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U.S. hip-hop film sparks debate on masculinity
Updated: 2007-02-22 17:00  ATLANTA, Feb 20 (Reuters Life!) - A hard-hitting documentary on hip-hop that asks why it often shows black men as violent sex-addicts who abuse woman is sparking debate among a generation of young people raised on rap videos.
In "Beyond Beats and Rhymes" film maker Byron Hurt, a former college football star, goes on a journey of discovery around the United States, challenging hip-hop artists and record producers in the multibillion dollar industry. The documentary, due to be aired on national PBS television on Tuesday, has been screened to dozens of audiences of young people and students, said Sabrina Schmidt-Gordon, the film's co-producer. Most critics of hip-hop argue that it shows women as sex objects but the documentary focuses on images of hyper-masculine men and says black youths fall into the trap of trying to emulate the thug life of the videos. "We are hoping to...challenge that narrow, destructive vision of masculine identity particularly for young men and boys that are the faces of hip-hop," Schmidt-Gordon said in an interview. "They are the ones who are dying young from gun violence and women are victim of domestic violence. Our communities have most to lose by buying into violence and sexism," she said. One scene shows protests by students at Spelman, a black women's college in Atlanta, against artist Nelly, whose video for "Tip Drill" showed him swiping a credit card along the backside of a nearly naked woman. |
