10 April 2006

Thank you, BET.

Thank you, BET.

It's not only the fault of BET, but MTV and the rap/hip hop/ r&b videos that have lead to this. Presumably at Black colleges and universities as well, but particularly at predominantly white colleges and universities, sistas are increasingly being stereotyped and cast into the roles of video hoes. That's right. The white guy in college who has seen big booty girls in Outkast, Snoop or Luda videos may project that image onto your sisters, daughters, cousins, girlfriends or wives.

The linked story above shows just how certain lewd behavior is unduly placed upon Black college women and contributes to the same tired, wrong oversexed stereotype used by white southern slaveowners to justify their raping of young black girls and women.

Now, since the current Duke University situation is unraveling to the point of general populace skepticism, I must make a distinction between what sistas endure on campus and that lacrosse team situation. But the ridiculous expectation of a sista to drop panties and serve up any white guy (or anybody for that matter) is outrageous.

So who is to blame for this stereotype and treatment of college sistas? Is is Luda and rappers and directors perpetuating the video hoe image? Or maybe it's the people stupid enough to believe the hype and then just dumb enough to expect every sista walking through the quad to behave that way.

06 April 2006

Women are work

Women are work. There, I've said it.

I argue that we men spend countless hours in school, studying, working at our jobs and trying to rule the world NOT just on our own behalf, but also because we choose to do whatever we can to make ourselves more appealing (thus datable) to women.

You didn't think this was all about us, did you?

We've evolved from killing dinner in prehistoric times to suits and ties, but we are still hunter gatherers. We work harder and harder to achieve success because we seek to attract the best, most complementary mate we can find and then from there we start the brood. Beyond grooming ourselves and working to support ourselves independently, we also worry about presentation and the way we look, what we drive, where we live — the whole nine. Though not all of us have the Denzel looks, the Jamison body or the phat rides or cribs, but we try to attract attractive, smart, sexy women with whom we can spend time and get to know.

So all of this trying and working slavishly to keep a woman happy is tiring.