Snoop Dogg is coming to campus this April, thanks to all of the students who voted in Electronic Arts’ promotional contest. As a place that cherishes art and innovation, we certainly respect Snoop’s creativity, and the colorful addition to our language of his “izzle” slang.
Yet, as a place of tolerance and progressive ideology, his lyrical and behavioral misogyny seems out of place here. I’m not condemning the man. I’d just like to say that it’s worth looking closely at the messages he brings to Chapel Hill, and the way those messages impact us as a society and as individuals.
Here’s a quick overview of the sexism Snoop speaks and exhibits.
An early album, Doggystyle, featured a naked black woman’s rear protruding from a doghouse. In 2003 Snoop arrived at the MTV Video Music Awards with two scantily clad women in chain leashes. Then, in 2004, Snoop released Rhythm & Gangsta, which includes the track “Can You Control Yo Hoe?” That song contains the lines “You’ve got to put that bitch in her place/Even if it’s slapping her in her face,” and “This is what you force me to do/I really didn’t want to put hands on you.”
Snoop also started his own pornographic film company. While he doesn’t feature in any sex scenes, in one video a journalist is seduced by the idea of working for a pimp, at which point Snoop declares “Mission accomplished: another bitch broke.” Snoop’s “spiritual advisor” is actually a former pimp: Donald Campbell, aka Magic Don Juan.
It may seem possible that Snoop Dogg and other music artists play on themes that are, while questionable, merely entertaining fantasies, and pose no real threat to our society. The truth is that we, and children especially, are very impressionable when it comes to violence and misogyny in music.
One study in 1997 showed that listening to sexually violent music “significantly increase(s) men’s adversarial sexual beliefs.” A 2008 experiment showed that listening to Eminem’s sexist lyrics also increases negative attitudes toward women. There is a litany of studies that link violent music with violent attitudes in children, teens and adults.
Maybe we take the bad with the good and dismiss or deny any effect Snoop’s music has on our beliefs. It remains likely that the children in our lives are much more susceptible to negative cultural influences than we are.
By glamorizing prostitution, rappers like Snoop Dogg attract increasingly younger girls to the life of a whore (the average age of entry into prostitution is 12) and degrade young boys’ respect for women.
Let’s be consistent here at UNC. We take classes, read books and embrace policies that affirm sexual equality and respect. Let’s not push those ideals aside because Snoop Dogg raps to a cool beat.
