Yes, Women Are Things

I saw 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. video in a lecture and almost threw up a little. There are a lot of issues in the music and film and whatever-industry, re-creating and re-inventing every kind of injustice and discrimination you can think of, and I think that’s bad. Therefore, 50 cent’s video is more than worthy a place in the bad-blog. We might be in the land of far, far away from some kind of gender equality… but we are trying, and this kind of stuff could be undermining it, by taking the progress back a century… or two.

The story in the video is quite simply 50 Cent trying to prove himself a worthy pimp. Keeping and treating women like whores, like investments to get rich. Objects for pleasure, money and power. Objects to show male status. This video actually contains a girl with a dollar sign dangling in front of her genitals, being walked around in a leash. Excuse me while I go vomit some more…

I see what they’re doing. They’re expressing male hegemony. Celebrating their position in the hierarchy or even forcefully claiming it. Maybe they have to claim it by force because the male position of power is not as much of a given as it used to be.

I know absolutely nothing about 50 Cent, his music in general or what kind of context he comes from. This kind of genre mostly originates in protest against marginalization because of ethnicity and class though, right? And here it is marginalizing the female part of the population by demeaning and sexualizing it. It only makes sense if the logic is that you have to kick down in order to get up, and that logic is crap.

So, my initial response was stop showing this! Throw it away or destroy it. Ban it, even. But I came to my senses quickly. Besides actually liking our freedom of speech, I don’t believe in censuring stuff, because whatever is behind it will stay there. It won’t go away just because we try to hide it. And that which is hidden is potentially more powerful and more likely to stay static. Thus, it’s better to keep things, whatever they may be, in the light.

It’s still bad.

The P.I.M.P. music video (notice how it seems to be okay to glorify the act of selling women to get rich, but they can’t say ‘motherfucking’ or ‘bitch’. It’s kind of funny)

"P.I.M.P. (G-Unit Remix)"(feat. Snoop Dogg, G-Unit) Lyrics

Article about rap and sexism from hiphopgalaxy.com