I mentioned the Sept. 25th hearing on degrading stereotypes of women in media a couple of days ago in a post regarding the discussion of rap and misogyny. The House Subcommittee hearing titled “From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images” provides some interesting material to raise in music classrooms for students’ to discuss. While the transcript of the hearing is not available yet, copies of prepared testimony, video and audio recordings of the hearing are available. Obviously just as with any other material, decisions must be made as to what should or should not be used in the classroom but a well crafted lesson could weave these various perspectives with those of our students to help them engage in more nuanced discussion of this ongoing dialogue in popular culture.
For other perspectives from the hip hop community regarding the hearing take a look at the following sites:
Jeff Chang’s response on his blog Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
Very interesting info. Thanks.