Entries from August 2007 ↓

by Tracee Sioux

Rev. Al Sharpton, Baptist minister, political activist,and 2004 presidential candidate led protest marches against “gutter terms” in rap and hip hop lyrics.

According to the Washington Post article, Protests were held in more than 20 cities over the use of degrading lyrics by the music industry, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

The so-called Day of Outrage, organized by Sharpton’s National Action Network, included protests Tuesday in New York; Los Angeles; Detroit; Chicago; Houston; Richmond, Va.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and other cities.

This was a pro-girl move. If you’ve missed the cultural conversation about misogynistic violent anti-girl rap lyrics it went something like this: White radio jock Don Imus called some African American college basketball players nappy headed hos. This sparked an outrage among African Americans. It also sparked a national conversation about why rappers and hip hop artists can call women hos, bitches, sluts, etc. and not only is it okay, but they make millions of dollars?

Good Question. Oprah led the discussion last season in a serious of shows on the topic of anti-female lyrics in rap and hip hop lyrics. Guests included African American leaders the likes of Maya Angelo, Def Jam hip hop label producer Russell Simmons, rapper Common, Al Sharpton and others.

Commons took some accountability for the rap community, And we are apologizing for the disrespect that does come from the mouths of men to women.

Diane Weathers, former editor in chief of Essence magazine, said women must stop accepting this kind of behavior, “They have to know that it’s not acceptable if you keep doing this kind of music. The contract is off,” Diane said. “These guys are all really embraced by the mainstream. It has to be unacceptable.”

On BBC News , Russell Simmons said there was “growing public outrage” about the use of the terms, ho, bitch, which he said should be viewed as the same as “extreme curse words”.

He asked broadcasters and record companies to voluntarily remove, bleep or delete the words from music.

The words ‘bitch’ and ‘ho’ are utterly derogatory and disrespectful of the painful, hurtful, misogyny that, in particular, African-American women have experienced in the United States as part of the history of oppression, inequality, and suffering of women, Simmons said.

Don Imus was subsequently fired (though not for the sexism, just the racism).

In the interest of making misogynistic lyrics socially unacceptable I applaud Sharpton for staging 20 news-making, attention focusing protests against misogynistic lyrics. Obviously, the ideal and constitutional right of freedom of speech should be upheld, but women do have the power to stop paying and participating in this type of “art.”

Have you watched the BET videos and listened to the lyrics? They are far more offensive to women than those shown on VH1 or CMT. Blinged up men throwing cash right at the crotch of a barely dressed woman with her legs spread – art? Is this a true depiction of what women actually are? Is this really art reflecting life?

This is not the artistic depiction of reality so much as it is reducing girls and women to objects to be purchased, screwed, abused and then tossed away like yesterday’s garbage. These types of lyrics and videos costs our girls their souls – that’s not harmless.

Young girls believe they should be imitating art like this. I’ve asked several teenagers about how they felt about these types of lyrics they respond (while emulating pole dancing), There is nothing we can do about it. We can’t stop them from calling us hos.

Thank goodness Sharpton, Simmons and others don’t share their sense of powerlessness. I don’t support government censorship – I’m a writer, come on. But, I’m all for market and cultural boycotts by refusing to purchase the CDs, go to the concerts or watch the videos until they show some respect for women and girls.

I also support call for radio stations to bleep the anti-girl words ho, bitch, and slut as they do other “curse words” including asshole, dick and prick. Does anyone else see the gender disparity in what gets bleeped from the radio or on videos and what’s allowed?

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by Tracee Sioux

This weekend my husband and I got away without the children and we went out to a bar. Not just any bar, but bizarro bar.

Let me paint a picture, I’m wearing my hot red heals and we’re sitting in the back corner, because it was the only open table.

The table in front of us was a bachelorette party and they’ve brought a male blow up doll. We were to find out later in the evening, when they took off the doll’s Levi’s, it was an anatomically correct and very well-endowed blow up doll.

Straddling the doorway between the pool area and the live cover band area was a uniformed county Sheriff.

And all over the entire bar, amidst the smoking, drinking, anatomically correct blow up doll bachelorette partying is a 10-year-old little girl. I can only presume the woman who brought her there was her mother. The man she was with was her mother’s boyfriend, also a presumption. Several men in their party gave her special hugs that would probably have been construed as appropriate had they not been drunks in a bar, where really it looked quite inappropriate.

At one point a uniformed city cop came in. The sheriff went over to one of the ladies partying with the well hung doll and whispered in her ear. The lady then took off running with the plastic penis flapping in the wind and threw the doll on the city cop. City cop had quite a good sense of humor about it and even posed for a picture with the doll. Turns out the Sheriff wasn’t chatting with the woman about lewdness with the doll, but was enlisting her in throwing it on his fellow officer.

All this to say that perhaps the most empowering place for the 10-year-old little girl would have been at home with a really nice babysitter. I thought that was a given, but apparently someone needs to say it again.

I got a couple of pictures on the cell phone. What was I going to do, call the cops?

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By Tracee Sioux

I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out why we keep the monthly menstrual cycle a big secret from our daughters.

I’ve got nothing. Can’t think of a single developmental reason for keeping the biological fact of menstruation from my daughter.

Out of default I have attempted to be private and secretive about my period. My 5-year-old daughter, Ainsley, has questioned me numerous times about what tampons and pads are. Or why I was being so uncharacteristically private. (Like most mothers I have no real privacy whatsoever.) I’ve always responded with something super lame like I’ll tell you when you’re older. To which she responds, Like when I’m a teenager? Then I say something like, Maybe when you’re 9.

I was quite shocked when learning about my monthly period. I must have been 9 or 10. The only thing I remember was thinking along the lines of, Whose idea was that? Why? Come to think of it, those are the questions I still have.

I suppose it felt like a coming of age thing. I can’t figure out how my mother kept it quiet for so long. My daughter was tuned into the tampons and pads from the get go and I’ve been avoiding the question, waiting for the appropriate right of passage moment.

Shopping for tampons at the pharmacy my daughter wanted to know what was up.

What are those?

It’s for my period. Girls bleed every month. Down there.

Bleed? Why?

It happens so we can have babies.

Oh.

Then CVS sent me a Kotex sample.

Did anything come in the mail for me? What’s that?

It’s a pad, for when I bleed. So the blood doesn’t get on my panties.

Why did they send you that?

I guess they want me to buy this kind of pad.

So many teachable moments passed before I finally told her and it was completely without drama. I can’t figure out why I hid it from her begin with.

My advice to other mothers of young daughters? Tell them the first time they ask. Tell your sons too for that matter. The mystery doesn’t add anything to the experience. Knowledge of their own body and its biological facts can only empower girls. If it’s something a girl has always known, it’s not surprising, shocking, shameful, weird or dirty.

After the knowledge of the biological fact there’s the issue of attaching a value judgement to the monthly period. Is it a blessing or a curse? Should we celebrate with a party and go out for tea or something to mark the moment? Well, we have a few years for that. I suppose it depends on your daughter’s attitude about getting it. I wanted it desperately as a sign of womanhood, I have a feeling Ainsley will feel the same way. She’s already quizzing me about when she’ll be allowed to wear make-up (12) and date (28). Like mother, like daughter.

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Kat Von D Rocks

August 8th, 2007 — Media, Marketing and Advertising

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