Stupid Things

My daughters take on Females in the Music Industry

2007-11-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

Tiffani M.

Females in the Music Industry
Hip Hop and Rap have constantly been growing in the music industry. Old school rappers have paved the way for many music artists. Throughout time good music has come to a stop and has been replaced with music that is all about images. Unfortunately women have become a major target in Hip Hop and Rap's image. Lyrics and videos have depicted women to be showpieces and used only for sexual pleasures. The way women are portrayed in music videos and lyrics is degrading because they show females as objects, refer and show females as whores and sluts, and also make females out to be weak individuals.

When watching the latest music videos on BET or MTV, the first thing usually being shown is a half naked woman. The female is lingering on the male artist, the car, or even sometimes, another female being shown in the video. The females in these videos are made to look like objects instead of respected women. These videos depict women to be an ego booster, something mainly there to make a male look good in another's eyes. It is degrading because females have been made to look like an accessory, nothing less or nothing more.

Furthermore, music videos and certain song lyrics have embarrassed the female gender. When tuning into a rap song and hearing females being referred to as bitches and whores has brought a new level of disgust. The fact that males refer to females as such names stated above is saddening. My mother and I were in the grocery store appalled at listening to a child about the age of seven repeating the words of an explicit female bashing song, word by word. At that point my heart cried, because at the age of seven this young boy has been exposed to songs that are already deteriorating his thoughts about females. Looking to his father for comfort thinking he would tell his son not to say such words, the father simply laughed as if it was cute and everything was a joke. Hip Hop and Rap desensitizes the way men look at women. In Hip Hop and Rap lyrics females have been made to look like low forms of creatures, which are not worthy of any kind of respect.

Also, females have been made to look weak in Hip Hop and Rap videos. The way women are depicted in these videos is that all women are video girls, whores, and gold diggers. They portray females as if a mind does not make a female successful. Rappers talk about women as if the female body and what she chooses to do with it determines everything. A woman's image over a period of time in the music industry has begun to sink lower and lower. Women are depicted to have no back bone and if times are hard then a women will do anything to get themselves back on top know matter what the circumstances are. Which unfortunately is true in some cases but not all. Not all females get to that point, and most importantly if a woman does reach that point those measures are not always taken. Once again this depiction is also degrading because females are made to look helpless and look like non-achievers.

In conclusion Hip Hop and Rap have made females look terrible in America. The way women are shown in the Hip Hop and Rap industry is degrading because females are being shown as objects, are being called devastating names, and are made to look weak. In the Hip Hop and Rap industry men are put on pedestals for having nice cars, money, and a female on the side, even if it means degrading the mother, a female, which is the vessel that gives birth—life to those artists. It hurts to know that males do not mine calling females such names and to know that the lyrics being said in these songs is what they think of females. After all of these years of being in America, men are still not respecting women and what is even worse is that it has not been stopped.

Stupid Rap Music

2007-10-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

OK, since when has it been in style to be a thug. I am so sick of certain parts of the rap community dictating what black culture is or is not supposed to be.
Check it out:
1. Since when is it cool: to wear you pants sagging so we can see your underwear?
Didn't that come jail, indicating you were ready to be violated?
2. Since when is it cool: to praise the efforts of poverty? Hell, they say: We just keeping it real about the street!"
We don't care about the streets. We already know more about them than we want to know.
3. Since when is it cool: to speak Ebonics 24-7.
I can see if we are just hanging out with friends, but to forgo speaking ENGLISH at all? Rappers want us to keep it real? I can't get a job with Ebonics. BTW. They wanted to teach this in school?
4. Since when is it cool: for urban radio plays the worst rap music has to offer during drive time. The time when I am taking my kids to school?
5. Since when is it cool: for the media to say that "he is a musical genius"? ,
Some of them don't know a note from a hole in to ground. Their is nothing genius about putting together recycled beats and old songs played by real musicians.

Controlling Pastors, Dreamless Sheep

2007-10-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me how many people toss away or put on hold their dreams and aspirations for church. Your dreams are the programming God gives you at birth. Your reason you are here on earth is wrapped up in these dreams. When you don't go after them you violate your reason for being here. Everybody has a purpose and destiny to fulfill. However what a lot of us do is put church in the number one priority in our lives. We even put it above God.

Here is a tale of groups of people.
Group 1:
Group one was busy doing everything they could at church and for their pastor. They volunteered for every conference, every event you name it. If the church doors were open they were there. They used their vacation time from their job to volunteer their time. At the end of 20 years, they still are not living their own dreams and are not being what they were created to be. Also, financially they still struggle.

Group 2:
This group was busy learning and honing their gifts and talents to achieve their dreams. They did come to church and volunteer their time, but not at the expense of their dreams and goals. Their talents and abilities increased so much that they were valued in the market place. In fact they can do more for the church financially because of this.

Church Idolatry

2007-10-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Church Idolatry
During my church going years, I found myself trying to be at the church every time the doors were open. I would even be there when nothing was going on. When I started working there it became worse. I remember one couple said to me. You shouldn't be at the church so much. You could be neglecting God and your family. I thought at the time they were crazy. Now I see they weren't. I was at the church being involved in this and that. I thought that somehow just going to church would make me right in the eyes of God, and more importantly the Pastor. If he saw how committed I was, it would give me major points with him. The pastor told me that the way your life priorities should be laid out is this way:

1. God,
2. Family
3. Dreams/Goals/Education
4. Health,
5. Church.

Two things I learned from this.
1. I was so busy at church, that I never went after my own dreams fully. 2
. I worshiped church more than I worshiped God.

Confession of a Former Church Goer

2007-10-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

Climbing the Church Corporate ladder.
A comparison of the glass ceiling faced by minorities in corp America to the church's glass ceiling.

I know so many people putting their dreams on hold to help their Church leader be successful. They push them higher and higher up the church ladder. The wall is where their dreams and aspirations came true for them but for the people under them the delay and death of their personal call and vision. For them, the top of the wall could mean anything. It could mean more members, more public exposure anything that would make them look good or getting a head job everyday. You are told: just help me be a success and then you will be a success without any accountability. It is true that you can help yourself by helping others, however, when you help someone at the expense of your own dreams...that is just crazy. I felt that I was doing God's will in pushing my leaders higher and higher up the wall. I was told that the more I pushed them up the ladder the higher I would go. Help their dreams come true first then, God would make mine come true. The only problem was when I got to the top... it was the damn wall.

People serve in this paradigm every day. They hope that they will be rewarded with promotions, maybe more stage time in front of the people, etc. I remember spending so much time at the church trying to prove that I was committed. The "are you really committed talk" was the guilt trip that was told to you if missed a service, a meeting or even a rehearsal. Some leaders would say, "if you can't be there you must not be committed and when we become a huge mega-church, we will be using the committed ones." It was like a carrot and the stick approach. Since I wanted to be somebody in church, I would do what ever it took to be there. What is amazing to me now is when I look back over that time, it is a wonder that my marriage stayed together. The church corporate ladder has damaged a lot of families and marriages.

I spent years helping people get up the wall. I pushed them and pushed them. When I got to the top...in was the wrong damn wall.

Remember: religion is the barrier to God. We think that religion will get us closer to God. It doesn't. It's rituals simply push us further and farther away.

FARTHER denotes physical advancement in distance.

FURTHER denotes advancement to greater degree, as in time.