Raunch Aesthetics and Queer Feminism in Yo! Majesty's Hip Hop

Introduction: Raunch Aesthetics and Yo! Majesty

In "Carnal Teachings: Raunch Aesthetics as Queer Feminist Pedagogies in Yo! Majesty's Hip Hop Practice," Jillian Hernandez explores the concept of raunch aesthetics through the music video for the song "Don't Let Go." The essay also examines the notions of community cultural capital, color-blind/new racism, and postfeminism through the performances of the women in the video. An interpretation of queer and feminist teachings via these four concepts provides a unique lens for analyzing text and visuals to gather and form theory.

The first concept to analyze is raunch aesthetics. A term found in feminist theory, raunch aesthetics describes the various ways women in hip hop express sexuality through staging, choreography, and the performance of lyrics. Women in hip hop who participate in raunch aesthetics are understood as attempting to own their sexual identities as well as their bodies through these physical and verbal expressions. The women Hernandez discusses perform under the name Yo! Majesty. Based in Tampa, Florida, they use lyrics depicting sexual desire for women openly and frequently.

Raunch Aesthetics in 'Don't Let Go'

Hernandez uses the video "Don't Let Go" to provide readers with an excellent example of raunch aesthetics by explaining how the woman in the video owns her body, enjoys displaying it, and encourages other women to do the same. Notably, no men are present in the video or within the spaces the protagonist enters, and she is free to dance expressively and enjoy herself.

She walks out onto the streets of a nondescript urban area in the UK. The video follows the woman as she spends the evening suggestively dancing with delight in unorthodox venues such as a nail salon, a bridal dress shop, a tanning salon, and a yoga studio. She infiltrates spaces where women discipline their bodies to normative standards of attractiveness and infuses them with raunchy revelry. (Hernandez 89)

This is in stark contrast to how women are typically expected to behave in society. As Michel Foucault observed, "Sexuality was carefully confined; it moved into the home. The conjugal family took custody of it and absorbed it into the serious function of reproduction" (Foucault 3). The woman's rebellion against the norm and against imposed standards is an excellent representation of raunch aesthetics, as well as a means of demonstrating that women have a right to express themselves — a sentiment that also lends itself to a postfeminist mindset.

Postfeminism and Female Sexual Expression

What is postfeminism? It technically means "after feminism" and can be understood as a positive term in the sense that women now live in an era that affords them more rights. For example, women can now vote, own businesses, and serve as political leaders. While much progress remains to be made — such as narrowing the wage gap and eradicating rape culture — women like the protagonist in the video have the freedom to dance in the streets for a music video without fear of harm. Women can express themselves sexually in ways that were previously impossible, thanks to the work of past feminists.

Even amid ongoing fights over issues such as homosexuality and abortion rights, groups like Yo! Majesty are free to perform sexually charged lyrics and dress their video's performers in provocative clothing that would have been considered a legal offense decades earlier. The video and the music group represent a positive result of past feminist efforts and movements, and thus constitute a prime example of postfeminism in action. They represent what has been accomplished since the era of the suffragettes and the symbolic burning of bras.

What has been accomplished, above all, is a voice for women to express themselves — and more importantly, their sexuality. Sexuality is such an integral part of human identity, yet it is something that has eluded women for centuries. Women have long been unable to express themselves sexually for fear of being branded with derogatory labels. Now, women can act on sexual desire not for men, but for themselves, and feel empowered doing so.

Conclusion

In conclusion, society has changed in many positive ways. Women have more power and greater ability to express themselves sexually. People can look past race and ethnicity and see individuals. And all of this is being accomplished within a genre historically dominated by men: hip hop. Hernandez's article uses postfeminism, new racism/color-blind ideology, community cultural capital, and raunch aesthetics — examined through the video "Don't Let Go" — to provide readers with a deeper understanding of expression, art form, and music as vehicles for social change.

Works Cited

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1999.

---. "Critically Queer." Faculty Web Server, Georgetown University, faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Judithbutler-Criticallyqueer-1993.pdf.

Foucault, Michel, and Paul Rabinow. The Foucault Reader. Pantheon Books, 1984.

Hernandez, Jillian. "Carnal Teachings: Raunch Aesthetics as Queer Feminist Pedagogies in Yo! Majesty's Hip Hop Practice." Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, vol. 24, no. 1, 2014, pp. 88–106.