Hope Hilton did an interesting photography exhibit where she took pictures of women wearing graphic rap lyrics. I thought it was interesting. And disturbing.
Here are the rest: http://www.dospestaneos.com/hilton/raplyrics4.html
What do you think?
Something to chew on.
April 23, 2009 by arielvesta
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged media, misogyny | 6 Comments
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#10 particularly upsets me. when i see things like this, it reinforces my sex negativism. sex is used for violence, sex itself the act is violent, something being shoved inside you, no matter how gently you try you always have to have it fit and it sucks and i hate it.
Orkinson, what do you consider to be violence?
This bothered me. I guess it’s supposed to? I don’t know, not my cup of tea.
hi rich!
ok so this is an interesting question…i was speaking to bejai (another author of this blog) about his paper that he wrote on depictions of violence in african american literature, and he defined violence as the authors of the plays which he was studying defined violence: as the only way to interact when you don’t consider the other person a full human being. to this author (i think his name was amiri baraka), when two people dont consider each other to be real people, with complex emotions and ideas and developments, violence, loud or subtle, is the only platform upon which they can even interact. i didnt buy it, but i havent read the plays or know much about the person.
that above paragraph was perhaps a bit of a side.
anyhow, so what i think is violence is an extension of forcefulness. forcefulness of any kind, whether youre trying to force upon a door, or yelling over someone so that your point is the one that is heard, or even speaking directly using forceful words without raising your voice, represents something violent to me. of course, i do all of these things: force upon doors, yell over people in a debate/argument, speak using forceful words, etc.
when a certain threshold of forcefulness is crossed, and of course this threshold is subjective, i consider the forceful act violent.
i believe many people would disagree with me upon my threshold, which is incredibly low when it comes to physical violence, possibly because of my past of domestic and sexual abuse (as the victim, though im not sure id like to call myself that but i cant think of any other word right now). (btw this doesnt mean that people cant argue with me about how my threshold should be higher, if they believe it. im open to the idea.)
i think that acts of forcefulness, depending on why theyre committed and what their intent and impact are, are justifiable and effective. i think that probably the best way to get something across is to use a certain very low level of forcefulness, in the form of directness (not using small talk, etc.).
when forcefulness is extended to violence in the act of sex, esp vaginal sex, this is what it unacceptable to me. in my experience, vaginas are too small for erect penises, so erect penises have to force their way in. for many women, this hurts. for many women, it may not, but i havent met any that felt no pain. and for many women, it causes them some pleasure, but for me, regardless of what pleasure i gain, it still doesnt justify the entire violent entrance and rubbing back and forth and finishing and exiting and cleaning up. it is this unbearable ordeal, which i am still open to performing because of society’s ridiculous expectations of what my vagina is useful for.
i believe it is useful for nothing, atleast mine anyway. i believe that humanity is depraved, so creating life by giving birth is immoral, as you are creating more depraved beings. i believe that getting periods is ridiculous and painful and inconvenient, so when my vagina does that i get upset and wish it just wouldnt happen. and of course, i dont believe in sex, so there goes that final reason.
to me, the brain of a person is the more relevant part of them. their hearts help their brain to survive, so do other vital organs. if people value pleasure, then erectile sexual tissue, such as the clitoris in a woman, is useful. things like the vagina? it may perform some vital function that i am not aware of, but for me, it mostly just sits there, and it feels fine to have it, but doesnt feel fine to have it be abused by sex.
in particular, by men who’d say things to me like “ill fuck you till your nose bleeds” which is why that particular t-shirt had special resonance with me.
thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak at length, rich, i appreciate it.
This bothered me too, but in a different way. I couldn’t exactly put a finger on what it was at first, but i think its this: all of the women in the photos appear to be white, or light skinned (though it is hard to tell for sure). I think this creates the effect of “gangsta misogynistic rap lyrics” (associated with black *aggressive, sexualized* men) juxtaposed with *pure light-skinned* women. it seems like a new way of propagandizing the Angel in the House that needs to be protected from black/lower class men… kind of like the line of thought that was used to justify lynching, perhaps?
@sarah: I have the same issue that you have with the execution. I couldn’t put my finger on it either, but I think you’re right.
@lira/everyone: to bring this conversation to a different place for a little bit, is violence ultimately subjective on the part of the person experiencing the force or the person using the force?
I think in most situations the answer to this question is obvious, but I thinking of it as it applies to a specific context. namely, my own masochism. I mean I’m probably pretty low on the wider scale of masochism, but I am basically a person who’s excited by things that would generally be considered violent and therefore undesirable. this presents and should present a whole bunch of dilemmas for a feminist, i think but for right now I’m focusing on one of those dilemmas. That is, in order for me to act on this fetish I have to find someone who is willing and happy to be physically forceful to me. So, is it violence because that person is getting satisfaction from causing me pain? or is it not violent because im getting satisfaction from being caused pain?