Lindsay Carolla English 458 John Marsh December 6, 2011 Bad Man: Hughes aint no Feminist As a woman who

loves rap music, I am constantly asked how I feel about insensitive or offensive lyrics. No, I do not aspire to be a big booty video chick. And, yes, I do know every word to Suck It or Not by Camron featuring Lil Wayne, which is an overly misogynistic rap song about receiving fellatio. The song has an infectious melody, and it is so ridiculous and overthe-top its laughable a modern Modest Proposal. Now that thats clear, I cant deny that many rap songs today are anti-feminist. Aside from Camrons comedic example, mainstream male artists do in fact debase women regularly even when they are rapping to or about women. Even the few women rappers, debase themselves by turning themselves into sex symbols to sell records. Artists use the words bitch, ho, and other variations of them so often, listeners expect to hear them, or rather disregard them as banal. Feminists urge women and men alike to oppose the support of artists that employ this popular female-deprecating technique. I know firsthand that gender equality has not been reached. Some of these lyrics and the beliefs they promote are harmful to my generation and force me to fear for the next. Despite all of the impressive progress women have managed to make towards equality, todays spoiled youth thwarts further momentum and erases past success, all by listening to derogatory lyrics wrapped up in poppy dance beats. Whats puzzling is that todays rap music is said to be an evolved version of blues rhythm and lyricism, like we see in Langston Hughess poetry. Rap music utilizes many tactics Hughes

premiered such as expressing political viewpoints, contemplating relationships and sex, and stories of everyday hardships, all to relate to the common black man and give him solace and belonging within conventional white culture. But unlike todays black male rap artist, Hughes also sings the tribulations of women. He even adopts a female voice and perspective. He tries to appeal and free women by replicating their vernacular and discussing realistic situations where they might have find themselves such as working as a maid in a white persons home. It allows women to relate and feel camaraderie. For this, scholars label him as the first black male feminist author. Yet, Hughess poetry also discusses the abuse of women, gender inequality, and the incompletion of a woman without a man, even when he does take on an alternative voice. If we only admire Hughes for acknowledging women and their associated struggles, and just ignore his misogynistic Bad Man who beats his wife and his side gal too, (Hughes 692) can we consider Hughes a feminist? If I come across a rap song that truly insults me as a woman, I simply skip the track. When I discovered the song Thats My Bitch (you can correctly assume the subject matter) on Kanye West and Jay-Zs compilation album this year, I deleted it from my iTunes and thereby intend never to hear it again. However, the rest of the album is fantastic. Though I dont listen to the one particular song, I am still supporting these artists by purchasing the album. I am therefore encouraging them to make more material like Thats My Bitch because as far as they know, it could be my favorite song of all time. So, I ask myself, if I just ignore the anti-feminist songs, can I consider Jay-Z a feminist? No, I cannot. And no critics encourage me to, so why Langston Hughes? If Langston Hughes inspired todays rap music, how could the music evolve in an anti-feminist way? Simple.

Hughes isnt a feminist poet. In fact, I believe this claim is ridiculous, and my viewpoint formed after reading The Norton Anthologys short collection. Even the seemingly female empowered verses are ant-feminist upon careful dissection. And even if they could be considered feminist, the point is moot; these passages do not cancel the anti-feminist verses wrought in the rest of Hughess poetry. According to Nghana tamu Lewis in her article In a different chord: interpreting the relations among black female sexuality, agency, and the blues, Hughes participated in a taperecorded interview in the early 1980s. Hughes explains that though both men and women are able to use the blues for catharsis, specific subject matter is reserved for each gender. Hughes says, Mens blues are almost always about being out of work, broke, hungry, maybe a long way from home, no ticket to get back. In other words theyre sort of economic blues. The womens blues are almost always about love. Very often a woman will be singing about some man whos gone off and left her before shes ready for him to go, or something like that. Even the diction Hughes chooses to explain the dichotomy of gender blues is reflective of his male-dominant attitude. Of course, he discusses male blues examples first implying an order of importance. He explains mens blues with greater detail and a sort of reverent undercurrent. When he discusses womens blues, Hughes trails off with or something like that as if womens blues are unvaried and unworthy of discussion. The subject matter further confirms Hughess attitude towards women. He states that womens blues are almost always about love (a subject which cannot exist without men) like its a fact. Hughes is not a woman; how could he be the foremost expert on how women do or should use the blues to express themselves? If Hughes truly understood women, he would know that we complain about a whole lot more than abandonment or daddyissues.

