To: tkubal@csufresno.edu
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2014 4:44:36 PM
Subject: Diana Sicairos- Presenter M @7 Soc Pop Cult
This week I read the articles Resistance under the Black Light: Exploring the Use of Music in Two Exotic Dance Clubs by Danielle Egan and Evaluating Agency and Responsibility in Gender Violence: African American Youth Talk about Violence and Hip Hop by Catherine R. Squires and others. First article discussed how exotic dances doubled between the years of 1987 to 2000 in the United States and how the dancers use music to protest against the club owners and to help in venting their feelings towards clients and their working conditions. The two clubs that underwent in this research were "Glitters" and "Flame". Danielle observed both clubs without letting the owners or dancers know he was there for research purposes and noticed a difference in what dancers underwent to make their paycheck and the requirements needed to work there. In the club Glitters employees made their money by time on stage as well as having a drink quota where they had to sell a minimum of 10 drinks per night. Dancers there were able to play any selection of music they wanted, they were the DJs, women ranged in body types having more of the fuller body type and tattoos as well as body modification was accepted. While at Flames he went in as a dancer and noticed that there they had to play a $15 fee to the DJ to play their music and sometimes would pay extra to make sure that their songs got played because the owners had to approve of the music selection to upkeep the reputation of the club. The dancers could not be bigger than a size 8 in jeans and tattoos and body modification was not encouraged, any extremity of this lead to them being fired. Their money was made by time on stage and lap dances $20 per song and an additional 20 if they were topless; time in the champagne room was also another method of income and that varied by the amount of time the customer wanted to spend with a dancer. This left dancers feeling like they had too many regulations and their choice of music was their getaway and therefor they were willing to pay the fees or used their regular customers to request certain songs and because the customer is always right the owner wouldn't give them any crap about it. They made connections with customers by saying it was their song or playing helpless and it left customers wanting to be the protector and helping them have their way by playing the song the desired. Their choice of music was their mask, helped them express how they were feeling because they couldn't express themselves freely because it would cost them their jobs.
Second article covered a study group conducted on African American high school students ranging from the ages of 14 through 17; a total of 35 who participated. They were split up into 3 groups; one solely composed of girls, another of just boys and the third group was mixed. They studied three modules; love is blind, date rape of a hip hop fan and viewing of images of women and men in hip hop. The finding lead to 3 main themes; women's behavior causes abuse, "nasty" women vs. powerful women in hip hop imagery and hard or soft? Sexy or innocent? Girls negotiating images of hip hop femininity. For the first theme most of the groups felt that if a woman is abused by her partner it is her own fault for not leaving; that yes it is wrong for a man to hit women and in the case he does it's because it's a product of the environment in which they grew up or what they are used to seeing. Another reason could be that the man feels inferior or weak and takes out his anger on the women therefor he beats her. Those women who are portrayed as nasty in music videos are viewed that way because they are asking for attention by dressing the way they do or by the way they act, while men are viewed as powerful by painting a picture of having everything; money, cars, designer clothing and "ho's". Finally in the third theme findings were to be that of a double-bind because African American women are supposed to be sexy and sensual yet at the same time are supposed to be strong and independent needing no one to help them. They are responsible for having the correct image if they want to be respected and treated right by men. Although students claimed amnesty from these media messages they learned somewhere that certain women are nasty and if they are to be abused it is because of their own choices; while men are abusive because they're product of their environment.
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