Positive Female Images in the Entertainment World

This week I watched about 2-3hours of television to keep up on the current events. I read two different magazines this week Star and OK. They mainly focused on exposing current and revealing celebrity gossip. The main event for week was that I went to a series of concerts. My favorite artist, Lupe Fiasco, is on tour and I went to Baltimore and Norfolk to support them. On Friday, I will be heading to Richmond to see them perform again. Lupe Fiasco is known to be an artist who supports and hopes to improve positive images of African-American women and men in the media. Although those two groups are not his only focuses in improving our relations with one another as a society.

While I was at the Baltimore show a young women took the stage as one of our many opening acts her name was Amanda Diva. She rapped about not giving into the common view of women in the Hip-Hop world. She felt as though she didn't have to dress half naked or sleep her way to the top in order to have a career as an MC. As she spit those lyrics the crowd of females went wild including myself. It made me think that women are often portrayed as sexual beings and in order to be successful we have to perform sexual favors. She also rapped about how she thought she looked very sexy in a hoody versus coming on stage half-dressed in stilettos to appeal to an audience. When I heard her say all of this in her lyrics it made me think about the absence of positive female role-models in the Hip-Hop industry. I was happy to see a young, attractive, positive female that actually had something to say in regards to the way the media portrays women instead of feeding into it.

Amanda Diva's Myspace Page (Check out her music)

At the next destination, Norfolk, I got a chance to have a long conversation with one of the artists on the tour. Nikki Jean is a up-and-coming singer that is featured on Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool". She has been performing for quite a while but the recent events have caused her to be able to reach more audiences and and gain celebritism. She is a very talented, hard-working, and sweet young lady. While we were chatting we touched on the topic of peoples views of her on the tour. She confessed that she often gets comments or looks like "how did she get on tour?" or "She must have done something to get here". She stated that someone on the tour crew said "I know why your on tour! Because you smell good!" but, even in joking the comment challenges her talent as an artist. I was upset that people would question her talent simply because she was attractive or imply that she used anything other than her talent to gain success. Below is a video from her daily blog where she talks about being exhausted and sick but, doesn't want to leave the tour because she has done alot to get there. This is just a glimpse of her determination and drive which is the force behind her successful career.

Nikki Jean's Myspace Page (Listen to her Music)

The short trip that I made this week really made me think of women's role in the entertainment world as entertainers and consumers. I got a chance to gain a perpective from the entertainer's point-of-view but as a consumer I have an opinion as well. A topic that we touched on in class was that "women tend not to networking as often as men". When I heard this statement I didn't feel as though it were true. I know most of the people on the Lupe Fiasco tour and that was done by networking. I met one person and that branched out into other people and it is often said that women can get invited to places in which men don't. The downside is that the are viewed negatively. I am an appreciator of the music I could care less about the artists personal lives unless we are friends but I often get called a "groupie". I don't go to concerts for personal gain or hidden agenda only to support good music but I am still grouped with those who follow stars simply to bed them. It can be very frustrating at times. While I was at the concert in Baltimore after it was over a friend of mine who had just performed was trying to get out numbers so we could get in touch after the show. Before he could get our phones he was surrounded by females trying to give him their number. He gave up after trying without any success and he told us he'd see us backstage. The girl behind me made a comment like "Go Girl", I replied "I know him", and she didn't believe me she thought I was just hooking up with some random person. That kind of bothered me not only because someone thought of me in that way but it was a female.