Objectifying women definition
Objectifying women means presenting women as dehumanised and objects for male sexual pleasure.70 As Saul says, objectification precludes the participation of women and girls in how they are defined: their interests and needs are seen as of no consequence to satisfying male objectives in a heterosexual setting. Objectification is about power relations, and is also contextual. This notion of objectification is a source of hip-hop’s notoriety. However, it is challenged by situations where women deliberately collude with objectification of their likenesses or bodies in exchange of money or to challenge societal views. Thus objectification is nuanced. Women’s bodies are sexualised (much like in soukous, kwaito, ragga videos) and fetishised hence Miller-Young refers to ‘the pornification’ of hip-hop.71 In addition, hip-hop relies on provocative use of language to capture evolving subjectivities and challenge the status quo. For instance, women in hip-hop videos are referred to as ‘video “hos”’ (calibrated from whore) and ‘bitches’ but whose meanings in colloquial English is different from what these words conjure up in standard English. 72 This is to say the words and images are not meant to insult women. In the northern hemisphere some of the women in the videos may work in adult entertainment and see hip-hop videos as diversification of their work and sources of income under less hazardous working conditions.73 Thus when objectification is juxtaposed with agency and consent of women, it make uni-dimensional charges of objectification unsustainable.74