“I'm Kinda Ratchet Still”

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Recognition

Honorary Prize for Best Essay in Sociology, UC Santa Barbara, 2024.

Project Overview

The complete essay follows below. The title and subtitle above replace the original academic title; the argument, method, findings, and works cited remain intact.

Abstract

Respectability politics are a tool of assimilation to white hegemony that have been employed by the Black community to gain economic standing following slavery. However, the terms of respectability are limiting and oppressive, boxing Black women and all Black people into certain standards of class and image. The emergence of Ratchet Feminism aims to combat this and humanize all Black bodies, despite their appearance, presentation, or class.

This paper examines the ways Ratchet Feminism is employed to reject respectability politics by mainstream Black women artists in hip-hop and rap through their song lyrics. It also examines the ways in which respectability is upheld through those same lyrics. Understanding Ratchet Feminism as a means of liberation from white supremacist and hegemonic capitalist ideals positions Black women as advocates for change and humanity, as opposed to the ungrievability and unrapeability that respectability politics places on Black women who are not deemed respectable. Through this examination, themes of sexual freedom, sexual shaming, body positivity, body shaming, and the decentering and centering of men emerge as the main mechanisms of liberation and respectability.

Introduction

This research paper is a discussion of respectability politics, Ratchet Feminism, and Hood-Made Feminism. My research question is: how do Black women in hip-hop and rap reinforce or reject respectability politics through their song lyrics?

This discussion is sociologically important because it aims to remove the stigmatization of the terms ratchet and ghetto, illuminating long-held and untrue stereotypes around Black women and their bodies while maintaining a framework of liberatory consciousness. Black women in hip-hop and rap come in all shapes, shades, and sizes and from all classes, making their music an important site for examining the consciousness of Black women.

Respectability politics have been utilized as a tool to aid Black people's liberation and integration into society after slavery through assimilation to white standards. However, respectability politics cannot overcome the hegemony of oppression and coloniality that continues to live in corporations and the American government. The white supremacist ideals of respectability politics are not tools of liberation for any race; they are tools for enforcing capitalist hegemony that benefit only a small group of white people.

The sources chosen for this project provide historical context for key terms such as respectability politics, ratchet, Ratchet Feminism, and liberatory consciousness. This research aims to rework ratchet and its associated language as a framework for liberation rather than as derogatory terms with roots in slavery and colonialism. It aims to humanize all Black women and advocate for their liberation rather than creating conditions around which Black women deserve freedom. It also sheds light on the ways white supremacy and capitalist ideals remain ingrained in the mass consciousness of the Black community, which can bring forth conversations of healing and change.

Literature Review

Respectability Politics

Respectability politics are the actions, behaviors, and appearances consciously employed by marginalized people in order to gain higher social and economic standing by assimilating to the hegemonic narratives and behaviors of the ruling class. This often involves the rejection of ancestral traditions and cultural values. Frameworks that created Black class structure and respectability standards did not solely pivot on the tangible factors of wealth and ownership that support white class structure. Education, occupation, church membership, and personal property were also standards that drew Black class distinctions (Harper 38). Respectability is the performance and facade of perfection: a perfect family, perfect finances, perfect etiquette, and perfect appearance.

Implications of the Terms Ratchet, Hood, and Ghetto

The coloniality of slavery is not lost on the mechanisms of our society and should not be overlooked. Slavery has had a long-standing effect on the perception and treatment of Black women. At every turn, they are forced to prove they are good students, good workers, good friends, and good mothers. The role of "breeders" that enslaved Black women were forced to fulfill transformed into the Jezebel stereotype and the perceived hypersexuality of Black women.

Pregnant Black women are also typecast into the caricature of the "welfare queen," imagined as a lazy and irresponsible mother. They are often believed to be more sexually promiscuous, less financially stable, less likely to use birth control, and more likely to have multiple sexual partners when compared to white pregnant women (Rosenthal and Lobel). The hypersexuality assigned to Black women creates a notion of ungrievability and unrapeability that is rooted in slavery, when Black women were treated as property and denied rights.

Black women who openly embrace their sexuality are therefore more openly subjected to violence and abuse. When Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez in 2020, social media users argued that she deserved it because of her sexuality. Terms like ratchet, hood, and ghetto dehumanize Black women while making them the problem in their own lives and overlooking the societal and institutional oppression that limits their movements, education, safety, and life expectancies.

