“Your point that sexism is not important enough to organize around speaks to the reality that we don’t take sexism seriously as an issue.”
Great words Matt. Great words.

17.7 million American women are rape survivors.

art is not the same as bad tuna fish practices that harm the environment and ecosystem. you cannot treat art as a corporate commodity. not paying for it will not eliminate its presence. most art is bad and already barely profitable. any rapper worth his/her salt is not going to be influenced by any kind of boycott. if anything, a boycott would probably increase the boycotted artist’s visibility.

what you need to do, if you truly want to make a tolerable difference is to continue offering your educated opinion on why you think something is sexist, and then to not attend shows or purchase items that you think might possibly be offensive.

you should not try to shortcut the cultural education and personal development of others via collective consumer actions.

incidentally, why are you singling out the sexism in rap? surely, rap does not have a corner on the sexist market.

and then, after you’ve successfully eliminated sexism, what other topics are you hoping to stigmatize and make taboo? references to drugs, alcohol, guns, violence, name-calling in general, or simply any song that isn’t very nice?

Your position on niche markets contradicts your earlier statement on niche markets. If it could be organized around more than sexism, would consumers then have collective power?

Your point that sexism is not important enough to organize around speaks to the reality that we don’t take sexism seriously as an issue.

as for the niche market, there is way too much choice and disposable income spent on arts and entertainment of every ilk from all kinds of consumers from all over the world to gather enough attention to influence consumers on a large enough basis for an effective boycott based solely on charges of sexism.

the charge of sexism, while it’s an undeniably important subject in the realm of arts and entertainment, asking people not to support their favorite artists or programs, because of questionable characters or lyrics, goes too far and would only serve to bury the undesirable trait in a very shallow and temporary grave.

How does our existence as niche market consumers limit our collective power as consumers/citizens?

What in the sam hell is going on?

I swear, that “Is Hip Hop Your Daddy” post is about to crawl out of me onto the page whether I want to write it or not.

I hate that about writing. Its like love. There, whether you
want it to be or not.

However, I’m assuming you won’t buy that because you’ve said that consumers have no collective power because we live in an era of niche markets.

However, because you’ve not answered my question about your position (comment 20), there is not much more I can do in terms of discussing where we differ and/or agree.

Additionally, can you explain where I presented a position in favor of censorship, please? I’m confused about where you gained evidence for the idea that I support cesorship.

Thanks.

in the context of jeru’s song, i would say his condemnation surrounds women in particular. but look, even if i can agree that this song is sexist, so what? without censorship–formal or self–there are no incentives for artists not to produce whatever they want.

Can you explain how our existence as niche market consumers limits our collective power as consumers/citizens, please? I don’t see the connection.

In regards to the Sopranos, no. I don’t think Jeru the Dmaja should be cleaned up before he reaches consumer’s either. My whole point is that we as consumers need to assert our collective power to make the production of products that do not contribute positevely to the whole betterment of society unprofitable to produce.