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Lori A. Tribbett-Williams
Abstracted from: Lori A. Tribbett-Williams, Saying
Nothing, Talking Loud: Lil' Kim And Foxy Brown, Caricatures of
African-American Womanhood, 10 Southern California Review of Law and
Women's Studies 167-207, 167-172 (2000)
On January 31, 2000, more than 100 million viewers watched Super Bowl
XXXIV. Prior to the kick-off, a long list of celebrities comprised of
new comers and old favorites, performed the pre-game theme song, Are You
Ready for Some Football? Included on the list of celebrities were Darius
Rucker, the lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish, Cyndi Lauper, Naomi
Judd and Lil' Kim. Hardcore rap artist Lil' Kim was probably cast by
television executives in their efforts to provide a diverse group of
performers. She is known best among the new generation of female rappers
as the "diva of raunch." Although Lil' Kim's performance was
not more than a three or four-second spot, it raised disturbing
questions that relate to the public perception of African-American
women: First, is Lil' Kim's image an acceptable representation of
African-American womanhood? Second, should the success of artists like
Lil' Kim and her contemporary Foxy Brown be considered a sign of
progress for African-American women and their expression of sexuality?
African-American women have struggled for centuries to defeat
Eurocentric standards of beauty and womanhood. While today it is
increasingly more common for women of African descent to appear on the
cover of magazines, the battle for positive representations of
African-American womanhood is still ongoing. Events in the
not-so-distant past may suggest that the mainstream success of the new
generation of African-American female rappers is a sign of progress when
evaluating how African-American womanhood has been viewed historically
by American society. For example, in 1984, sixty-three years after the
founding of the Miss America Pageant, Vanessa Williams was named the
first African-American Miss America. In what was later called the
"Mess America" pageant, officials for the contest forced
Williams to resign after a series of nude photographs of her appeared in
Penthouse magazine. The publisher remarked, "Vanessa Williams was a
fraud on the American people--a fraud certainly on her own people."
This statement leads to two conclusions: First, Williams is decidedly a
"fraud," an impostor or something other than a legitimate Miss
America. Second, a distinction is made between "American
people" and "her own people," which signifies a clear
racial divide in America and the view that African-Americans are a
separate entity, or the "Other." Thus, the overwhelming
success of the new generation, due in large part to their unrestrained
sexual expression, is indeed progress. However, for many
African-American women, the success of this new generation is eclipsed
by a history of myths and stereotypes created to justify centuries of
oppression and sexual exploitation.
This Note contends that the image of the new generation of African-
American female rappers is myth personified. American history is replete
with "slave-rooted" images of African-American womanhood.
Author Patricia Morton noted that the pervasive misappropriation of
negative images of African- American womanhood, among other factors,
makes it clear that "[African]- American women have been assigned a
hell of a history to live down." Morton further provided four
classic images of African-American womanhood that appear throughout
history: 1) the "sex object," also known as the
"Jezebel"; 2) the "tragic mulatto"--neither White
nor Black; 3) the "comical domestic servant," also known as
"Aunt Jemima"; and 4) the masculinized, domineering matriarch
commonly referred to as "Mammy" or the "Sapphire"
image. Among the most commonly depicted images of African-American
womanhood is the image of the promiscuous "temptress" known as
Jezebel. The new generation of rappers, through their X-rated lyrics and
fashions, breathe new life into Jezebel, a mythical caricature and
distorted representation of African-American womanhood.
Today, the mythical image of Jezebel impacts the treatment of
African- American women in American society and the manner in which they
are viewed by the American justice system. Associate Professor of Law
Joan R. Tarpley asserted that myths are at the foundation of our beliefs
and values and consequently are inscribed into law:
It is my claim that myth lies at the base of a culture's beliefs and
values. Beliefs and values then inspire customs and traditions, and
after a time the customs and traditions become the way "we have
always done it." In turn, in a dispute a law emerges that states
the "what we have always done" as the law of the jurisdiction.
The idea that customs and beliefs ultimately emerge in the law is
illustrated most profoundly in the results of a recent investigation of
the practices of the United States Customs Service. The General
Accounting Office ("GAO") revealed that
"[African-American] women are nearly twice as likely to be
strip-searched on suspicion of drug smuggling as [W]hite men and women
and three times as likely as [African-American] men to be subjected to
[the] humiliating intrusion." The African-American women in the GAO
report were targeted as a result of controversial racial profiling. Race
profiling is a method used by law enforcement to stop individuals
believed to be drug carriers. The GAO's report provides further support
that African-American women are still trying to escape a history of
negative images that informs American society's customs, traditions and
laws even today with respect to African-American women's sexuality and
autonomy. As will be discussed in greater detail below, African-American
women were the subjects of racial bias and unfair treatment centuries
before the official use of racial profiling. The negative images and
myths created during slavery that justified the forced exposure of
African-American women's bodies to public inspection, still influence
the customs, beliefs and, consequently, the law's treatment of
African-American women today. Numerous accounts make it clear that the
sexuality of African- American women is devalued because of the historic
myths surrounding their sexual identity.
This Note focuses primarily on the racist and sexist social construct
known as the Jezebel, and the proliferation of the Jezebel image into
rap music, particularly the music of the new generation of
African-American female rap artists. Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown are
affectionately known as "gangsta bitches" and are credited as
the catalysts for the revolutionary sexual persona of the new
generation. They have established their fame largely because of their
"barely there" fashions. Female rapper BOSS commented that
"tight clothes mean 'weak lyrics." ' That being the case, Lil'
Kim and Foxy Brown are saying nothing lyrically, with respect to the
social status of African-American women, but talking loud, since they
are among the most successful of the contemporary female rap artists.
The new generation personifies what has perhaps been the most
destructive image of African-American womanhood, an image that African-
American women have for centuries tried to "live down." The
Jezebel image, as glorified by emerging female rappers, continues to be
resurrected from history and projects a distorted image of
African-American womanhood.
Part II of this Note, Myths of African-American Womanhood, provides a
brief overview of the historic treatment of African-American women, with
respect to their sexuality, in order to discover the origins of the myth
that Jezebel is the embodiment of African-American womanhood. Part II
also discusses the inscription of Jezebel into American jurisprudence.
Part III, Jezebel of Contemporary Times, discusses the resurrection
of the Jezebel image in mass media and the inscription of the image into
the lyrics of rap music performed by African-American male artists and
consequently inscribed into American pop culture.
Part IV, The Evolution of Women Rap Artists, describes the
transformation of the image of African-American female rappers from the
more masculine image of early pioneers to the sexier image of the new
generation. Part IV also discusses how the new generation personifies
the Jezebel image through revolutionary changes in their lyrical
compositions and fashions.
Part V, Jezebel in the New Millennium, discusses the evocation and
inscription of the Jezebel image of African-American womanhood into
recent litigation. . . |