Hood-Made and Ratchet Feminism

While ratchet is often used as a derogatory statement implying that a person is dirty, poor, or transient, Nadia Brown and Lisa Young ask readers to reimagine ratchet behavior as a response to unfair and oppressive institutions and societies. Rather than placing the burden of respectability onto Black women, they ask the reader to place that burden onto the corporations, institutions, and governments that hinder the prosperity and growth of the Black community.

This Hood-Made Feminism is an act of rebellion against the politics of respectability and against the politics of America, which has shown time and time again that, as an institution, it does not care about the Black woman's body or consciousness. Black people, and Black women in particular, often find themselves in situations where they must diminish their lived experience for the comfort of other people.

Montinique McEachern defines ratchet as "cultural knowledge, performance, and awareness of anti-respectability" that can be shared across Black communities and is not bound by geography, class, or traditional education. McEachern bridges ratchetness and liberatory consciousness, asserting that urban Black women can use their class and culture to become agents of feminism.

Cardi B asserts Hood-Made and Ratchet Feminism when she responds to a political commentator who compared her unfavorably to Melania Trump. Cardi B's response calls out racial inequalities and respectability politics as they govern and police Black women. She asserts that she may not be a saint, but neither is Melania Trump. White women and Black women do not have the same experiences in America, and Black women cannot rely solely on the feminism employed by white women to grant them liberation from continued coloniality and oppression. Hood-Made and Ratchet Feminism embrace life circumstances and lived experience while making all bodies worthy of safety, love, and prosperity.

Data and Methods

This paper uses content analysis as a means of examination. This form of qualitative research focuses on systematic media analysis and allows for a large data set while remaining flexible in codes and theories. It was the best form of analysis for this data because it allowed themes and codes to emerge during analysis rather than limiting the study to preconceived notions.

The data for this analysis were the lyrics of mainstream rap and hip-hop music created by some of the most prominent Black women in the music industry. An analysis of mainstream artists is necessary because of their widespread reach and the conversations surrounding their music on social media, blogs, television, and other media.

The sample was constantly compiled and expanded while listening to new songs and as mainstream artists released new singles and albums. The catalog may be slightly skewed because it draws on many songs the author listens to regularly. This method is convenience sampling, as it draws upon convenient and accessible data for coding.

Quota sampling was also used, analyzing lyrics in relation to the women's identities. Colorism, biphobia, abuse, and class are important factors in a person's relationship to Ratchet Feminism and respectability politics. The more proximity to whiteness or financial stability an artist has, the more easily she may move between ratchetness and respectability. Literal coding was used, compiling lyrics from approximately fifty songs and analyzing them line by line, similar to a close reading of a poem: examining the literal meaning of the lyrics while also considering the context of the artists' lives and how that context may alter their meaning.

Findings and Discussion

The majority of the song lyrics and artists resisted respectability politics. However, very few artists avoided reinforcing respectability politics at least once. The themes that reinforce respectability politics are often counterposed against the themes used to reject it, meaning that many of the same subjects appear in both categories.

Rejecting Respectability Politics

The main themes through which respectability politics were resisted were sexual freedom, public image, decentering men and the patriarchy, and body politics. Sexual freedom is complex when discussing respectability politics because Black women are hypersexualized as a result of the coloniality of slavery. Their reclamation of sexuality is therefore frowned upon because it rejects the notions of purity associated with whiteness and respectability.

The sexual freedom expressed through the lyrics examined fell into two categories: physical pleasure and monetary gain. Physical pleasure represents the pursuit of unabashed and shameless sensuality. Monetary gain acknowledges sex as a commodity under capitalism. Sexyy Red, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Yung Miami, and other artists regularly position women as active participants who determine the terms of sexual relationships rather than as passive objects. Even when money is central, the women in these lyrics claim the authority to set the value and conditions of access to their bodies.

A key component of respectability is maintaining appearances of purity and class. This is challenged by the reclamation of words such as ratchet, hood, and slut. GloRilla describes herself as "young, wealthy, and ratchet," refusing to create an image of respectability and instead embracing her authentic self.

