"Soft-Core" Hip Hop: The Videos & The Vixens
"Bombarded with warped images of their humanity, some black women tilt and bend themselves to fit the distortion” (Harris 29). Perry believes this is why some, though not all, Black women give in to negative stereotypes and adhere to the negative images projected onto Black women in America, such as being the video vixen in rap videos that degrade women. These Black women have a distorted perception of who they are as women and often contort to this “warped image” rather than find “which way is up” in the “crooked room”.
. A common figure in hip hop music videos, is the “video vixen”. This title is given due to the sexualized nature of the female role. The sexualization has developed to such explicit levels over as years progressed the term “video vixen” is often exchanged for “video ho” (Miller 263).
In Miller’s research of the explicit nature of hip hop music videos and it’s similarities to images and the nature of women in pornography, she labeled those music videos “soft-core hip hop” & “hard-core hip hop” (263).