The (Re)Construction of Black Womanhood among Black College Women at PWIs: A Hip Hop Feminism Model of Multiple Identities

• Published in: Journal of college student development Vol. 63; no. 2; pp. 168 - 184
• Main Authors: Payne, Ashley N, West, Nicole M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 01-03-2022
• Subjects: African American Students; Cultural Influences; Ethnic Stereotypes; Females; Feminism; Music; Popular Culture; Racial Composition; Racial Identification; Racism; Sex Stereotypes; Sexual Identity; Social Bias; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0897-5264
• DOI: 10.1353/csd.2022.0013

The purpose of this study was to explore how Hip Hop informed the construction of gendered racial and sexual identities among Black women at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Ten Black women undergraduates at a PWI in the midwestern region of the US engaged in individual and focus group interviews, which included participating in an activity called the Soundtrack of My Life. The research team performed a constant comparative thematic analysis and identified three themes: (a) using Hip Hop to explore the multiplicity of Black womanhood, (b) unpacking the hypersexualization of Black women in Hip Hop, and (c) leveraging Hip Hop to navigate respectability politics. These findings explicate the specific ways Black women in college rely on Hip Hop to reconstruct Black womanhood via multiple intersecting identities. This study adds to previous identity frameworks by discussing the complex nature of Hip Hop culture's influence on the construction of Black womanhood among college women and proposes the Hip Hop feminism model of multiple identities.