Bitch Bad

There was a quote that really grabbed me while reading chapter 7 in The Hip Hop Wars which talked about the sexism displayed in the hip hop community and how women are viewed saying, “As Gwendolyn Pough, a black feminist scholar who specializes in the topics of gender and hip hop, while hip hop has been a whipping boy, it’s images do affect women: ‘[M]essages in the music tell us what we should do to be desired and in some cases respected (149).’" Her words reminded me of Lupe Fiasco’s “Bitch Bad” music video which comments directly on what Pough was talking about. The song talks about how hip hop music and music videos how become a source of knowledge for children to learn how  a woman should be. He also breaks it down further by creating two types of bad bitches. The bad bitch who is a mother with a son – a women who sings along to the songs but supposedly knows better than to be the women described in rap songs. She’s the respectable bad bitch and used as the archetype for the boy when he grows older. Then there’s the bad “bad bitch” who is a young girl that grows up listening to rap and idolizing the women in the videos until she eventually adopts their style and characteristics as teen.

When the two finally meet, it becomes apparent that the two teens have varying ideas on what it means to be a bad bitch. I thought it was an interesting way to bring up the issue of how mainstream hip hop is affecting young adults but I still walked away from the video feeling like there was still another layer missing. The fact that what it meant to be a respectable woman was still being narrowly defined by another heteronormative standard - being a lady: modest, fully clothed, and strong willed. I appreciate the song for what it is trying to say, but I feel like the song only touched the surface of a much more complex issue.