The Feminine Mistake?

What I have to keep reminding myself the book, Hip: The History is about how racial differences created pop culture. John Leland is one man, defining a term that has no concrete definition, so all of this is from his own viewpoint, this is Leland’s argument. But it does make me wonder if the same subject was written by a woman would hip’s history look a little different. Sure it would, but it might look a little different to anyone regardless of gender. That is what makes hip, hip. It’s all about perception and the freedom of Americans to follow whatever pop culture trends they want.

John Leland uses the female menstrual cycle as a metaphor for hip, seriously, whatever.

He’s a little delusional when he says “Hip’s ethos is actually feminine.” Now I don’t think he is sexist, he obviously doesn’t get how unhip the woman’s cycle is, but his book is not about women, it’s about racial divide.

 If he gave females more than one chapter he would have had to call his book, Hip: The Encyclopedia. Because we are talking about a whole other division in this country that has created tension, just generally a less violent tension from both sides.

Maybe that is what is hip to Leland, violence and rage, the anger of inequality (I’ve already mentioned addiction and mental illness in another post), maybe this is why his list is mostly men.

In class I made an argument that the reason there might not have been as many women in hip’s history was because there were less women than men in avenues that pop culture uses its voice. Leland does make a good point “If you were male you could be a rebel, but if you were female your families had you locked up” (242). It’s not that there wasn’t hip in the past, it just wasn’t socially acceptable for women to live in hips world. Were these double standards, maybe, but I don’t think they apply anymore.

Sure Leland leaves out women to whom many would find hip, but I think you could argue he leaves out a few men too. He has an agenda. His book is about how race played in pop culture. Leland uses the people he needs to in order to make his point.

I’ll give Leland this, he mentions somewhere over 50 different women in one chapter, I think he is trying to give the ladies their props.