Dei-Sharpe, Jamilah (2019) Rap and Modern Love: The Expression of Intimate Masculinity in Mainstream Rap. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
Preview |
Text (application/pdf)
1MBDei-Sharpe_MA_S2019.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Spectrum Terms of Access. |
Abstract
To enliven inquiry into the intimate lives of black men I conducted a qualitative, thematic analysis of the non-hypermasculine expressions of black men toward women in mainstream rap songs. The hypermasculine black man, often construed as hypersexual, aggressive, violent and misogynistic, fuels the multibillion-dollar hip-hop industry (Boyd 2002, 2004; Jeffries 2011), leading some scholars to disparage hip-hop for demeaning black men and inciting youth deviance (Forman 2013; Malton 2010). Informed by a critical reading of Hip-Hop Studies, the Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities (CSMM) and Modern Love Studies, I argue that the association of black men with hypermasculinity has its roots in longstanding race and gender prejudices (hooks 1992, 2004; Wallace 1978). In addition, I argue that this prejudice is actively – albeit inadvertently - maintained in the CSMM, much of which employs Raewyn Connell’s (1987, 1995, 2005) hegemonic masculinity theory (HMT) and which represents black men as inherently marginalized as they strive to attain the social status of powerful white men. To broaden the scope of these representations, I conducted a thematic analysis of mainstream rap songs (N=22) by black male rappers to explore the question: How do black male rap artists use non-hypermasculine expressive strategies to articulate their relationships with women? The directed and derived analysis results show that 60% of the songs displayed non-hypermasculine expressions including, admiration, heartbreak, infatuation, love, suicidal ideations and vulnerabilities. Considering my findings, I coined the concept of Intimate Masculinity that I argue, can serve as a working framework to investigate and signify the emotional diversity of black men.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Sociology and Anthropology |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Dei-Sharpe, Jamilah |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | Sociology |
| Date: | March 2019 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Lafrance, Marc |
| Keywords: | rap music, black masculinity, hypermasculinity, intimate masculinity, heterosexual relationships |
| ID Code: | 985160 |
| Deposited By: | Jamilah Dei-Sharpe |
| Deposited On: | 17 Jun 2019 18:38 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Jun 2019 18:38 |
References:
Alexander, M. 2011. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NYC: The New York PressAsante, M.K. 2008. “The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop: New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Anderson, E. 2012. Inclusive Masculinity Theory. In Inclusive Masculinity: The Changing Nature of Masculinities. London: Routledge
Avant-Miler, Roberto and Bell, Jamel 2009. “What’s Love Got to Do With It? Analyzing the Discourse of Hip Hop Love Through Rap Balladry, 1987-2007.” Women and Language 32(2):1-9.
Alison, Rachel and Barbara Risman. 2013. “A Double Standard for “Hooking-Up”: How Far Have We Come Toward Gender Equality?” Journal of Social Science Research 42(5):1-16.
Avery, Lanice., Dilara Uskup, Lolita Moss and Monique Ward. 2017. “Tuning Gender: Representations of Femininity and Masculinity in Popular Music by Black Artists.” Journal of Black Psychology, 43(2):159-191.
Bradley, Regina. 2016. “Re-Imaging Slavery in the Hip-Hop Imagination.” South: A Scholarly Journal 49(1): 1-22.
Boyd, Todd. 2004. The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip-Hop. New York University Press. Pp.1-169.
Boyd, Todd. 2004. “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self: The Death of Political Rap Music and Popular Culture.” In That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, edited by Mark Anthony Neal and Murray Forman. New York: Routledge.
Bryant, Jerry H. 2003. Born in a Mighty Land: The Violent Man in African Folklore and Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2003. Liquid Love: On the Fragility of Human Bonds. Maiden, MA: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Beaumont, Caitriona. 2017. “What Do Women Want? Housewives Associations Activism and Changing Representations of Women in the 1950s.” Women’s’ History Review 26(1):1-19.
Berhanu, Jonathan., Keon M McGuire, Charles H. F. Davis III and Shaun R. Harper. 2014. “In Search of Progressive Black Masculinities: Critical Self-Reflections on Gender Identity Development Among Black Undergraduate Men.” Men and Masculinities 17(3):1-25.
Brannon, R. 1976. The Male Sex Role: Our Culture’s Blueprint of Manhood and What It’s Done for Us Lately. In D.S David and R. Brannon (Eds.). The Forty-Nine Percent Majority: The Male Sex Role MA: Addington-Wesley
Bryant, Yaphet. 2008. “Relationship Between Exposure to Rap Music Videos and Attitudes Toward Relationships Among African-American Youth” Journal of Black Psychology 34(3):356-380.
