Raunch aesthetics

In the 1960s and 1970s, American feminist women started to become labeled as anti-sex, anti-porn, anti-heterosexual, and prudish in general. It is believed that there was a strong link between power structures and male dominance in pornography. It wasn't until the 1990s and 2000s that pro-sex women who embraced sexuality became more predominant.[2]

Hip hop emerged in the 1980s as an outlet for young African-American youth to replicate the experiences of urban life and marginalization. It created a space for groups to share and communicate their struggles living in highly populated areas with little resources available to them.[3] Hip hoppers created and innovated new ways to manipulate music, their voices, and their bodies to showcase their talent and skills and gain respect within the community. The hip hop genre is overwhelmingly male-dominated and leaves women of color on the periphery or completely shut out; women are not taken as serious contributors even though they have always been prevalent in hip hop.[4]

Some female rappers choose to incorporate a sex sells framework into their work to market their sexuality and be successful. Female rappers of the late 1990s began engaging in the increasingly hypersexualized genre, using it to gain cultural power and reverse the elevation of pimp roles weaved into many rap songs. Such raunch aesthetics was their source of power in the male dominated genre for many female artists such as Lil Kim.[4]

Some artists use raunch to critique the ways in which women's bodies are profoundly commodified and debased in the genre to the point that there is little mobility for women artists to express their experiences, gain respect, or even describe themselves as sexual beings without being labeled a "video ho".[5]

Feminists have long critiqued art for its focus on the male gaze and how it penetrates its multiple dimensions including who makes the art, who it is made for, and who and/or what it represents. There is a link between art and sexual politics including issues surrounding power and the influence the male gaze has on how women are viewed in life and art. The use of art reflects cultural standards within a society, and some feminists claim that art, especially film, was intended for the male consumption of pornified and sexualized women due to patriarchal beliefs mirrored in larger society.[6]

The way in which a female hip hop artist uses her words and her body to exude her own sexual empowerment expressed through raunch may be critiqued by feminists who think this aesthetic can be harmful through the mimicry of sexual objectification of women's bodies in their music videos. There is some controversy over whether women are actively choosing to express their sexuality through the use of raunch or whether society is influencing women to internalize patriarchal ideas about how a woman should want to act, dress, and behave for attention. While most feminists would agree on the importance of female sexual empowerment, some do not agree on the paths taken toward sexual liberation.[7] This is mainly because it's hard to decipher between real sexual empowerment and a false sense of it because the terms have been so com-modified in the United States to get women to consume various goods.[8]

There is an important distinction made between a woman's subjective sense of sexual empowerment and society's influence over a woman's expression of sexuality.[7] The prior implies a personal sense of power and the latter a political sense of power pertaining to how women are perceived and treated in a culture. The ways in which women find sexual empowerment are both important to consider to gain a more holistic view of female sexual entitlement because it includes the analyzation of empowerment through subjective feelings of desire and pleasure as well as society's use of empowerment to market sexuality to young girls and women.[7]

Some critics have voiced that these images and over-sexualization in music videos have contributed to a rape culture among the younger generations. They do not support women that "give into the system" to reap the benefits of making a great deal of money from their body image. The images of women barely clothed and performing sexual symbolism such as sucking on a lollipop or on other phallic symbols. The idea is that it gives young men and women the perception that every women should act like this. There is little respect shown in these videos with men slapping girls' buttocks and swiping credit cards through them.

It is believed that such portrayals have led to the increase in violence towards women because they are so common and have desensitized our society's perception towards violence. Hip hop uses these images because it sells and it is what the public consumes. Studies have shown that men who watched these videos are more accepting of violence against women and see them as sex objects.[9]

It is believed that this distinction of accepted and unaccepted raunchiness chalks up to the idea "classism". Classism is differential treatment based on actual or perceived social status. It is the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups to advantage and strengthen others. It's the systematic assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on society's perceptions.[10]

Raunch culture uses a process of repackaging old gender stereotypes and adding a choice which helps it resist critique by others.[5] At the same time, because of the extreme sexual nature of raunch aesthetics, many in American culture see its practices as grotesque, explicit and vulgar.[11]

In a hypersexualized society, sex is a commodity. But in terms of practicing raunch it isn't the sex that is problematic, but the "publicness" of the act.[12] Over the years, hundreds of sexualized media depictions have flooded public areas of cities all over the world. At one point in time in the past, the sexualized functions in urban society were contained and kept hidden from public space.[12] These sexualized functions have now moved into plain view of society.

