Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Isoke_TGFH_Thesis_April21_1.pdf (899.62 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

“Thank God for Hip-hop”: Black Female Masculinity in Hip-hop Culture

Isoke, Saidah K
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492775852958055

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
“Thank God for Hip-hop” explores the racial, gendered, and sexual relations in hip-hop culture. To do this, this project centers Black tomboys and masculine-presenting lesbians (MPL). I differentiate between MPLs and tomboys based on the extent to which people within each identity centers masculinity. Masculine-presenting lesbian is understood as a strong masculine presentation of gender by lesbian-identified women. Tomboy, on the other hand, is understood as a hybrid space between femininity and masculinity and sexual orientation varies. This project challenges perceptions of hip-hop as an exclusively male, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic genre and culture. Black tomboys and MPLs represent queer potentials in hip-hop. What can we discover about racial, gendered and sexual relations within the culture? How is gender and sexuality negotiated by Black women who are tomboys or masculine-presenting lesbians? Gwendolyn Pough’s “bringing wreck” theory is centered in my analysis on how Black women disrupt gender and sexual politics in hip-hop. Utilizing hip-hop feminism, gender and queer theory, and queer of color critique strengthens my figuration of hip-hop queerness by opening the culture up to the margins of the margins. Through a textual and feminist discourse analysis, I engage lyrics, music videos, films, online interviews, and social media posts to argue that these Black women are disrupting hegemonic masculinity in hip-hop through their expressions of masculinity and navigation of hip-hop culture.
Treva Lindsey (Advisor)
Mary Thomas (Committee Member)
57 p.
Womens Studies
Black female masculinity, hip-hop, queer, hip-hop feminism, gender

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Isoke, S. K. (2017). “Thank God for Hip-hop”: Black Female Masculinity in Hip-hop Culture [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492775852958055

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Isoke, Saidah. “Thank God for Hip-hop”: Black Female Masculinity in Hip-hop Culture . 2017. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492775852958055.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Isoke, Saidah. "“Thank God for Hip-hop”: Black Female Masculinity in Hip-hop Culture ." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492775852958055

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1492775852958055
6,724
© 2017, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License “Thank God for Hip-hop”: Black Female Masculinity in Hip-hop Culture by Saidah K Isoke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.