Youth : OPINION : Does Rap Music Disrespect Women, Girls?

FRANCES PEREZ

Senior, 17, Gardena High School

Rap gives women a bad image when it calls them things like bitch, slut and whore. Videos make them seem like sex objects. They focus on their bodies, not their intelligence or their minds. All you ever see is girls in bikinis. Guys listen to that music, and it influences how they talk to girls. If guys look up to rappers, that’s a bad role model for them to be following.

Women also give themselves bad images. In Dr. Dre’s song, “Nothing But a G-Thing,” women do things for the video that they didn’t have to do if they didn’t want. Women shouldn’t put themselves in the position of putting themselves down. If they took a stand, it would help the (women’s) cause.

MONEE HOGAN

Senior, 17, Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles; rapper

Put it like this: The only way a female can be disrespected is if she is a “ho.” Most raps are written from experience. Just because rappers sing about “hos” doesn’t mean every woman is one. Rap is either about what you’ve been through or it’s made to sell records. A lot of girls get offended by what rappers say, but another reality is it’s hard for a black man to make a living in this world. You have to be heard. We have a lot of gifts and talents in South-Central Los Angeles, but not a lot of people come here. I know a lot of kids who write good poetry, but if one kid has a bad image, people on the outside think we’re all alike.

Women and men have a lot of the same qualities. All of us want respect. Just because one female throws herself at someone doesn’t mean I will. A woman usually degrades herself to get ahead, not just in rap music: cheerleaders, models, actresses. A guy will give you respect if you give it to yourself. It’s all about how you carry yourself. And a lot of rappers aren’t like their image--they’re perfect gentlemen, and they give back to the community. But we usually only get one side of the story, which is sad.

TONY ORTIZ

Senior, 17, Saddleback High

The words don’t affect me personally, but my opinion is that a lot of rap isn’t good music. The dance beats are OK, but the lyrics are harmful psychologically. And with guys, it really does affect how they see women. When I was 14, I bought rap, but not now. I grew out of it. It’s a waste of my money, listening to someone else’s sex life. Why would I want that?

ORVILLE (VIL) FERGUSON

Senior, 17, Los Angeles High School; rapper

I don’t have any of that type of negative stuff in my raps. I rap about Belize and other reggae rappers. I don’t think about girls that way; I don’t think that’s cool. I think straight and positive. Talking bad about women is just not right.

Some women are actually the way they’re described in rap songs, which shocks me sometimes. Generally, though, women are not that way. People listen to a song like “Rump Shaker” and think that’s how black women are. The majority of my friends do talk badly about girls. Rappers should be more conscious about how they portray women.

MONICA FRIAS

Senior, 17, Manual Arts High

People dance to the rhythm and don’t really listen to the words. But if kids would listen to the words, maybe they would think about what it’s really saying.

It’s up to you if you want to respect yourself or not. People sing the words and think it’s fun. I wouldn’t let the words affect me that much, as long as I know it’s not referring to me. I don’t think young kids really pay much attention to the words, either.

KEVIN LYONS

Senior, 17, Gardena High

How rappers talk doesn’t put ideas in my head, but it does affect me. One time I confronted Ice Cube and he said, “Don’t worry about what I say, it’s just music.” He’s married, he respects women, but a lot of rappers put out that bad image because they feel they have to. Prince Markie Dee changed his image to fit that. He had a real positive song out called “Maybe You Need to Swim My Way,” and the next thing I knew he was doing hard-core stuff. But he doesn’t really mean it.

The video images could really affect kids. My 10-year-old cousin looks at that stuff, and once he tried to feel on my girlfriend. Of course I went off on him, told him not to do it anymore, but that bothered me.

EDWIN PORTALES

Senior, 17, Manual Arts High

Rappers use words to get attention. People who listen to rap like it because rappers use street language, and they may be getting drunk or high while they’re listening. If you live in the ghetto, almost everybody talks the same way. Friends call each other bad words. It’s accepted. If people feel it’s OK, they’ll think it’s no big deal. Rap is talking to a certain audience. If (rap artist) Dr. Dre has a certain opinion about women, those are women he knows, and women some of his audience knows, too.

WAYNE MOTOYASU

Senior, 17, Gardena High

I listen to rap, although I don’t listen to the hard-core stuff. I prefer rappers like Hammer who don’t curse so much. I think the way rappers talk about women affects how teen-agers perceive women. In a mixed group of guys and girls, you don’t hear guys putting girls down, but in a group of guys, it’s different. It’s more or less playing around, saying what everybody else is saying. I don’t take issue with my friends when they talk bad about girls. Most people don’t seem to care. But I don’t talk that way around my elders because I think it’s disrespectful.

My brother is 11, and he listens to N.W.A. sometimes. I don’t always agree with the lyrics, especially when he repeats them. I tell him not to say the words, that they aren’t cool. At the same time I know he doesn’t mean what he says. It’s sort of a double standard, I guess.

MELANI CLARKE

Senior, 16, Saddleback High School, Santa Ana

I don’t really listen to rap, but my sister does, and you can’t help but notice it. Women are always portrayed as sex objects, like in that “Daisy Duke.” Those kind of songs definitely affect how guys treat girls. But we can’t get rid of the music. Maybe it’s the women, too. Even though they can’t exactly cover themselves up in those videos, they have the choice to do something different.

Rap is generally bad for young kids. They should be kept away from it. If you feed a kid good food, he’ll want it. He’ll grow up knowing what’s right. This is not the stuff to feed anybody.