Bonnett, Alastair. 1998. “Who was white? The Disappearance of Non-European White Identities and the Formation of European Racial Whiteness.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 21(6):1-27.
Brod. H. 1987. “The Case for Men’s Studies.” In H. Brod (Ed.). The Making of Masculinities: The New Men’s Studies. London: Allen and Unwin.
Bryant, Yaphet. 2008. “Relationship Between Exposure to Rap Music Videos and Attitudes Toward Relationships Among African-American Youth” Journal of Black Psychology 34(3):356-380.
Carrigan, T, B Connell and J Lee. 1985. “Towards a New Sociology of Masculinity.” Theory and Society 14(5):551-604.
Carstensen, Laura and Marilyn Yalom. 2004. “Chapter one: Marriage Changes.” Inside the American Couple pp.1-22.
Chaney, Cassandra. 2009. “Boys to Men: How Perceptions of Manhood Influence, the Romantic Partnerships of Black men.” The Western Journal of Black Studies 33(2):1-15.
Chaney, Cassandra and Krista D. Mincey. 2014. “Typologies of Black Male Sensitivity in R&B and Hip-Hop.” Journal of Hip-Hop Studies 1(1):1-37
Chauncey, Shelly and Donald Tibbs. 2016. “Slavery to Hip-Hop: Punishing Black Speech and What’s Unconstitutional about Prosecuting Young Black Men Through Art.” Washington Journal of Law and Policy 52(1):1-33.
Choo, Hae Y., and Myra M. Ferree. 2010. “Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research: A Critical Analysis of Inclusions, Interactions, and Institutions in the Study of Inequalities.” Sociological Theory 28(2):1-21.
Collins, P. H. 2004. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. Routledge.
Collins, Patricia H. 2006. “New Commodities, New Consumers: Selling Blackness in a Global Marketplace.” Ethnicities 6(3):297-317.
Collins, Patricia H. 2015. “Intersectionality’s Definitional Dilemmas.” Annual Review of Sociology 41(1):1-23.
Connell, R.W. 1987. Hegemonic Masculinity and Emphasized Femininity. In Gender and Power. London: Allen and Unwin.
Connell, R.W. 1995. The Social Organization of Masculinity. In Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity.
Connell, R.W and James W., Messerschmidt. 2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender and Society 19(6):1-32.
Craig, Richard. 2016. “I Know What Them Girls Like: A Rhetorical Analysis of Thug Appeal in Rap Lyrics.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 40(1):1-21.
Crystal Belle. 2014. “From Jay-Z to Dead Prez: Examining Representations of Black Masculinity in Mainstream Versus underground hip-hop music.” Journal of Black Studies 45(4):1-14.
Daws, Laura B. 2007. “The College Dropout: A Narrative Critique of the Music of Kanye West.” Florida Communication Journal 35(2):1-11.
Davis, Angela. 1981. Women, Race and Class. New York, US: Random House (p.1-166).
Eaton, Asia and Suzanna Rose. 2011. “Has Dating Become More Egalitarian? A 35 Year Review Using.” Sex Roles 64(1):1-21.
Ehrhardt, Anke and David Wyatt Seal. 2003. “Masculinity and Urban Men: Perceived Scripts for Courtship, Romantic, and Sexual Interactions with Women.” Culture, Health and Sexuality 5(4):1-26.
Ferguson, Ann and Anna G, Jonasdottir. 2014. Love: A Question for Feminism in the Twenty-First Century. (Pp. 1-292). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.
Forman, Murray. 2013. “Hood Work: Hip-Hop, Youth Advocacy and Model Citizenry.” Journal of Communication, Culture and Critique 6(2):1-14.
Fox, Bonnie. 2015. “Feminism on Family Sociology: Interpreting Trends in Family Life” Canadian Sociological Association 1-9.
Giddens, Anthony. 1992. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. (p.213). Cambridge, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, Print.
Goldberg, Milton. 1941. “A Qualification of the Marginal Man Theory.” American Sociological Review 6(1):1-8.
Goodall, Nataki. 1994. “Depend on Myself: T.L.C and the Evolution of Black Female Rap.” The Journal of Negro History 79(1):1-11.
Graham, Natalie. 2016. “Cracks in the Concrete: Policing Lil Wayne’s Masculinity and the Feminizing Metaphor” The Journal of Popular Culture 49(4):799-817.
Hamdi, Hanna and Yasser Payne. 2009. “Street Love: How Street Life Oriented U.S Born African Men Frame Giving Back to One Another and the Local Community.” Journal of Urban Revolution 41(1):1-19.
Heitzeg, Nancy. 2015. “Whiteness, Criminality and the Double Standards of Deviance and Social Control.” Contemporary Justice Review 18(2): 1-19.