Decentering men and the patriarchy also rejects respectability politics because, within respectability politics, men are often positioned as leaders who must be obeyed and catered to. Monaleo describes herself as "rich with and without one," creating a life that does not revolve around a man. Women reclaim power by presenting financial stability, pleasure, and self-worth as things that exist independently of romantic partnership.

Body politics covers issues such as colorism, body image, and the respectability of clothing. Megan Thee Stallion openly references showing her body, while JT celebrates her dark skin. These lyrics challenge respectability by embracing bodies, skin colors, and clothing choices that are not accepted in every space, and showcasing them as beautiful.

Less prevalent themes included mental health and queerness. Megan Thee Stallion's "Cobra" functions like a journal entry into her struggle with depression and substance use. This is especially important because Black women are associated with the strong or superwoman trope, making their feelings and mental health seem less important than those of their male and white counterparts. Speaking publicly about depression and suicidal ideation challenges a hegemony that expects Black women to compartmentalize pain for the sake of their families and communities. JT and Monaleo also normalize queerness in lyrics that acknowledge attraction beyond heterosexual relationships. These moments reject heteronormativity and the violence queer and trans people face in everyday life.

Reinforcing Respectability Politics

The main themes that reinforced respectability politics were sex-shaming, body politics, centering men, and family dynamics. Although female rappers are often braggadocious about their sex lives, one mechanism for increasing their own positionality is to claim sexual purity while shaming the sexual promiscuity of other women.

Latto presents a low "body count" as a source of superiority, while Cardi B uses sexual history to insult other women. These lyrics reproduce the idea that a woman's value is connected to her sexual restraint, even when they appear in music that otherwise celebrates sexual freedom.

Body politics can also reinforce respectability. Nicki Minaj's insults toward Megan Thee Stallion use Megan's height, body, and disability as points of degradation. Because taller and darker Black women are often masculinized, these insults reproduce an association between femininity and proximity to whiteness.

Respectability is also reinforced by centering men through what this paper calls the trap of loyalty: the phenomenon in which Black women put their own safety and reputation on the line to protect their family unit or a Black man, taught that they must shield Black men from the racism and violence they experience in the public sphere. This allows trauma and abuse to go undocumented and unnoticed, reinforcing the hegemony of patriarchy.

Finally, respectability politics are reinforced through family theorizing. Flo Milli's rejection of having "bastards" positions superiority and class as associated with an unbroken, respectable family. The lyric is brief, but it reproduces the stigma attached to unmarried mothers and children born outside marriage.

Respectability politics and Ratchet Feminism are opposites that draw on similar themes in order to either reinforce suppression or fight for liberation. Sexuality, appearance, family, wealth, and relationships with men can become mechanisms for both resistance and respectability, depending on how they are framed and who is being judged.

Conclusion

The examination of mainstream hip-hop and rap songs created by Black women shows that respectability politics are reinforced through lyrics involving sex-shaming, body shaming, family theorizing, the trap of loyalty, and the centering of men through patriarchal reinforcement. Respectability politics are rejected through lyrics involving sex as monetary gain, sex as physical pleasure, and the rejection of respectability around public image, body image, queerness, and mental health.

An important aspect of this study that was only touched on briefly is colorism and class politics in relation to the resistance or reinforcement of respectability politics. People of lighter complexion and middle- or upper-class backgrounds can sometimes adopt hood, ghetto, or ratchet aesthetics for the attention it brings them. However, they can more easily distance themselves from those negative stereotypes because of their proximity to whiteness and financial stability.

A woman of lighter complexion or from a middle- or upper-class background will not face the same backlash as a dark-skinned woman or a woman from a poor background in the public sphere. If she does face backlash, she can more easily call upon respectability politics to distance herself from proximity to Blackness.

This paper aims to illuminate the ways Black women are progressing toward liberation despite public backlash and outrage. By identifying the ways respectability politics and subsequent shaming show up in music and everyday life, Black women and women of all races can become more aware of when the standards of white supremacy and capitalism are controlling and limiting their choices.

Awareness is the first step in creating an informed, safe, and pleasurable reality. Black women are pioneers leading the charge, creating conversations and realities in which all women have a chance to live life on their own terms.

Works Cited