Raunch aesthetics

Raunch aesthetics is a term in feminist theory which describes the ways in which women in hip hop express their sexuality through performance of lyrics, choreography, and staging.^[1] These aesthetics are performed with the intention to embrace and take control over their bodies and own sexual identities through verbal and physical expression.

Background

In the 1960s and 1970s, feminist women started to become labeled as anti-sex, anti-porn, anti-heterosexual and prudish in general. They believed that there was a strong link between power structure and dominance within pornography. It wasn't until the 1990s and 2000s that women started to really become pro-sex and embrace sexuality.^[2]

Hip hop emerged in the 1980s as an outlet for young black youth to replicate the experiences of urban life for many marginalized groups. It created a space for these groups to share and communicate their struggles living in highly populated areas with little resources available to them.^[3] Hip hoppers created and innovated new ways to manipulate music, their voices, and their bodies to show off their talent and gain respect in the hip hop community. Hip hop is an overwhelmingly male dominated area leaving women of color on the periphery or completely shut out of the genre because they are not taken as serious contributors to hip hop even though women have always been prevalent in hip hop.^[4]

Some female rappers chose to incorporate a sex sells framework into their work in order to market their sexuality and make money. Female rappers of the late 1990s began engaging in the increasingly hypersexualized genre of hip hop and using it to gain power and reverse the pimp roles weaved into many rap songs. Their raunch aesthetics was their source of power in the male dominated genre for many female artists such as Lil Kim.^[4]

Some artists use raunch to critique the ways in which women's bodies are profoundly commodified and debased in the hip hop genre to the point that there is little mobility for women artists to express their experiences, gain respect, or even describe themselves as sexual beings without being labeled a "video ho".^[5]

Feminists that support and those that critique

Feminists have long critiqued art for its focus on the male gaze and how this notion penetrates multiple dimensions of art including who the art is made by, who the art is made for, and who and/or what it represents. There is a link between art and sexual politics including issues surrounding power and the influence the male gaze has on how women are viewed in life and art. The use of art reflects cultural standards within a society and some feminists claim that art, especially film, was intended for the male consumption of pornified and sexualized women due to patriarchal beliefs mirrored in larger society.^[6]

The way in which a woman hip hop artist uses her words and her body to exude her sexual empowerment expressed through raunch may be critiqued by feminists who think this aesthetic can be harmful in nature through the mimicry of sexual objectification of women's bodies in their music videos. There is some controversy over whether women are actively choosing to express their sexuality through the use of raunch or whether society is influencing women to internalize patriarchal ideas about how a woman should want to act, dress, and behave in order to get attention. While most feminists would agree on the importance of female sexual empowerment, some do not agree on the paths taken toward sexual liberation.^[7] This is mainly because it's hard to decipher between real sexual empowerment and a false sense of empowerment because the term has been commodified by the United States in order to get women to consume various goods.^[8]

There is an important distinction made between a woman's subjective sense of sexual empowerment and society's influence over a woman's expression of sexuality.^[7] The prior implies a personal sense of power and the latter implies a political sense of power pertaining to how women are perceived and treated in a culture. These ways in which women find sexual empowerment are both important to consider in order to gain a more holisitc view of female sexual entitlement because it includes the analyzation of empowerment through subjective feelings of desire and pleasure as well as society's use of empowerment to market sexuality to young girls and women.^[7]

Some critics have voiced their opinions that these images and over sexualization in music videos have created a rape culture among the younger generations. They do not support women that "give into the system" to reap the benefits of making a lot of money for their body image. The images of women barely clothed and performing sexual symbolism such as sucking on a lollipop or other phallic symbols. It gives young men and women the perception that every women should act like this. There is little respect shown in these videos with men slapping girls' butts and swiping credit cards through them.

These images and portrayals have led to the increase in violence towards women because they are so common and have desensitized our societies perception towards violence. Hip Hop uses these images because it is what sells and what the public consumes. Studies have shown that men who watched these videos are more accepting of violence against women and see women as sex objects.^[9]

It is believed that this whole distinction of accepted and non-accepted raunchiness chalks up to the idea "classism". Classism is differential treatment based on actual or perceived social status. Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups to advantage and strengthen others. It’s the systematic assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on society's perception.^[10]

Raunch aesthetics and respectability

Raunch culture is a process of repackaging old gender stereotypes and adding a "choice" which helps resist the critique by others.^[5] At the same time, because of the extreme sexual nature of raunch aesthetics, many in American culture see these practices as grotesque, explicit and vulgar.^[11]

In a hypersexualized society, sex is turned into a commodity. But in terms of practicing raunch it isn't the sex that is problematic, but the "publicness" to the act.^[12] Over the years, hundreds of sexualized media depictions have flooded public areas of cities all over the world. At one point in time, the sexualized functions in urban society were contained and kept hidden from public space.^[12] These sexualized functions have now moved into plain view of society.

