The Purpose-- CONSERVATIVE FEMINISM

What is it like to be a Black Conservative Woman from the south? I am a Boss Chick!

If I could label myself anything--I would say that I am a Hip Hop Feminist.

The writer Bakari Kitwana describes the "hip hop generation" as the generation born between 1964 and 1984. This group is distinguished from Generation X, since it mostly refers to African-American and African communities. In sharp distinction from the generation that preceded them, the hip hop generation faced a new series of challenges and historical crises.

Hip-hop's babies weren't dealing directly with issues of invisibility brought on by systems of segregation the way the generations were that came before them. Instead, they were grappling with being front and center as the most loved and most hated stars of global popular culture. The popularity of hip-hop made black youth cool and desirable, which was in complete opposition to the unavoidable stereotypes in the media that illustrated them as gang members, welfare queens, drug dealers and teen mothers.

"The manifestos of black feminism, while they helped me to understand the importance of articulating language to combat oppression, didn't give me the language to explore things that were not black and white, but things that were in the gray," Morgan says. "And that gray is very much represented in hip-hop."

This gray area includes the contradictions of loving an art that is reluctant to include you; loving men who, at times, refuse to portray you in your totality; and rejecting sexual objectification while actively and proudly embracing your sexuality. Although hip-hop feminism has gone through phases, it has always, at some level, dealt with these incongruities.

"Hip-hop feminists have been consistent in championing women's rights, which encompasses everything from sexuality to abuse," says Marcyliena Morgan, founding director of the Hip-Hop Archive in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. "And that has always been irrespective of what men in hip-hop were doing."

What the Future Holds

So what should hip-hop feminism look like in 2011? Instead of being reduced to an anti-misogyny movement or to a rallying cry to give more female MCs the mic, hip-hop feminists hope that it will

incorporate a women-centric worldview, where the realities of the hip-hop generation's women are taken into consideration at every turn. It doesn't just complain about the lack of female MCs but actively addresses the reasons there are fewer female MCs now than there were in the late 1980s, and why there are only a few types of female MCs that make it to hip-hop notoriety.

But perhaps hip-hop feminism's most important task is staying keenly attuned to the needs of the hip-hop community. Hip-hop feminism, just like any branch of feminism, should use activism to effect real social change. This requires all members of the hip-hop generation to get on board. 

So it's not just women who are tasked with tapping into the creative resources that give hip-hop's women a voice. "Mark Anthony Neal's work is a good example of this," says Marcyliena Morgan. "The one thing that hip-hop feminism has taught anyone is that feminism must include the efforts of the entire community, men and women alike."