wow !

So After i totally botched presenting in front of class i decided to use big boy blog words to tell you guys where i am going and what i am finding with this paper.

So. originally i had though i could talk about this small box that masculinity has been put into and how it is flattening our perceptions of minorities and hip hop as a culture. I saw this perception of a man being strong, and in control and able to provide. be played out in music videos mostly at the expense of women (by protraying them solely as sex objects) and at the expense of other men by promoting violence against other men(Bitch ni**a ) and any deviation from this small box of masculinity resulted in someone being stigmatized and identified as other (soft, pussy, bitch, wuss, weak)

When you see men from the older generations of hip hop they are much softer, smoother, there was a different value system, for them, one of being smooth and swave, and could woo a woman, was self expressive, and knew how to navigate violent situations, some what more of a trickster archetype. I was wondering why I encountered a lot of dancers today who had not adopted the braggadocio form of masculinity promoted in main stream hip hop, i came to the conclusion that the dance had not been influenced by the main stream because it could not be made into a commodity and was not asked to fit to the standards being pressed into it from the dominate culture.

after examining the the effects that this limited definition of manhood has I wanted to explore what the causes are. why are we being taught these specific definitions of man ? i am finding that a lot of external factors are helping propel theses stereotypes. economic , racist , and geography . as well as some catch 22 chicken or the egg stuff with violence in the media. a lot of the landscape for young black men are very grim. founder of the jabbawokiez dance company calls the system the pushes black men into entertainment "the ghetto lotto" like everyone is just hoping their skill will get their number caller and they can leave poverty.

the third area i wanted to examine is a cultural myth that Hip Hop is a "Black" thing. that keeps white men out, it devalues anything associated with white, and one gains validity from hard times and struggle. this is something that is profitable for the record companies but not true to the values of hip hop.

my conclusion to the paper falls along the lines of: unless hip hop adopts its original mindsets the white man will not be valid in hip hop, and with out going into a slippery slope argument of what will happen if these ideals continue i argue that the problems we see in hip hop, racism and America today will continue. its a caustic system for men and women, black and white that needs to change.