Lewis also disagrees with Hughes and believes he is nearsighted: Hughes's ahistorical dichotomizing of the blues reveals that he could render rather myopic interpretations even of his own work. Albert Murray and Charles Keil, among other blues historians, rightly point out that the blues have never served as a conduit for gender-scripted performances and that early male and female artists often sang the same songs, appropriately changing gender references in the lyrics. The peculiar thing is that Hughes seems to understand this as reflected in his poetry. He uses a womans voice to write about subjects other than love, like economic situations. Two examples are the sequential poems Madams Past History and Madam and Her Madam. Both poems depict Madam, a strong, independent, business-minded black woman. She lacks some self-awareness, but she is more respectable than other forlorn women Hughes embodies. No man is mentioned in Madam and Her Madam and only once in Madams Past History: Then I had a BARBECUE STAND Till I got mixed up With a no-good man (Hughes 697). Even though a man enters the poem, Madam recognizes her mistake and in the next stanza moves on with her life. This might lead one to think that Hughes was simply confused or misconstrued during the interview. Perhaps he is a feminist. But maybe only for black women. According to Anne Borden, In discussing Black male and female identity, Hughes speaks of the ways gender uniquely colors these experiences. He writes in a manner which could be described as genderracial, emphasizing how gender and racial identity are intertwined. Through a genderracial lens, I concede that Hughes might show a feminist view of black woman. However, to be a true feminist, Hughes would have to advocate

for all womens rights regardless of race. He doesnt. Each poem containing the presence of a white woman presents her as a weak or helpless child-like figure. In Madam and Her Madam, Madams Madam is a white woman, unable to clean her house, take care of her children, or even walk her dog. Sure, Madam is her maid and she was hired to take care of the household, but Madam is depicted as weary yet capable, and she even treats the white woman with contempt: I said, Madam, Can it be You trying to make a Pack-horse out of me? To which the white Madam responds: She opened her mouth. She cried, Oh, no! You know, Alberta, I love you so! Alberta, the black Madam, then responds the feeling is not mutual a brutal blow to the feeble white woman. This retort seems equal to the way black men treat black women in Hughess poetry. Because the white woman is kind and doesnt cruelly control Alberta, she seems desperate, as if without a maid she would collapse under pressure. Though the black womans situation is more oppressive, she is uplifted by the poetry, while the white woman is incapable. Hughes does this again in Silhouette. This poem is a lot darker as it discusses white mens retaliation on a black man after he presumably assaulted a white woman. We arent sure whether the black man committed a crime or was simply a victim of racism, but we do know the white men cover-up their thirst for blood by claiming revenge for the affected white woman.

However, The men treat this woman they claim to protect as though she is nave and ignorant. The poem begins, Southern gentle lady,/ Do not swoon (Hughes 699). They command her not to act hysterical. This is a red flag for feminists everywhere. Hysteria was a medical condition until the seventeenth century thought to be caused by problems of the uterus. Women were diagnosed with this bogus condition when they acted out of line. There isnt even any proof the woman is acting stricken, shes simply told not to begin. At the end of the poem, the woman is commanded once more, Southern gentle lady,/ Be good! (Hughes 699). Again, the men try to deprive the woman of a natural reaction of distress. Either this woman was raped or just witnessed a murder or just witnessed the murder of her rapist; tears are in order. Man or woman in this situation should be bothered. But the men speak to her inappropriately; Be good! is a command you give a child, or worse, a dog you know, like the animal shes incapable of walking. It is true that Hughes has written many poems about women singing the blues specifically due to love and heartache. An extreme example is Lament over Love. This poem sees a woman in ruins after her lover has left her single with children because of course the woman is expected to take care of the children. This mother cares more about herself than caring for her children. As the poem continues, this female contemplates ways of committing suicide to relieve her of the pain caused by her lovers abandonment. She considers drowning: Goin down to de river, Aint goin there to swim. Ma true loves left me, an Im goin there to think about him. And then jumping from a high location:

Im goin up in a tower Tall as a tree is tall. Say up in a tower Tall as a tree is tall. Gonna think about ma man an Let ma fool-self fall (Hughes 690). Despite her initial concern for her children, (I hope ma chilell/ Never love a man because she reasons, Cause love can hurt you/ Mon anything else can) this woman ultimately cannot bear being lonely. She asserts love is the only ingredient for happiness: If you wants to be happy/ You got to love all de time. She also blames herself for the loss of her lover. In the last line she calls herself a fool implying that she did something to make her lover desert her. The man leaves his children, yet receives no blame. This poem does nothing but make the female voice seem pathetic and incomplete without a man. Perhaps one could argue that while its true this poem is anti-feminist, it is an anomaly in Hughess anthology. It isnt. Take for instance Gals Cry for a Dying Lover. As the title suggests, this poem is yet another ballad of a woman losing her male counterpart this time due to death instead of willing abandonment. The woman repeats the signs of her lovers impending death and how it upsets her. However, there is a turn in the last stanza. The woman talks about herself: Black an ugly But he sho do treat me kind. Im black an ugly But he sho do treat me kind.

