Violation of women in rap music has been practiced for as
long as hip hop music originated. With its careless, attacking, f*ck you style,
hip hop finds ladies as a constant target of their pleasures or hate – and it
works! Why? Because we listen to it, and listen to it a lot. Hell, we even
praise so them enormously that such songs are always chart toppers. Since it’s
topping all charts and producing sales both online and in other markets, more
and more rappers are emerging with no talent or topic but women abuse, either
for pleasure or scorns. Most of them can’t even sing! They put on a beat and
talk through auto-tune that magically mixes their, otherwise, crappy voice, into
something that we bear listening all day – even if it’s talking stuff that’s
otherwise hard to listen or keep a shy ear to, but hey, we listen to it
anyways.
Take any song that’s from hip hop genre, and I bet there are
some lines about women; I bet, too, it is not good stuff , but the bad or even
ugly ones – actually, the more across the limit line it is, the better it’s
going to sell. Explicit songs are the norm for any rap song, if it’s not, it’s
straight out boring. There are words that I never had never heard of until I started
listening to hip hop music; words such as: hoes, b*tches, t*tties, b**ty, mother*cker,
body-worshippin’, se*y figures, words that directly and brutally impact and
attack women in general. It is so annoying because it hardly makes any sense
and yet so exposed-ly, with a steel-faced attitude, abuse women that it boils the
blood within your veins. Example; mother*ker, believe me when I say that even
writing this word, with no intention behind it and with a starred alphabet, I
feel sinned and shamed to my bones, yet it is so widely, purposelessly, used in
rap songs. Mf this, Mf that, Mf him, Mf her, but why? Do you even realize what
you are saying? It is using a word ‘mother’, which you had/have who gave you
birth and raised you, and although it’s not your mother that you're abusing, you
are abusing another mother for sure, and to which you have no right to. Same
goes for the b*tch (no offense to dogs, love them). As if all the words that defined a girl, GF,
a lady, or any female, were lost and what found back was this word, b*tch, because
clearly, rappers have no other words to use instead.
Because rap music is one of the most heard genre, and
because it’s full of such stupid, foolish, unsentimental, abusive content, it’s
clearly creating an image about women that is not so respectful, which in
extreme takes the violent form. But fear not, there are people who listen to
such music just because of their catchy beats, or to catch up with times (not
dating time, that’s not what I mean), or another additional thing in my case,
for its revengeful content – I have to say it really feels good to see their
success stories shine through their torturing background that they have been so
painfully through, but we never take the abuse seriously or let it impact our
perspective about women in general, and we also don’t anything about it either.
But lately, I started taking these hits on women more pinching-ly, these
phrases that straight out disrespected women so badly that they devalued them
right to the ground, were lately quite unacceptable for me. So came the idea of
a blog on ‘women violation’ in hip hop music which I am doing today on Women’s
day because what better an occasion can be than this for such a voice-y piece
of writing.
Just to let you guys know, I hate the ratters about women
rights and women being overpowered by men because today, our societies, at
least the evident ones, are way passed the women violation in daily lives. For
the amount that remains in the distant communities, I’d say: it is coming. Equality and equity is on its way. Women
are, undoubtedly, walking shoulders with shoulders with men, or at least will be
very soon. So can we please stop repeating this cliché? But my today’s topic is
different, it’s women violation in a modern age done by the modern people, and
even scarier is the indifference and being-okay of the folks about it – this
needs to stop! But to stop it, we have to work together, and by ‘we’ I mean the
men and women both. That is what annoys me the most: women are quiet about it
as well. They are taking it easy. They are fine with it because they have all
the luxuries and facilities that the men have, thanks to women right revolution
that is now on its peak, and because the women that the rap artists are talking
about aren’t the women in general, but aren’t they? What makes a woman ‘woman’,
makes all the women ‘woman’, there’s no denying that. So yeah, they are
disrespecting you guys; give a thought about it and let’s start another
revolution that is not clichéd and one that matters in today’s world.
Beside women’s indifference to such exposed and spread-out
discrimination towards them, their below-morale roles as women is one of the other major
reasons towards the popularity of such liked abuses. Now women are precious, more
precious than we ever could understand, let alone, treat them for. There is a quote
that says, “If women think that they are equal to men, they are stupid. They
are way more than that!” Unless our ladies don’t realize or accept this
righteous truth about them and start acting so, the men would never do! But the
problem is, our ladies are far from actualizing their worth and thus they act way, way below the line. I see ladies selling out their beauty and body-parts
for money and praise which are short-lived and a disgrace to their honors. Most
of the entertainment based videos are women half exposed and putting such looks
that invite men to think as they do now; men even believe, or subconsciously
process women as pleasure-beings. This is a shame, for us and for women; let’s
say it’s a shame on all of humans. I have always believed that for a woman or a
girl, the most precious thing is their ‘shamefacedness’ (I found this word in
Google) their ‘Haya/Izzat’ as we say in Urdu. They willingly, or under other
circumstances unwillingly, give away that, and then they are nothing but a walking
shame. They should never, ever do that, but rather use their brilliant minds
and godlike patience to fight the unfair situations and bend to alternatives;
never the selling of their pride, never! This does not only demolish their ranks in
human-standings, but create a sense of worthlessness, puppet-ness, and dawn a
disgrace on all women, and of course altering men’s perspective towards them, that’s an easy one,
that’s the first thing that happens. I am not judging all of womanhood based on
some women’s unjust acts, but I am rather targeting the mindset that’s
polluting our graceful environment of men and women working together, bound in
mutual respect.
So is it hip hop’s mistake to target women as abusively as
they do, whether it is for music pleasure or attention and their night-outs stories, or cursing their ex
girlfriends; or, women’s own disgraced acts of exposing their beauty for
manipulative reasons and having a shy ear towards the violence that rap music
is so known for? It’s both. All my arguments from above should provide enough
reasons for why these both parties are responsible and why this needs to stop,
because if it doesn’t, it is crossing unimaginable limits, limits that defines our
humanity even. On the contrary, Pop music talks graciously about women whether it’s love,
love-making or the grief that women cause (there’s also no denying that, been
through it too many times), and that should show that it’s possible to talk
about women in songs and not abuse them. Women: they exist that we do too! We, even
if we handle them in the most delicate ways that we men can, could never respect
women for what they deserve. Men were never made to be matched against women, but were made to understand the complex, beautiful, wise, patient creatures that women
are, and were made to appreciate them, respect them, study them, and love them!
Happy Women's Day, Ladies.