Girl power is a slogan that encourages and celebrates women's empowerment, independence, confidence and strength. The slogan's invention is credited to the US punk band Bikini Kill, who published a zine called Bikini Kill #2: Girl Power in 1991. It was then popularized in the mainstream by the British girl group Spice Girls in the mid-1990s. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the Spice Girls' usage of "girl power" was one of the defining cultural touchstones that shaped the Millennial generation, particularly during their childhood in the 1990s. The usage of the slang term is still considered relevant three decades later in the 2020s through continued feminist movements.
Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of our need as human persons for autonomy."
A video vixen is a woman who models and appears in hip hop-oriented music videos. From the 1990s to the early 2010s, the video vixen image was a staple in popular music, particularly within the genre of hip hop. First appearing in the late 1980s, when hip-hop culture began to gain popularity. It was most popular in American pop culture during the 1990s and 2000s. Video vixens are aspiring actors, singers, dancers, or professional models. Artists and vixens have been criticized for allegedly contributing to the social degradation of black women and Latinas.
Chickenhead is an American English slang term that is typically used in a derogatory manner toward women. The term mocks the motion of the head while performing oral sex on a man, but contains social characteristics and cultural relevance as well, and is frequently heard in popular hip hop music. More recent uses of the term have seen it taken back by hip hop feminists and entertainers as a symbol of sexuality and power. "Chickenhead" is also a term used in overseas sex trafficking for individuals that facilitate and monitor a person's transition into sex work.
Misogyny in rap music is defined as lyrics, videos, or other components of rap music that encourage, glorify, justify, or legitimize the objectification, exploitation, or victimization of women. It is an ideology that depicts women as objects for men to own, use, and abuse. It reduces women to expendable beings. It might include everything from innuendos to stereotypical characterizations and defamations.
Hip hop feminism is a sub-set of black feminism that centers on intersectional subject positions involving race and gender in a way that acknowledges the contradictions in being a black feminist, such as black women's enjoyment in hip hop music and culture, rather than simply focusing on the victimization of black women in hip hop culture due to interlocking systems of oppressions involving race, class, and gender.
Misogynoir is a term referring to the combined force of anti-Black racism and misogyny directed towards black women. The term was coined by black feminist writer Moya Bailey in 2008 to address misogyny directed toward black transgender and cisgender women in American visual and popular culture. The concept of misogynoir is grounded in the theory of intersectionality, which analyzes how various social identities such as race, gender, class, age, ability, and sexual orientation interrelate in systems of oppression.
Joan Morgan is a Jamaican-American author and journalist. She was born in Jamaica and raised in the South Bronx. Morgan coined the term "hip hop feminist".
A "ride-or-die chick" is a neologism originating from biker culture, referring to a woman who is willing to support her partner and their risky lifestyle despite how this might endanger or harm her. She may even take an active role as an accomplice.
Feminist activism in hip hop is a feminist movement based by hip hop artists. The activism movement involves doing work in graffiti, break dancing, and hip hop music. Hip hop has a history of being a genre that sexually objectifies and disrespects women ranging from the usage of video vixens to explicit rap lyrics. Within the subcultures of graffiti and breakdancing, sexism is more evident through the lack of representation of women participants. In a genre notorious for its sexualization of women, feminist groups and individual artists who identify as feminists have sought to change the perception and commodification of women in hip hop. This is also rooted in cultural implications of misogyny in rap music.
Moya Bailey is an African-American feminist scholar, writer, and activist. She is noted for coining the term misogynoir, which denotes what Bailey describes as the unique combination of misogyny and anti-black racism experienced by black women. Bailey is an associate professor at Northwestern University.
Ratchet is a slang term in American hip hop culture that, in its original sense, was a derogatory term used to refer to an uncouth woman, and may be a Louisianan dialect form of the word "wretched".
Raunch aesthetics is a term in feminist theory which describes the ways in which women in hip hop express their sexuality through the performance of lyrics, choreography, and staging. These aesthetics are performed by artists such as Rihanna, Beyoncé, Cardi B, Ciara, Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion and Miley Cyrus with the intention to embrace and take control over their own bodies and sexual identities through verbal and physical expression.
The Crunk Feminist Collection is a collection of essays that take on intersectionality, African-American culture, patriarchy, misogyny, anti-blackness and hip hop feminism. The essays were originally published on the blog Crunk Feminist Collective between 2010 and 2015. Edited by Brittney Cooper, Susana M. Morris and Robin M. Boylorn, three members of the Crunk Feminist Collective (CFC), the book was published in 2017 by Feminist Press.
The strong black woman schema, as defined by scholars, is an archetype of how the ideal Black woman should act. This has been characterized by three components: emotional restraint, independence, and caretaking. Strong black women must hold back their emotions to avoid appearing weak, portray themselves as strong and independent while being responsible for the problems of others, and take care of those problems as if they were their own. Stemming from stereotypes of enslaved Black women, the schema grew from the intersectional oppression Black women face from society's expectations. The notion that as women, they must uphold feminine standards, but as Black women, they must balance that with the responsibility of being emotionally and physically strong; this is also known as intersectionality.
Brittney Cooper is a tenured professor of Women and Gender Studies, author, professor, activist, and cultural critic. Cooper is Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies, and the Principal Investigator and Founding Director of the Race and Gender Equity (RAGE) Lab at Rutgers. Her areas of research and work include black women organizations, black women intellectuals, and hip-hop feminism. In 2013 and 2014, she was named to the Root.com's Root 100, an annual list of top Black influencers.
The 2019 BET Hip Hop Awards was a recognition ceremony held on TV on October 9, 2019 from the Atlanta's Cobb Energy Center. The nominations were announced on September 12, 2019.
"WAP" is a song by American rapper Cardi B, featuring fellow American rapper Megan Thee Stallion. It was written by Cardi B, Frank Rodriguez, Ayo The Producer, Megan Thee Stallion, Pardison Fontaine, KEYZBABY and Matt Allen, and released on August 7, 2020, through Atlantic as the lead single from Cardi B's upcoming second studio album. Musically, it is a hip hop song driven by heavy bass, drum beats, and a sample of Frank Ski's single "Whores in This House" (1993). With sexually explicit lyrics which made it gain popularity, the song reached the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
"Body" is a song by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who wrote the song during the COVID-19 quarantine and was inspired by her own figure during the creative process, with additional concentration on sizes of waist and breasts. It was released on November 20, 2020, by 1501 Certified Entertainment and 300 Entertainment as the third single from her debut studio album Good News (2020). It coincided with the release of the album and was supported by a music video featuring cameo appearances from Taraji P. Henson, Blac Chyna, and Jordyn Woods, among others.
Feminismportal