High-in-heaben Jesus, Please dont take this man o mine (Hughes 692). Like the woman in Lament over Love, this woman is selfish and self-deprecating. She believes she is too unattractive to find another man that will treat her well, and therefore cannot bear having this man die and leave her alone. Yet another woman totally dependent on the presence and love of a man? Instead of burning bras, feminists should consider burning Hughess collections. The only semi-feminist verse sang by a Hughess female persona is found in Hard Daddy. This female character admits to her Daddy that she has the blues. Daddy could apply to the womans actual father or her lover as a sort of abbreviation of the slang term Sugar Daddy. A Sugar Daddy denotes a male that provides for a woman in exchange for a sexual relationship. If the woman is in fact speaking to her father, Hughes is highlighting a rocky relationship that serves as the culprit for other unhealthy relationships with men. Either way, the woman is directly influenced by how a man treats her. When she looks to her Daddy for consolation, he rebuffs her: Cried on his should but He turned his back on me. He said a womans cryins Never gonna bother me. We are supposed to assume automatically a lover causes her dejection. Truly, we dont have confirmation until the last stanza, which is the only glimpse of feminism: I wish I had wings to Fly like de eagle flies.

Wish I had wings to Fly like de eagle flies. Id fly on ma man an Id scratch out both his eyes (Hughes 693). Barring the last two lines, she longs for freedom, to fly away like the figurative eagle with selfidentity and empowerment. Sadly, a mans maltreatment is the motivation. The symbolism of the eagle crumbles at the poems resolve when she longs to use the transformation to seek revenge on her lover, instead of escaping an oppressive situation. Hughes introduces anti-feminist ideas then immediately complicates them with a man. Unfortunately, these pitiful dependent female characters are nothing compared to the women portrayed in Sylvesters Dying Bed. Sylvester, a male voice, sings this poem. Sylvester realizes hes on his deathbed by the laments of nameless women: Sweet gals was a-moanin, Sylvesters gonna die! And a hundred pretty mamas Bowed their heads to cry. And later: Black gals was a-beggin, You cant leave us here! Brown-skins crying Daddy! Honey! Baby! Dont go, dear! (Hughes 693) When women moaned over the loss of a man they seemed weak, pathetic. The male point of view goes further by putting women in a worshipping position. No longer do we see a nuclear

relationship of one and one woman either. There are multiple women pleading for a resolution like a congregation. These women are dominated by and devoted to a single man like a god. They moan, beg, and even bow their heads to cry (a religious act) over the loss of a man. Again a male is referred to as Daddy, which is another word for father, another word for God. It may seem like a stretch, but its loving devotion in an exaggerated form. Moreover, the character Sylvester is a perfect example of the classic double standard phenomena: man can have many casual lovers, but a woman is left to commit suicide after losing her romanticized one true love? Like Sylvester and unlike women, when men sing the blues about love, they dont act dramatic. Sometimes the poems can be abusive, like the chauvinist Bad Man whos the inspiration for my argument. Beats ma wife an Beats ma side gal too. Dont know why I do it but It keeps me from feelin blue (Hughes 692). The first line of Bad Man is enough evidence to discredit Hughes as a feminist. Abusive male characters are completely unacceptable, misogynistic, immoral, and they inappropriately illustrate women as weak and inferior. The second line of the poem revisits the double standard, the third confirms the women dont deserve abuse, and the final line mentions the mans motivation. According to Hughess mentality, women sing the blues because theyre heartbroken, but this Bad Man avoids singing the blues by breaking womens hearts. The Norton Anthology explains, Hughes turned to the blues because their monotonous melancholy almost terrible at times seemed to him most true to African American

experience (685). Okay, some white women do act powerless, some women do cry about love, and some disgusting men do beat women. So, Hughes writes about truths. Thats fine, but it doesnt make him a feminist. Im not saying Hughes wasnt a talented poet. He exalted black culture and prepared a legacy that fostered the music I love today. Why cant we celebrate those achievements instead of lying to ourselves trying to prove feminism in his lyrics? He could have written truths with revolutionary endings. The woman in Hard Daddy could have actually flown away and became a self-dependent lawyer. Why not? Because Hughes wasnt a feminist! He did not control realistic situations, but he did control his diction. Lets stop accusing the rap artists of today for inventing misogyny when there is proof gender subjugation is a longstanding tradition. Until hip-hop music stops citing Hughes, the root of the problem, as an influence, songs like Thats my Bitch will surface and artists like Jay-Z will build their wealth.

Works Cited

Borden, Anne. "Heroic "hussies" and "brilliant Queers": Genderracial Resistance in the Works of Langston Hughes." Resource Library. CBS Interactive, 1994. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_n3_v28/ai_16328144/>.

"Langston Hughes." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Ed. Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O'Clair. Third ed. Vol. 1. New York, New York: W.W. Norton &, 2003. 684-704. Print. Modern Poetry.

Lewis, Nghana Tamu. "In a Different Chord: Interpreting the Relations among Black Female Sexuality, Agency, and the Blues." Resource Library. CBS Interactive, 2003. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_4_37/ai_n6129673/>.