that they acquired during their early age may be part of their normal behavior as they get older. Barongan and Nagayama (1995) added that the negative impact of this behavior has been present on partners of battered wives who were avid fans of rap music containing misogyny along with other explicitly contented materials (Barongan & Nagayama, 1995).
Rap music containing misogynic context not only affects male teenagers. We argued that as the male teenagers listen and watch misogynic rap music, they learn to be more sexually aggressive person, which degrades women. However, this case not only promotes negative sexual habits towards male teenagers, but there are female teenagers who are also influenced by this type of music. Female teenagers who listen to misogynic rap music learns to be more liberal in terms sex and drugs, instead of being more aware how their femininity is being used as a sexual subject on most rap music. As female teens listen to their idolized rapper, they learn that being similar to their idol would make them look better and would promote their social status. Female teens would dress like women shown in misogynic rap music video, wearing no more than tiny bikinis, while being with few other men dancing nakedly. So it is not only the male teenagers who negatively being influenced by rap music promoting misogyny.
Violent Misogynic Lyrics
Numerous negative effects regarding misogynic rap music have been documented. Teenagers were being put on risks as they continuously listen to this type of music. Rap music’s beat portrays a rapper having a tough personality as if they want to tell their listeners that killing, using drugs and violent actions against women can be as normal as rapping the lyrics. This provides behavioral infestation toward teenagers because of the edgy beat and sounds.
Rap music containing violent message transformed into a lyrics is part of misogynic culture of this type of music. Ronald Weitzer and Charis Kubrin (2009) gave some examples about the lyrical content of some rap music that can be described as misogynic.
These lyrics have been heard by many teenagers and as discussed, may have negative influence while they grow older. Initially, they described some lyrics as a form of distrusting women. One example is a verse from Dr. Dre’s music expressing many reasons so as to be more suspicious of women. Description over women is also evident in the lyrics saying that they are prone to trick, exploit, betray or even destroy men. Initially, it is asserted that female teenagers lie about theirage (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009).
Imagine these types of lyrics being adapted by teenagers, more hatred actions will be thrown against women at early age. Even if there will be no physical violence that will be involved. Learning this lyrical message is harmful to a teenager’s young mind.
Secondly, this rap music also described women as standing accused of creating fake rape accusations so as to get financial settlement from men (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). If this lyrics may teach teenagers to have more guts of committing rape against women as they can accuse their rape victim to be just making a false accusations against them.
In addition, Ice Cube’s song was also given as an example as it describes women to be seeking men to be set up for assault, robbery, or murder. The song is entitled Don’t Trust ‘em (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). This song is about a man lured by a woman to her house where four men are waiting just to beat him up and then killed him after stealing his money. So as the song ended saying that the woman is just a trap (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). Ice Cube sold much album to his audience, which means he was able to spread his lyrics containing misogynic message. However, this does not mean that every teenager who buys the album will eventually be negatively influenced by rap music that promotes misogyny, but as discussed, most of them may.
As for a teenager, it is alright to listen to this kind of rap music given the opportunity that proper guidance is provided to teens as they are at risks of being mentally blocked and influenced by its messages. Or better yet, simply do not support misogynic materials such as most rap music.
References
Ayanna (n.d.). Exploitation of Women in Hip-Hop Culture. Retrieved October 15, 2013, from http://ealert.mysistahs.org/features/hiphop.htm
Barongan, C., & Nagayama, G. C. (1995). The Influence of Misogynous Rap Music on Sexual Aggression Against Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19, 195-207.
Kirchheimer, S. (2003, March 3). Does Rap Music Put Teens at Risk? Retrieved October 15, 2013, from http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20030303/does-rap-put-teens-at-risk
McWhorter, J. H. (2003, September 16). How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back. Retrieved October 15, 2013, from http://www.rense.com/general41/hip.htm
Weitzer, R., & Kubrin, C. E. (2009). Misogyny in Rap Music: a content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings. Men and Masculinities, 12(3). doi:10.1177/1097184X08327696
