The Fire This Time
Chapter One
Claiming Jezebel: Black Female Subjectivity
and Sexual Expression in Hip-Hop
Ayana Byrd
Ayana Byrd is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, New York. She is an entertainment journalist whose work has appeared in Vibe, Rolling Stone, Honey, TV Guide, and Paper magazines. She is the coauthor of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America.
All it used to take was one "bitch" reference in a song, one gratuitous ass shake in a video and I was on a roll, criticizing the sexism of black men, denouncing the misogynistic societal structures set up by white men who supported it from their music industry corner offices, lamenting the misrepresented ways that black female bodies were on display. It didn't take much to get me back on my soapbox. But that, apparently, was a long time ago. Because today, allowed a receptive audience and the opportunity to wax passionately and even philosophically about the state of women in hip-hop-the art form that I once believed most defined me-I draw a big blank, barely able to muster up a halfhearted "You won't believe what I ju ... read full excerpt from: The Fire This Time ebook
