Feminist Futures: Care, Violence, and Body Image in Hip Hop

Day and time: Friday (March 20) · 11:15–12:45
Location: Coop Himmelb(l)au
Format: Talk

Mama, I Made It: Mother Figures in Norwegian Rap

Presented by: Kai Arne Hansen & Justin Williams

The figure of the mother holds deep significance across cultures, societies, and historical periods. This article investigates the representation of mothers in contemporary Norwegian rap, focusing on how artists invoke maternal figures in order to address pressing social issues, articulate complex identities, and position themselves within Hip Hop’s prevailing aesthetic, ideological, and lyrical frameworks. Through close readings of a selection of songs and music videos by three Norwegian rappers – Kamelen, Musti, and Rambow – we explore how the mother figure intersects the personal and the political, emerging as a focal point for artists to rework familiar Hip Hop tropes and process personal experiences while participating in broader transnational conversations about family, belonging, and social struggle. In doing so, we consider a number of ways in which affective ties are ascribed social and cultural meaning within Hip Hop’s storytelling traditions. By centering the Norwegian Hip Hop scene specifically, we hope to enrich existing scholarship by showing how local negotiations of familial bonds and cultural identity can reshape and expand core Hip Hop themes. We thus highlight the value of examining culturally specific Hip Hop practices as a means of better understanding the genre’s adaptability, social politics, and expressive range across diverse contexts.

Silenced Beats: Gendered Power, Testimony, and Feminist Futures in Hip Hop

Presented by: Baljit Kaur

This paper employs the 2023–24 domestic violence case involving Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and Sean “Diddy” Combs as a critical lens through which to interrogate the gendered power structures that continue to shape contemporary Hip Hop and the global music industry. The case demonstrates how systemic sexism, celebrity capitalism, and media infrastructures collectively sustain cultures of silence around women’s experiences and testimonies of violence. Situating this analysis within the longer “Hip Hop wars” (Rose 2008) and drawing on Black feminist scholarship (hooks 1989; Perry 2004; Rose 2008), I consider how feminist critique can reorient Hip Hop studies toward questions of accountability, voice, and care. Extending this inquiry, I connect these debates to my (post)doctoral research on young people’s rap production in an East London youth club, highlighting how patriarchal sentiments continue to marginalise young women’s creative practices. Incorporating a policy-oriented perspective, I argue for embedding gender-conscious educational frameworks within youth music programmes. Such interventions would not only prepare emerging artists for more equitable futures within the industry but would also contribute to dismantling entrenched structures of silence surrounding gendered violence in music culture and, crucially, within broader social and institutional contexts.

Girl I Think my Butt Gettin' Big: Thickness and Young Women's Body Image

Presented by: Kim Dankoor

U.S. commercial women rappers often promote a "thick hourglass" body ideal in their music. This qualitative study, guided by social comparison theory and self-discrepancy theory, explores how 10 Black and 10 White Dutch women rap fans, aged 18-25, compared their actual body image with this ideal and the emotional consequences that result. A hybrid comparative thematic analysis revealed that both Black and White respondents view the thick ideal as dominant in women rap and part of Black culture. They consider it a standard of beauty and sexiness, when achieved naturally and not through plastic surgery. Comparing their actual body image to this ideal can evoke positive outcomes, such as body satisfaction and the motivation to work toward this ideal through exercise or by choosing clothing that better expresses it. However, it can also lead to negative body images and emotions, such as insecurity, especially when this ideal is perceived as difficult or impossible to attain, or when peers or family expect conformity to this ideal. For Black women, comparison to the thick ideal may result in more positive outcomes, and this ideal is more frequently endorsed by their social context compared with White women. These findings indicate that for rap fans, the Afrocentric thick ideal is more relevant than a Eurocentric thin ideal, highlighting the importance of developing healthy body interventions targeting gender and cultural and contextual beliefs. Further, this knowledge can increase practitioners' ability to integrate an influential media genre when working with young adults across different cultures.