The presence of raunch aesthetics has seeped into normal, non-sexualized places such as family restaurants. An example of this is the hyper-sexualized restaurant called "Hooters".^[12] The waitresses in the restaurant are dressed in a very sexualized way and each women is required to have big breasts and "show them off" while she works.^[12]

Family restaurants aren't the only venues that are hyper-sexualized. The simple non-sexual act of getting your car cleaned can now be a sexual experience where people can see hyper-sexualized women, who are dressed half naked, clean your car, and while you wait, you can even get a lap dance.^[12] These types of venues support sexual oppression and embrace negative stereotypes of women.^[12] Because of the public display of explicit behavior, the practice becomes dirty, inappropriate, and ultimately looked down upon. This has an effect on women and is the driving force towards the oppression, objectification and inequality of them. The stigmatization of raunch aesthetics has been linked to them and devalues their experiences and practices.^[11]

When women take part in activities that may be considered "slutty" or unladylike, they are being condemned by society by not complying with the gender norms. However, recently through the use of hip hop and media, women have been combating these norms thus making raunchy aesthetic more controversial in today's society.

It is clear that some women within the hip-hop realm are glorified for their raunchy performances whereas others are not. This is referred to in society as slut-shaming. Slut-shaming is the experience of being labeled as sexually out-of-control girl or woman who is being punished socially for carrying out this identity.^[13] Due to this, there have been female artist who mentioned their opinions about other female artist who engage in this behavior.

Amber Rose has spoken out on this issue. She mentioned that the animosity that both she herself and Kim Kardashian receive on a daily basis for revealing themselves to the public media is not fair, whereas Beyoncé twerks and wears just as revealing clothes as both Kim and Amber, yet the terms "ho" or "porn star" are not tossed around when referring to Beyoncé. Amber responded to all of this, saying that at the end of the day, each of them are women and that they should all embrace each other, and that no person is better than the rest.

Artists that practice raunch culture

Rihanna

Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty is an American-based actress, singer, songwriter and clothing designer. Born in the Barbados, Rihanna entered the music industry in 2003 with help from Evan Rogers. She landed a contract with Def jam Recordings after auditioning for rapper and producer Jay Z. She entered the music industry with her debut album Music in the Sun and second album A Girl Like Me, which exerted an everyday, humble, pretty and ‘exotic’ Caribbean girl aesthetic. Granting her a top 10 record on the U.S Billboard 200 list in 2006, she began to take over the music industry with her hit single “Pon de Replay”. In 2007 she released her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad, where she was given creative control reinventing her image to become more sexualized. She and singer/producer/clothing designer Chris Brown had a short lived relationship that ended in a domestic dispute, landing Brown probation and ending their relationship. After which Rihanna took to her music once again reinventing her image to fit a raunchier aesthetic. In her fifth studio album Loud released in 2010, she debuted one of her most controversial songs yet, "S&M". The lyrics are explicitly sexual, portraying softcore sadomasochist acts and fetishes, the video portrays Rihanna as a sexual object with very suggestive visuals and imagery. The video was banned in many countries, and was restricted to only be aired during late night hours in others. She received this feedback because hypersexual culture is framed as problematic in our patriarchal society. Women are subjected to fall deaf to their bodily urges; the ‘publicness’ of the culture challenges the ways in which we view the women’s rights to their bodies.^[20]

Some of the lyrics read:

Here Rihanna expresses her fondness for ‘out of the box sex’, in honor of her new found raunchiness she embraces her power to choose how she enjoys sexual encounters. Forming her own sexual liberation, and breaking down gender based binaries that prohibit women from expressing their desires. She goes on after this verse in the chorus confessing to the world her expectations for bedroom etiquette. Proclaiming that chains and whips excite her, as a major slap in the face to white patriarchal standards of being a proper woman. Also shattering the oversexualizing of Caribbean women’s bodies overwhelmingly present in the media, by being the one to sexualize herself. While affirming her role in raunchy culture; the hypersexualizing of a culture through music videos, advertising, the clothing industry and celebrity.^[21]

Rihanna has continued to top the charts with her catchy chorus and her raunchy aesthetic. However, in 2012 former boyfriend Chris brown and Rihanna decided to collaborate on a few remixes that critics and fans rejected because of their history of domestic abuse. In their song Birthday Cake remix, Rihanna can be perceived as singing to Brown with lyrics such as:

Here, once again Rihanna is illustrating that sexual identity belongs to her, and that she is the only one who can decide what it looks like. With this provocative language, RiRi set off a lot of people who did not believe that she should be singing, nor engaging in any sexual activity with Brown. However, it appears that RiRi did not care much, and that she is not in the habit of letting people dictate her sexuality. Sexual behavior can be given a broader scope, where it includes all expressions of self as a being of sexual experiences.^[22] This view allows for all aspects of Rihanna’s identity to be viewed at as sexual performance. While her music has a raunchy aesthetic, so does the way she presents herself on an everyday basis. Not limiting her performance to just the way she dresses, but in the way she speaks with power and vitality. Qualities she shares with the well-known raunchy performer Missy Elliott. By overtly expressing her sexual desires, RiRi embraces the raunchy aesthetic reclaiming the power of sexual identity.

References