Gender in hip-hop culture and self-redemption through writing were topics discussed in a Culture Re-Education Lecture Series Thursday, wrapping up Black History Month events at University of Wisconsin.
Sean Medlin, a First Wave hip-hop scholar and contributing writer at The Black Voice of UW, discussed gender representations in popular hip-hop lyrics and how they affect the public’s contemporary perception of gender.
Gender characteristics are often exaggerated in the world of hip-hop, in the form of hyper-masculinity, Medlin said. He said men are supposed to treat women as subordinates and act in a way that accentuates their masculine features. Men who fail to do so are often considered homosexual, and shamed, Medlin said.
Medlin used the example of a black football player, Odell Beckham Jr., to demonstrate his point. After people saw Beckham dancing and “looking at a teammate’s butt,” they accused him of being “gay.” Similar accusations would not be directed toward a white man, Medlin said.
“So what we see here is clearly a double standard of masculinity, right?” Medlin said. “Black men being held to an impossible standard.”
The ideas hip-hop culture advocates, Medlin said, are hurting black people’s ability to feel comfortable about themselves and their sexuality.
“Within my own life, my assumption of hip-hop has greatly perplexed, puzzled and damaged my understanding of myself as a black man,” Medlin said.
Finally, Dr. Randall Horton, a black associate professor of English at University of New Haven, shared his personal story as an undergraduate student turned homeless drug addict, international cocaine smuggler and incarcerated felon.
He read excerpts from his memoir “Hook” and recounted how writing has helped him reshape himself into a respectable intellectual.
He always lived in his own world and did not communicate with people before, but said writing helped him open up and get on the right path.
“In the process of expressing myself, I really understand … what it means to be human,” Horton said.