The presence of raunch aesthetics has seeped into normal, unsexualized places such as family restaurants. An example of this is the hyper-sexualized restaurant called "Hooters".[12] Its waitresses are dressed in a sexualized way, and with each required to have big breasts and "show them off" while she works.[12]

Family restaurants aren't the only venues that have become hyper-sexualized. The simple non-sexual act of getting your car cleaned can now be a sexual experience where people can see hyper-sexualized women, dressed half naked, clean your car, and while you wait, you can even get a lap dance.[12] These types of venues support sexual oppression and embrace negative stereotypes of women.[12] Because of the public display of explicit behavior, the practice becomes dirty, inappropriate, and ultimately looked down upon. This is believed to has an effect on women and is the driving force towards their oppression, objectification and inequality. The stigmatization of raunch aesthetics has been linked to this and devalues women's genuine experiences and practices.[11]

When women take part in activities that may be considered "slutty" or unladylike, they are condemned by society for not complying with the gender norms. However, recently through the use of hip hop and the media, women have been combating these norms thus making raunchy aesthetic more controversial in today's society.

It is clear that some women within the hip-hop realm are glorified for their raunchy performances over others. This is referred to in society as slut-shaming. Slut-shaming is the experience of being labeled as a sexually out-of-control girl or woman being punished socially for carrying out this identity.[13] Due to this, there have been female artists who state their opinions about other female artists who engage in this behavior. Amber Rose, for example, has spoken out on this issue. She mentioned that the animosity that both she and Kim Kardashian receive on a daily basis for revealing themselves to the public is unfair, whereas Beyoncé twerks and wears clothes just as revealing clothes; yet the terms "ho" or "porn star" are not used when referring to Beyoncé. Rose said that at the end of the day, each are women and that they should all embrace one other, and that no person is better.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty is an American-based singer-songwriter, actress, and clothing designer. Born in Barbados, she entered the music industry in 2003 with help from Evan Rogers. She landed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for rapper and producer Jay Z. Her debut album Music in the Sun and second album A Girl Like Me, exerted an everyday, humble, pretty and ‘exotic’ Caribbean girl aesthetic. Granting her a top 10 record on the U.S Billboard 200list in 2006, she began to her take over of the music industry with her hit single "Pon de Replay". In 2007 she released her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad, where she was given creative control to reinvent her image to become more sexualized. She and singer/producer/clothing designer Chris Brown had a short-lived relationship that ended in a domestic dispute, landing Brown probation. After this Rihanna took to her music once again reinventing her image to fit a raunchier aesthetic. [20]Russian Roulette by Rihanna shows that sex-positive notions are challenged, this song speaks on gender, sex and violence which was her first single after her domestic violence dispute with Chris Brown. In her fifth studio album Loud released in 2010, she debuted one of her most controversial songs, "S&M". The lyrics are explicitly sexual, portraying soft-core sadomasochist acts and fetishes, and the video portrays Rihanna as a sexual object with very suggestive visuals and imagery. The video was banned in many countries, and was restricted to late night hours in others. She received this feedback because hypersexual culture is framed as problematic in our patriarchal society. Women are subjected to fall deaf to their bodily urges; the ‘publicness’ of the culture challenges the ways in which we view the women's rights to their bodies.[21]

Some of "S&M"'s lyrics are:

Here Rihanna expresses her fondness for out-of-the box sex, in honor of her newfound raunchiness she embraces her power to choose how she enjoys sexual encounters. She forms her own sexual liberation, and breaking down gender-based binaries that prohibit women from expressing their desires. She goes on after this verse in the chorus confessing her expectations for bedroom etiquette. Proclaiming that chains and whips excite her, is a major slap in the face to white patriarchal standards of being a proper woman. Also shattering the oversexualizing of Caribbean women's bodies over-present in the media, by being the one to sexualize herself. She does this while affirming her role in raunch culture; the hypersexualizing of a culture through music videos, advertising, the clothing industry and celebrity.[22]

Esquire Magazine declared Rihanna "the sexiest woman alive" in 2011. The magazine cover is Rihanna completely nude with seaweed around her body as she is posed to show skin while her intimate body parts are covered from the position she is in. On the cover Rihanna is drawing a sexual desire from her fingers clawing her fresh, her gun tattoo pointing towards her side boob. The articles author of the article Ross McCammon stated how Rihanna's presence had left him speechless.

[23]

Rihanna has continued to top the charts with her catchy chorus and her raunchy aesthetic. In 2012 former boyfriend Chris Brown and Rihanna decided to collaborate on a few remixes that critics and fans rejected because of their history of domestic abuse. In their remix of the song "Birthday Cake", Rihanna can be perceived as singing to Brown with lyrics such as:

Here, once again she illustrates that sexual identity belongs to her, and that she is the only one who can decide what it looks like. With this provocative language, the singer angered a lot of people who did not believe that she should be singing, nor engaging in any sexual activity with Brown. However, it appears that she did not care much, and that she is not in the habit of letting people dictate her sexuality. Sexual behavior can be given a broader scope, where it includes all expressions of self as a being of sexual experiences.[24] This view allows for all aspects of Rihanna's identity to be viewed as sexual performance. While her music has a raunchy aesthetic, so does the way she presents herself on an everyday basis, not limiting her performance to merely the way she dresses, but in the way she speaks with power and vitality, qualities she shares with the well-known raunchy performer Missy Elliott. By overtly expressing her sexual desires, the artist embraces the raunchy aesthetic reclaiming the power of sexual identity.