This week we read a piece about the start of almost naked, beautiful women appearing in hip hop singers music videos, but I use the term beautiful loosely. In my eyes the beginning of provocative women in the videos started to redefined the term beauty in such a negative, and non realistic way which has carried through time today. In the music videos they had them barely dressed, dancing sexy, and like the singers paid side piece. In the passage it stated that because all the rappers have money and they can afford nice things like watches and because they have all that money it’s almost like they can “buy them due to their wealth” in a way implying women are items to be bought.
In the videos women appear to have their hair and makeup done, with the now developed idea of ‘perfect’ bodies. This idea of what men wanted their women to like created a worldwide idea with women in society that they had to look like that. These women all believe that they have to live up to the “perfect” ideal they’ve grown to know. Now women strive to have the perfect body, and feel the need to truly cover up there natural beauty to achieve that image. The start of using women developed many years ago but has continued to present day, and I believe to have progressed worse. It’s almost like you can’t ever escape the idea of a ‘perfect’ women they’re everywhere, whether it’s magazines, movies, and videos. This has only led to more problems in developing girls and even young women to struggle with self image and the idea of beginning perfect, yet no one seems to have a problem with it or try to change it in today’s society.
The passage did happen to touch on female hip hop stars and their opinion on the matter. Artist such as Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, Destiny’s Child, Missy Elliot, Erykah Badu, and India Arie have all tried to shape the view and image of women present in male hip hop stars in a positive way. Although many have tried to better the image created, others such as Lil Kim and Khia have, in a way, encouraged and gone along with the idea of showing their self like that. No matter what women try to do to change the image that has already been created, male and female hip hop stars, and the world, are going to continue to show women this way simply because it’s what people want.
