Thursday, March 21, 2013

Hyper-masculinity with a beard and a flanel shirt



The topic of Lecture in our most recent class was the idea of “hyper-masculinity” but more specifically how it is shown in the hip-hop culture. The article for class today talked about how Tupac got such a bad rap for portraying a hyper-masculine lifestyle when it really was not his true self. This was a common theme among the other rappers as shown in the documentary viewed in class, when Mos Def and Busta Rhymes admittedly put on a gangster face for the cameras when it really was not who they were at heart. Although prevalent in the hip hop culture this idea of hyper-masculinity is also very prevalent in other (and really most) other cultures in the United States. As I mentioned in class there is a website called Manteresting which is just like Pinterest but with way more awesome manly stuff. This site is literally dedicated to hyper-masculinity, however it is not in a hip-hop or thug style. This site shows awesome DIY house projects for middle class men to look at and be jealous of, or cool hunting equipment to add to the arsenal of the man looking to kill animals to establish his dominance, or beautiful women in Daisy Dukes and exotic cars…sound familiar? It should because it is very similar to the hip hop culture but in a way that is more in tune with the middle class suburbanite male. I would like to end my post by saying that it is most likely the white middle to upper class suburbanite male that passes the harshest criticism of these rappers who are obsessing over beautiful women, big houses,  and exotic cars. Oh the hypocrisy. But really manteresting is a totally awesome site that every self-respecting male should check out.  

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