In many cases, the only space the industry makes for women is homogenous to an exploited and objectified conception of who these women are in order to even be apart of it. Rose continues to say, "black women are already coming out of a history of being sexually exploited, of being associated with sexual excess and deviance." It's extremely unfair that women are still being conceptualized as second-class citizens in the explicit content of today's media. Women are trying to get out and move forward, but much of the media's content is allowing women to be fully liberated.
Although hip-hop is a male-dominated industry, women play an integral part in hip-hop's image, and as a consequence, pronouncing the sexism that has become so popular within the genre. Commonly, women are merely adorned in hip-hop videos to create an ego boost for the artist in attempt to sell an image of excess masculinity, authority, and status, leaving the female voices completely unheard, "we have a plethora of female bodies represent this culture, but no female voices," observes published author, Karrine Steffans. In Tricia Rose's The Hip Hop Wars, Rose explains that in addition to being objectified, the male artist's influence doesn't end there, "They.divide women into groups that are worthy of protection and respect and those that are not (119)." Aside from degrading a depiction of women with vulgar language and aggressive tones, much of this genre's content implies that, depending on the women, different women deserve different amounts of respect and value depending on their character; however, all women deserve respect because every woman is valuable. As a result, females are often the subject and source of provocative and demeaning lyrics. In 2008, Flo Rida's debut single "Low" was the longest running number-one single that year (Billboard): "work the pole I got the bank roll/ I'ma say that I prefer them no clothes/ I'm into that I love women exposed.
