Hip-Hop Feminism, Identity, and Education: Educational Challenges of the Strong, Classy, Carefree, and Ratchet Black Girls

• In Event: 35.077 - MTCC Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.077-9 - "Laila's Wisdom": Exploring Black Girl Literacies and Youth Civic Development

Abstract

Previous research has shown that Hip Hop and popular culture have been a significant force in the negotiation of the racial and gender identities of Black youth (Love, 2012). Researchers such as Dimitriadis (2001), Clay (2003), and Love (2012) have shown that Hip Hop provides Black youth with the space to interpret and construct notions of Blackness, gender, and community as youth are consistently exposed to conflicting images surrounding their identities. The casting of Black women in Hip Hop has been extensively critiqued for their sexually explicit representation of Black women leading to the normalization of Black women as sexual temptresses within hip-hip and dominant culture. Not only are Black women represented in a sexualized role, images of Black girls as loud, classy, and carefree are also prevalent within the images in Hip Hop, providing an array of identities for Black women/girls to interpret and construct. However, within popular culture, negative images of Black woman/girlhood are often presented as the dominant images and thus, Black women/girls are consistently having their bodies and attitudes policed within their work and school environment.

Author

• Ashley Payne, Missouri State University