The Fetishization of African American Women in the Hip-Hop Industry and its Relation to Cultural Appropriation.
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2022-07-13
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en
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This Bachelor thesis examines how the process of fetishization that has been inflicted on African American women in the American Hip-Hop industry has been reinterpreted by black female artists and how this relates to the process of cultural appropriation by white female artists in the mainstream American music industry. Using qualitative data and conducting a literary review on secondary literature written in the fields of racism studies, feminism studies, and cultural studies allows us to analyze and discuss current research related to the cause-and-effect relationship between the fetishization of African American women in the Hip-Hop industry, the theoretical history that led to this type of racial fetishization, and how it influenced the process of cultural appropriation in the music industry. This will be supported through textual and visual analyses of Cardi B’s music video “WAP” and Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” as the theories on power, Whiteness, and “Othering,” that relate to racial fetishization and cultural appropriation are explored in real-life case studies. This thesis finds that the basis on which the process of fetishizing African American women takes place is the notion of uneven power dynamics that originated during the years of slavery and has been further expanded throughout American popular culture. Whilst black female artists have tried to gain control over the fetishized narrative around their bodies that was further developed through the uneven power structure between the male rapper and black woman in the Hip-Hop industry, white female artists have adapted through their white privilege and power the fetishized body parts of black women to embody parts of black culture without enduring any racist consequences.
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