House of Parlance Blog

Hostile Takeover: Porn Invades Hip Hop

On August 10th a group of dedicated, progressive and socially conscious women from New York and environs launched WhereMyLadiesAt.com. The website aims to challenge female stereotypes and promote discussion of the role of women in a society saturated by sexualized images of women and girls especially in the realm of hip hop videos.

The site focuses on the stories of ‘a video girl, a former porn star and an MC on the grind‘. Each of these personalities posts a video diary a couple of times a week which allows the audience a brief and revealing look into some of their private moments and motivations.

The site is growing everyday. As more videos are posted, more viewers sign on to comment and move the discussions forward. In the first few days after the site launched most of the commentary was fairly positive but I’m seeing more and more flippant and derisive comments on some of the boards. Not a bad thing, since any real discussion of sexuality, money, power and music is going to result in strong and varied opinions.

I highly recommend taking a long look at the site. It’s going to be very interesting to see where these stories go and whether the commentary begins to affect the personalities involved.