Is Rap Degrading Women

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As a child, I witnessed a new movement rapidly sweeping the youth, and exposing them to a lifestyle previously unexplored through other kinds of music. With its infusion of hip-hop beats and hardcore lyrics, this music continued to prevail. By the time I was in middle school, the new music genre everyone listened to was rap. I, just like everyone my age, only listened to rap music. As with others my age, I was dedicated to listening to rap. Then unaware of the provocative lyrics, I continued to listen. Now, that I understand the meaning behind those lyrics, my opinion has drastically changed. The lyrics degrade women and classify them as being merely objects. However, children continue to listen to this music, unaware of the underlying message finely weaved with the beat. However morally wrong this music maybe, rappers continue to sell millions of albums a year. As the years go on, the music is becoming significantly sexist. "Pimps" and "hos" dominate the lyrics of rap songs, and now more than ever, the rise in sexism is becoming clear, as women are portrayed as mere objects through brash rap videos, explicit lyrics, and in some cases, the mere images women create of themselves. Media companies take advantage of this shift in power and of men being portrayed as more superior. Popular culture’s enormous effect on the youth is evident everywhere. The media’s effect on the youth is quite strong today. The new trend in music is that it is a standard to degrade women. Rap videos show rappers treating women like objects. They use women for their entertainment and then disregard them at will. Since music is an integral part of popular culture, children can be manipulated to believe that it is a standard to lower the status of women, as they do in rap videos. An example of this is in the rap video, Big Pimpin’, by Jay-Z. In the video, the rapper Jay-Z is on a massive

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