"The women of Bikini Kill let guitarist Billy Karren be in their feminist punk band, but only if he's willing to just "do some shit." Being a feminist dude is like that. We may ask you to "do some shit" for the band, but you don't get to be Kathleen Hannah."--@heatherurehere


Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Documentary on Masculinity

Saw this one on Feministing. There's an interesting interview in Vibe magazine with a filmaker (Byron Hurt) who has a documentary coming out on PBS soon about the role of masculinity in hip-hop. Looks pretty interesting. Here's something he notes about hyper-masculinity--it's pervasive:
I think the way you see manhood portrayed in hip hop is deeply entrenched in American culture, not just hip hop culture. Like if you watch cowboy movies, gangster movies, action movies – you can see the same elements of manhood and masculinity in those areas that you will see in hip hop. What distinguishes hip hop from the rest of the culture is that hip hop is so blatant. Also, with hip hop you have a lot of young men who come from poverty, and other situations, that make this quest for hyper-masculinity seem much more essential.


I also love hearing a man describe how he came to understand that there are deeply ingrained problems around gender and the oppression of women:
Hurt’s relationship to some of hip hop’s lyrical content shifted soon after college, when he was hired to educate high school and college athletes about gender issues. “I didn’t know anything about ‘gender awareness’ when they hired me,” he says. “It made me nervous. I was worried my friends would think I was soft for what I was doing.” The training he received on the job, though, changed his life. “I realized for the first time that sexism and violence against women were real issues. And I felt like I could make a difference.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just caught part of the documentary last night, and I was impressed.

Honestly, I didn't expect too much from it - I sort of thought it would be fluffy, focused on hyper-masculinity in men, without looking at the concrete downsides, the negative effects on women and so forth.

Boy was I wrong! While I only saw a part, he was covering LOTS of issues, and wasn't afraid to shy away from anything, even though his interviewees often were.

This had better get replayed (and in a better timeslot), because it's one that needs to be watched by a much wider audience.

Jeff Pollet said...

Suddenly, I wish I had a TV!

Hopefully it gets put out on DVD, or offered up electronically at some point.