Graduation Date
Winter 2000
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Other
Program
Art
Committee Chair Name
Lee Bowker
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Jennifer Eichstedt
Keywords
Art
Subject Categories
Art
Abstract
Rap music has been characterized as a significant cultural form of resistance to the oppression experienced by African-Americans in post-industrial America (Rose 1994; Martinez 1997). Much of the literature that addresses rap music is primarily based on gangsta rap or rap music otherwise created and performed by black men. Through the method of content analysis, I focus on women’s rap music—which has been largely ignored in the academic literature—to explore the meanings and identities that black women express through rap music. Additionally, the ways in which consumers of rap music assign meaning to rap music created and performed by women rappers is investigated through the use of surveys of rap music consumers. I argue that women rappers offer voices that both embody and resist the dominant ideologies in United States culture. Within sociology there exists a large body of theory explaining the ways in which groups are oppressed by virtue of social and structural constraints. This study, with its focus on agency, further extends the body of sociological literature that informs us of the ways in which folks experience oppression.
Recommended Citation
Huffstutter, Katherine J., "Women and Rap: An Exploration of Meaning and Identity" (2000). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2497.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2497