Helman, Caroline and Lisa Wade. 2010. “Hook-Up Culture: Setting a New Research Agenda.” Journal of Sex Research and Social Policy 7(1):1-11.
Herd, Denise. 2015. “Conflicting Paradigms on Gender and Sexuality in Rap Music: A Systematic Review.” Sexuality and Culture 19(Herd 2015:1):1-14.
Hewitt, Nancy. 2012. “Feminist Frequencies: Regenerating the Wave Metaphor.” Feminist Studies 38(2): 1-22.
Hill, S. A. (2012). The evolution of families and marriages. In Contemporary Family Perspectives: Families: A social class perspective (pp. 1-28). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781483349374.n1
hooks, Bell. 1992. Black Looks Race and Representation. Edited by Gloria Watkins. New York, NY: Routledge.
hooks, Bell. 2004. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. Edited by Gloria Watkins. New York, NY: Routledge.
Illouz, Eva. 2012. Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Jhally, S., Killoy, A., Bartone, J. 2007. Media Education Foundation. Dreamworlds 3: Desire, sex & power in music video. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.
Jacobson, Ginger. 2015. “Racial Formation Theory and Systemic Racism in Hip-Hop Fans Perceptions” Sociological Forum 30(3):832-851.
Jamison, DeReef. 2006.“The Relationship Between African Self-Consciousness Cultural Misorientation, Hypermasculinity, and Rap Music Preference” Journal of African-American Studies 9(4):45-60.
Jeffries, M. P. 2011. Thug life: Race, gender, and the meaning of hip-hop. University of Chicago. Pp.1-263.
Jenkins, Toby. 2006. “Mr. Nigger: The Challenges of Educating Black Males Within American Society.” Journal of Black Studies 37(1):1-29.
Johnson-Baker, Kimberly., Christine Markham, Elizabeth aumler, Honora Swain and Susan Emery. 2015. “Rap Music Use, Perceived Peer Behaviour and Sexual Initiation Among Ethnic Minority Youth.” Journal for Adolescent Health and Medicine 58(1):1-6.
Kelly, Conner. 2012. “Sexism in Practise: Feminist Ethics Evaluating the Hookup Culture.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 28(2):1-23.
Kimmel, M and Messner M. 2013. Men as Gendered Beings. In M. Kimmel and M. Messner (Eds), Men’s Lives. New York: Pearson.
Kistler, Michelle E., and Moon J Lee. 2001. “Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students?” Mass Communication and Society 13(1):1-21.
Kitwana, Bakari. 2004. “The State of the Hip-Hop Generation: How Hip-Hop’s Cultural Movement is Evolving into Political Power.” Sage: Diogenes 51(3):1-5
Kitwana, B. 2006. Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and Mather 42: The New Reality of Race in America. Basic Civitas Books. Pp.1-223.
Kooyan, Leslie. Amy Zavadil and Gloria Pierce. 2011. “Hooking Up and Identity Development of Female College Students.” AdultSpan Journal 10(1):1-11.
Lafrance, Marc., Lori Burns and Alyssa Woods. 2017. “Doing Hip-Hop Masculinity Differently: Exploring Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak through Word, Sound and Image”. In S. Hawkins (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Gender (pp.283-299). New York, NY: Routledge.
Lafrance, Marc., and Lori Burns. 2017. “Finding Love in Hopeless Places: Complex Relationality and Impossible Heterosexuality in Popular Music Videos by Pink and Rihanna” Journal of the Society for Music Theory 23(2): 1-17.
Lafrance, Marc., Casey Scheilbling, Lori Burns and Jean Durr 2017. “Race, Gender and the Billboard Top 40 Charts Between 1997 and 2007.” Popular Music and Society 34(5):1-15.
Lafrance, Marc., Deslauriers, J-M., and Tremblay, G. 2019a. Mieux Comprendre Les Masculinities Oubliees. In J-M. Deslauriers, M. Lafrance and G. Tremblay (Eds.), Les Realities Masculinities Oubliees. Quebec: Laval University Press.
Lafrance, Marc., Stergiou-Kita, M., Pritlove, C., and Power, N. 2019. Survoi Critique des Approches Theoriques des Hommes et des Masculinities dans le Contexte de Travail a Risque Eleve. In J-M. Deslauriers, M. Lafrance and G. Tremblay (Eds.), Les Realities Masculinities Oubliees. Quebec: Laval University Press.
Lasch, Christopher. 1984. The Minimal Self: Psychic Survival in Troubled Times (p.318). W. W. Norton & Company.
Lemelle, Anthony. 2013. Black Masculinity and Sexual Politics. New York: Routledge.
Malton, Jordanna. 2010. “Creating Public Fictions: The Black Man as Producer and Consumer.” The Black Scholar Journal 40(3): 1-7.
