Blog Post

Mindy Lara

Professor Santos

March 20^th, 2015

Blog Post

In class this week we had class discussions about the readings, "Oppositional Consciousness Within an Oppositional Realm: The Case of Feminism and Womanism in Rap and Hip Hop, 1976-2004" and "On the Real: Agency, Abuse, and Sexualized Violence in Rihanna’s "Russian Roulette"". The first reading focused more on Hip-hop and rap. It stated about how it got started and gave examples of music videos of women rappers and some male as well. I learned that even back in the day there weren't many female rappers because they were always in the shadows while the guys did most of the rapping themselves. Like today we don't have many female rappers as well and I feel like nothing has changed. There are still many male rappers today. Artist like Nicki Minaj make me feel like music today is kind of a joke compared to what the kind of examples the reading gives with the different music videos. For example the ones we watched in class were from female rappers back in the day but in their lyrics and videos they were empowering women and talking about real situations unlike the music videos of today where it’s more sexual for the money and the popularity which is really sad.

In the discussion today about the song and video of the song “Russian Roulette” by artist Rihanna we see how that was a dark video because of the meaning behind it. During the presentation they explained the meaning behind the song cover. I never realized in that moment that cover was even a representation of the night of her fight with Chris Brown. I feel like even though Rihanna does music video at times that has people believing she a bad girl and a tough one, this one clearly shows how she was in a very dark place. I loved the discussion this lead to in class because it’s not a conversation women can just have anywhere. It was about not feeling safe in places we are supposed to basically. When things were cleared between Rihanna and Chris Brown she stated she was thinking about going back to him but because of her fans, she stated she did not want anyone to think it is alright to go back to your abuser because women are much better than that and didn’t want any of her fans to get hurt badly or killed because they wanted to follow her footsteps. I thought this was very brave of Rihanna and even though she stated she did it for her fans I feel like she did it for herself as well which is what every women should feel when they let themselves get away from a man that doesn’t treat them with respect.

Many in class were brave enough today to share how they felt just doing everyday things and not feeling safe enough at times because of the way society has made everyone believe that every bad thing that may happen to a women caused by a man is the women’s fault. It’s so terrible that women can’t even feel safe because when something does happen they won’t get heard the way they should. I have lived in very dangerous neighborhoods in past years and even now, the one thing I can remember that happens frequently is when guys whistle to girls when we are walking down the street calling us as if we are dogs which really upsets me because I feel like that is just disrespectful. Men also like to say, “Hey sexy, you look hot today”,  I don’t say anything and just mind my business because I don’t like the way I am being talked to they go ahead and say, “Alright then keep walking bitch, you ugly anyway.” I don’t understand why they feel like it’s acceptable to talk to a women the way they do.

Have you ever had any similar experiences?