Since I have joined this class, my definition of hip hop feminism has definitely shifted. I
didn't come into this class knowing much about this type of feminism, but I assumed it involved women with feminist ideals using hip hop to express their feelings on related issues. After the readings, I now know there are different variations of hip hop feminism. In general, the meaning of hip hop feminism to me is breaking through the stereotypes of African American women that hip hop tends to portray in order to gain a new level of respect from both the public community and privacy of their homes.
With that being said, there was a point in the "Under Construction" article that was only briefly mentioned but I find to be a key component. This component is based off of a quote from Joan Morgan, who argues that we should not only point fingers at rappers when there are women who are showing up willing to degrade themselves as well as the females they are representing in these rap videos. I think it is important to pay attention to these details because if we, as a society, only focused on the rappers and ignored these women, we would make little progress. I also found the explanation of different generations of feminists interesting as well as the changes made to feminism based on dynamic social changes appealing. Using hip hop to engage younger women and girls of color is, to me, such a creative and brilliant way to keep the feminist movement moving forward.
With this shift in feminism in effort to adapt to modern times, I was surprised to find that there weren't too many community spaces that one can find hip hop feminism in the Twin Cities. If there are, they sure aren't easy to find. However, I thought the posting on the UThink blog about the hip hop summit was a great example of a community space that can be considered a valuable platform for hip hop feminism.
Lastly, I have a firm belief that race, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location figure a great deal into hip hop feminism. It seems as though if a type of person is more marginalized in these areas, the stronger desire they have to resist against it. With African American women typically being automatically marginalized in two of these areas (race and gender), they become a great example of how their standing in these areas play into hip hop feminism. I also think it is important to recognize the impact that geographic location has on hip hop feminism because geographic location is the foundation for the amount of hip hop culture these women are surrounded with.
This picture of Joan Morgan really represents what I believe is hip hop feminism because she has a way of explaining the components of this movement unlike that of other journalists.