Marcen, Miriam. 2015. “Divorce and the Birth Control Pill in the U.S.” Journal of Feminist Economics 21(4):1-25.
Marx, K., Engels, F., Engels, F., Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1987). Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844. Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus Books.
Meyers, E. 2009. ‘“Can You Handle My Truth?”: Authenticity and the Celebrity Star Image”. Journal of Popular Culture, 42(5): 890–907.
Moody, Mia. 2011. “A Rhetorical Analysis of the Meaning of the Independent Women in the Lyrics and Videos of Male and Female Rappers.” American Communication Journal 13(1):1-16.
Moras, Amanda and Guillermo Rebello-Gill. 2012. “Black Women and Black Men in Hip Hop Music: Misogyny, Violence and the Negotiation of White-owned Space” Journal of Popular Culture 45(1):118-132.
Morrison, Tony. 1992. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pp.1-91.
Munoz-Laboy, Miguel., Hannah Weinstein and Richard Parker. 2007. “The Hip-Hop Club Scene: Gender, Grinding and Sex.” Culture, Health and Sexuality, 5(6):615-628.
Nelson, George. 1957. “Hip-Hop America.” New York, NY: Penguin.
Nielson, Erik. 2010. “Can’t C Me” Journal of Black Studies 40(6):1254-1274.
Nyawalo, Mich. 2013. “From Badman to Gangsta: Double Consciousness and Authenticity from African-American Folklore to Hip-Hip.” Popular Music and Society 36(4):1-17.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.
Pinn, Anthony. 1996. “Gettin Grown: Notes on Gangsta Rap Music and Notions of Manhood.” Journal of African-American Men 2(1):61-73.
Powell, Vonda. 2011. “A Social Identity Framework of American Hip-Hop Culture.” Journal of Social Identities 17(4): 1-18.
Price, Jr., Robert J. 2005. “Hegemony, Hope and The Harlem Renaissance: Taking Hip-Hop Culture Seriously.” Convergence 38(2):1-10.
Randolph, Antonia. 2006. “Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful: Black Masculinity and Alternative Embodiment in Rap Music.” Race, Gender and Class 13(¾):1-17.
Randolph, Antonia., Holly Swan and Kristin Denise Rowe. 2017. “That Shit Aint Gangsta: Symbolic Boundary Making in an Online Urban Gossip Community.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 00(0):1-31.
Regenerus, Mark. 2017. Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage and Monogamy. (p 262). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Rose, Tricia. 2008. The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip-Hop and Why it Matters.
Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Nice: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America.
Sajnani, Damon. 2014. “Rapping in the Light: American Africanism and Rap Minstrelsy.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society 16(3-4): 1-27.
Saucier, Khalil P., and Tyron P. Woods. 2014. “Hip-Hop Studies in Black.” The Journal of Popular Music Studies 26(2-3): 1-27.
Schrock, D and Schwalbe, M. 2009. “Men, Masculinity and Manhood Acts.” Annual Review of Sociology 35(1):277-295.
Sernoe, Jim. 2005. “‘Now We’re on the Top, Top of the Pops’: The Performance of Non-Mainstream Music on Billboard’s Albums Charts, 1981–2001.” Popular Music and Society 28(1): 639–62. Print
Smedley, Audrey. 2007. Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press.
Smith, Earl and Angela Hattery. 2010. “African-American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex.” The Western Journal of Black Studies 34(4):1-13.
Stratton, Jon. 2015. Chapter 22: Popular Music, Race and Identity. Sade Handbook of Popular Music: Popular Music, Race and Identity. Ottawa: Sage Publications Inc.
Swidler, Ann. 2001. Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. (p.301). Chicago, US: The University of Chicago Press.
Tracy, Dale and Kris Singh. 2015. “Assuming Niceness: Private and Public Relationships in Drake’s Nothing Was the Same.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 34(1):1-20.
Vaccaro, C.A. 2011. “Male Bodies in Manhood Acts: The Role of Body-Talk and Embodied Practise in Signifying Culturally Dominant Notions of Manhood.” Sociology Compass 5(1):65-76.
Wallace, Michele. 1978. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. 2015 edition, edited by Jamilah Lemieux. Brooklyn, NY: Verso.
Weigel, Moira. 2016. Labour of Love: The Invention of Dating. (p.306). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Westhoff, B. 2011. Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop. Chicago Review Press. Pp.1-322.
Whetmore, Elizabeth. 2013. “The Dynamics of Marriage Law and Custom in the United States.” Integral Review 9(1):1-35.
White, M. 2011. From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, rap, and the performance of masculinity. University of Illinois Press. Pp.1-166.
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.
Repository Staff Only: item control page
Download Statistics
Download Statistics