“Planet B-Girl: Community Building and Feminism in Hip-Hop” is the article written by Himanee Gupta-Carlson for New Political Science in 2010. The author aims at uniting hip-hop ideas with such issues as gender differences, political commitment, and the identification of personal ideals. It is necessary to comprehend that hip-hop is not just an ordinary music genre that unites people. Hip-hop is “an artistic form of protest” (Gupta-Carlson, 2010, p.515) with the help of which many b-boys and b-girls can demonstrate their attitudes, share their stories, and prove their life beliefs.
However, even if hip-hop can be defined as a free movement of people (disenfranchised African Americans in particular), there are still a number of contradictions and concerns about the idea of gendering hip-hop spaces. The main idea of the article under analysis is the intentions of female hip-hop artists to prove their choices and demonstrate their abilities by using the same rights male hip-hop artists have already got. There is no need to underline the supremacy of women or identify their differences with men. There is only one big hope to use hip-hop as a chance to share personal stories, express and challenge personal ideals, and get access to a normal life that is so cherished by many women of Seattle.
Gupta-Carlson (2010) underlines that hip-hop gives women a voice. At the same time, hip-hop itself is defined as a voice for those people, who might feel that they do not have a voice but want to be heard and create their own calls for action. The author’s position is powerful indeed as it provides people, both, men and women, with the belief that hip-hop is a good portion of motivation for people, who lose their sense of life, who want to find meaning, and who want to belong to a community sharing similar ideals and approaches.
Using personal observations, interviews with Seattle citizens, and the stories told by different women, Gupta-Carlson admits that it is not enough for women to have jobs, earn money, and come back home day by day in order to be happy. Hip-hop maybe that missing part for African American women to achieve happiness and satisfaction. “Planet B-Girl” is a symbol created to inspire young women of Seattle and consider hip-hop as one of the possible solutions to their personal problems.
The summary offered by the classmate is strong indeed. The main points are clearly underlined, and the evaluation of the material offered by the author of the article is developed. On the one hand, there are no additional phrases and explanations that may distract the reader from the main points of the article. On the other hand, it seems like several thoughts developed by the author about hip-hop and the feministic ideals could be given to provide the reader with a general overview of the chosen topic.
Still, the project under analysis may be improved if the author tries to delete several direct citations in the summary part and add more details about the reasons why the author of the article comes to a conclusion to identify and develop the evaluation of three failures of hip-hop feminism. It can be more interesting not to read the sentences taken directly from the article but to clarify how the classmate understands the messages of Jeffries, the author of “Hip Hop Feminism and Failure,” and interprets the material offered.
Works Cited
Gupta-Carlson, Himanee. “Planet B-Girl: Community building and feminism in hip-hop.” New Political Science 32.4 (2010): 515-529.