The film is not there to attack the hip-hop heads. The film is to make
everyone aware of what is going on. Feminists have been doing so since day
one. The interesting thing about Hurt is that he doesn't coin the term
feminist. Nor does he give feminists (especially black feminist thought) the
credit it deserves for the ideas he uses in film... and for good reason.
Feminism has been given a bad rap. The moment you say the word people back
off. So before you go judging, this is a feminist film in a man's
perspective, in a non-feminist lecturing way. He also does not attack the
individual, in fact, I would say he victimizes the individual rapper by
situating him in the reality of white supremacist capitalist society. It
sounds weird, but I'll describe more later.
This film was, how I would describe written, filmed and produced perfectly.
The issues Beyond Beats and Breaks acknowledges are Masculinity, Misogyny
& Homophobia and Media Literacy.
Masculinity may sound like a good thing to a man. I mean it is the
traditional notion to teach a boy to "be a man." However, when
hypermasculinity go hand in hand with violence, it creates societal and
systemic problems seen in our schools, communities and neighbourhoods today.
He suggests that one way of counteracting hypermasculinity is develop other
ways and notions of "being a man" and by doing so we have to step away from
this one-dimensional way of seeing things, and in this case, "we" means hip
hop.
At the BET's annual spring fling in Daytona, Florida, Hurt interviews
aspiring rappers. Each and every one of them he encounters rapped about
rape, guns, violence, while dominating other men by demeaning and feminizing
them.
Another young man, licks his lips at the women in Daytona, in hopes of
getting some "bitches and hoes" and explains that women who dress like the
women in music videos are not considered sisters but considered a bitch or a
ho. Hurt calls the women over dressed in bikinis and asked if they
considered themselves as a bitch or a ho. They replied that they are not.
When asked about the music videos and how they feel about it, they replied
that the music videos are simply not talking about them.
This part is my favourite part. Brace yourself.
Hurt illustrates a hypothetical picture: George Bush doing a speech in front
of a nation and calls a group of black men niggers. He asks, would black
people respond "oh they're not talking about me"?
He makes a valid point. A very valid point.
What about homoeroticism in hip hop?
Interviewing three drag queens, they reveal how homoerotic the homophobic
hip hop culture really is. A queen explains, when LL Cool J licks his lips
or 50 Cent and Ja Rule pose half naked, greased up and muscular in music
videos, magazines and album covers, women are not the only ones looking at
that. Now there's a thought.
Theorizing Hip Hop Feminisms continued...
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