due to don imus' recent actions, there has been a new found light shed on the hip-hop culture and its role in the negative portrayal of women. some artists are holding the position of "freedom of speech", while many activists are calling for a change within the music industry. i just wanted to know what you all think? do any of you feel like hip-hop plays a role in the negative portrayal of women? do you think that the artists' use of ableist language has an effect on its daily use? and what do you think can be done? some music executives feel like any hip-hop artist demeans women should lose their contract. some parents are calling for an immediate ban of such music. is this too drastic??? will this provoke change? or are we placing too much blame on the industry and not enough on society as a whole???
what do you think?

It's not hip hop in general. There is some really amazing inspirational pro woman hip hop. You could just as easily blame any other genre of music literature etc. It's a sickness in society that is manifested in the art of lots of different genres.

blaming hip hop for ones own actions is bullshit. I agree that the way SOME hip hop (like C said) portrays women negatively, but so does a lot of pop, a lot of rock (a lotttt of rock), but hip hop is the only one singled out, why? racism, because turn it back on the black folk that they put themselves there. It's BS.
Plus the big deal with Imus isn't that he used the word ho, it's that he used the word NAPPY HEADED, which as far as I know, even the most women hating hip hoppers won't do, because it's racist and it's mean and useless.

There is SO much positive hip hop, most of the hip hop I listen to is out of Minneapolis and all of it's amazing ... I've been to festivals and all of it has been positive ... not negative.
Any music can be very negative towards women, which is sad. But I don't think blaming hip hop will solve anything ... it's sad how people resort to blaming other outlets, instead of just the ignorant person.

Yeah, I agree that it is not just hip hop by any means. If we want to start banning pop culture things because they are anti women, there are plenty of video games, books, tv shows, movies, and other genres of music that come to mind. While obviously there is a lot of anti women hip hop and I don't think that is okay, it is not the only thing that we should be focusing on and I'm sure it does have to do with race. And yeah naivete I think a lot of the crap he is getting is because what he said was not only rude and anti woman but racist. But another thing that I keep thinking about, would he have ever said those things about a mens basketball team or something? When it comes to mens teams, it is all about how good they play but when it is a womens team it is all about how good they look while doing it. I mean, the whole conversation came up because he and a guest were talking about how much "cuter" the tennisee team was.

thanks you guys so much responding. i really wanted to get some other people's point of view because i feel like this is just SO wrong especially after i watched the Oprah show yesterday. i feel like the fact that he singled out hip-hop over any other genre further proves that he is a racist. i wish some people would stop talking about how 50 cent and snoop dogg say what imus said and how its ok for them and not for him. it's all bs to me because we still have artists like common and talib kwali who praise women and his response was definitely unlike anything they have ever rapped about, and they are as much a part of hip hop as anyone else. and i'm like you naivete...i wish people who get off the "ho" word and realize that being called "nappy headed" is equally if not even more offensive.

I disagree that it is the main point, but it is equally offensive.

The term nappyheaded before ho cemented the fact that it was a racist insult directed towards the majority black team, and you can't say that you don't believe racism is the main point, it is. The media, and Imus himself, are all diverting the attention onto the sexist slam but that's just not it, and is a definite racist and HLIE* attempt to divert from the main issue, which IS the racism whether you think it is or not, even though as a feminist most feminists are trained to see the sexism as the big issue, but here, it is the racism.
*HLIE: Hey Look It's Elvis, in which in a particular conversation or situation in which someone tries to divert attention to a lesser or completely different topic to avoid talking about the main topic at hand.
He has a huge history of racism and racist comments against Palestinians, Jewish people, Arabs and black people.

I'm not talking about sexism. I am talking about sex work. I think they are equally offensive. Sex workers have huge systems of oppression against them.

and lord knows I'm a huge sex work advocate, and yes I think it's horrid how the word ties in with the oppression that they face but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it overrides the racism here. I don't think most sex workers would, either.

and I absolutely am not saying it overrides. I am saying they are equally horrible and unacceptable.

.. but this situation has nothing, except for the last term used, to do with sex work? Mk, I'm backing out of this because it makes no sense and it's derailing the thread and therefore the issue at hand (which is how HLIE is designed to work, I suppose), but I think it's pretty irresponsible to tell POC in a situation about racism that racism isn't the real culprit.
But okay.

I am not saying that. I am AGREEING with you.
Sex Work isn't even given the light of day to be seen as a big issue because it is accepted in our culture that sex workers don't matter. If someone brought up that it was a terrible antisexwork comment in the main stream media, it would get a uh duh without any sort of this needs to change, Imus needs to be held accountable.
His comment was RACIST and I am not belittling that. It was completely unacceptable and everything the article you posted says.
It was also anti sex work and anti woman and we should be attacking the totality of his oppressive views, not deciding which ones suck more.