• Home
  • Bio
  • Media
    • Read
    • Watch/Listen
  • Speaking
  • Work with me
  • Contact

MsAfropolitan

FEMINISM. PAN-AFRICA. SOCIAL CRITICISM. DIASPORA. CULTURE.

  • feminism
  • Africa
  • Pop Culture
  • Social Criticism
  • decolonisation
  • Afropolitanism
  • seven
  • Sensuous Knowledge
    • Sensuous Knowledge references and recommended reading
    • International
    • Sensuous Knowledge news
  • Other Books
  • The MsAfropolitan Philosophy Book Club @ Waterstones

A feminist analysis of masculinity in J Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only

January 3, 2017 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

In 1985, the same year that the artist J Cole was born, feminism was on the other hand, dying. The radical change in sexual roles that had marked feminism in the 1970s was replaced by a rapprochement of traditional relations through the early 1980s. Rather than challenging gender norms, women were returning to girlishness and men to machoism.

The hyper-femininity which replaced the stridence of the previous decade was evident in popular culture of 1985. You had Madonna singing “Crazy For You” in a desperate tone, Whitney Houston was “Saving All Her Love For You” (“though she tried-to-resist-being-last-on-your-list”) and Bonnie Tyler was “Holding Out For A Hero” (the definition of which, if the video is to go by, is a perv who quite possibly may electrocute you). In film, while Alice Walker faced a sexist backlash for The Colour Purple, Ally Sheedy became conventionally girlie-girlie to get the guy in “The Breakfast Club”. 1985 saw more He-Men than ever before – Rambo, Commando, Rocky, Matt Hunter, Sherlock Holmes, I could go on and on, even Santa Claus got the God-treatment.

I’m not suggesting that the 1970s were absent of ballads or, for that matter, that feminism ceased to exist entirely in the 1980s. To give just one example, it was a key decade for women’s grassroots organising especially outside of the west. But in global popular culture, the 1980s were about the male gaze, male authority and patriarchal fraternity.

As far as gender equality is concerned, things did not get much better pop culture-wise in the 1990s or 2000s when our rising star, Jermaine Cole, would come of age. Sure, there were feminist(ish) interventions such as Thelma & Louise, Basic Instinct, Erin Brokovich and of course, Sex & the City, as well as hits from TLC and Destiny’s Child. But it was not until the 2010s when icons like John Legend said that all men should be feminists, Beyoncé declared that she was a modern-day feminist and Gloria Steinem was awarded the highest civilian honour by president Obama, that an unmitigated feminist presence comparable to that of the 1970s emerged again.

It was against these cultural settings that, in 2010, J Cole signed with Roc Nation and subsequently went double platinum (with no features). While the racial conditions which have impacted his life have always been evident in his work, the undulation of cultural attitudes about gender into which J Cole was born and raised are more subtle.

Yet especially in his recent album, “4 Your Eyez Only”, the impact is clear. In “Foldin Clothes”, for example, Cole expresses his love for a woman by taking on domestic tasks and, if I might add, that never did I imagine that the visual image of Cole folding clothes could be so pleasing. He also talks about how good it feels to do the right- instead of the wrong thing. In “She’s Mine” he rhymes about feeling vulnerable while falling in love for the first time. Did I mention that I have fantasies of J Cole folding my clothes?

Returning to the analysis then (I will, I can). While the portrayal of masculinity in “4 Your Eyez Only” is unusually open and tender for hiphop, a feat it owes to the emotionally authentic discussions about masculinity that feminism has encouraged, it nevertheless does not engage with feminism to the critical extent where misogynist lyrics are absent. As in his previous album, you still sense that women can be neatly divided into “sisters” and “hoes”. 

Nor is it a masculinity that is worried about the fate of black women much. J Cole’s world is one in which racism and police brutality happens to black men alone. It is almost mythomaniac in this narrative –  as though men suffer more from racism than women when, if anything, in a white male supremacist society, at least patriarchy offers black men a significant level of power.

Nevertheless, the expression of masculinity in the album raises multiple observations. For instance, if patriarchal culture defines masculinity as tough, strong, self-reliant, unemotional, domineering, virile and sex-driven, then black men have become these things more than other men because they have much more to loose in not being what men are intended to be.

This is the reason black men cause envy in men of other races – they’ve perfected masculine ideals like they invented them. Yet if anyone knows how damaging the conventional idea of masculinity is, it is the black man. As Cole puts it himself,

Niggas from the hood is the best actors / We the ones that gotta wear our face backwards / Put your frown on before they think you’re soft / Never smile long or take your defence off / Acting tough so much we start to feel hard.

Ultimately, to the extent J Cole’s portrayal of masculinity represents and is respected by the “woke” modern black man, which I would argue is a relevant extent, it is a masculinity that is at a crossroads; a masculinity that is at one exploited and exploitive. It is a masculinity that struggles with intimacy even, at times, with itself (“you know me better than I know myself,” Cole’s character rhymes to his daughter). It is a masculinity that is detached, dissatisfied and paranoid, as well as one that is dignified, courageous and creative unlike anything in this world.

Inimically, it is a masculinity that remains reluctant, if not stubbornly defiant, to take feminism and the experiences of black women seriously. And yet, insofar that the album offers an alternative world through which black men can approach discussions about compassion, kindness and decency toward themselves and others, “4 Your Eyez Only” is not only an album to play on repeat, it is also one that does not provoke my feminist spirit to complete despair.


 

Read more of my articles on popular culture [advps-slideshow optset=”3″]

Filed Under: feminism, Pop Culture Tagged With: gallery, hiphop, J Cole

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Feminism. African Studies. Social Criticism.

Hi! I'm Minna Salami, I'm a Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish writer and social critic, and the founder of this blog. Read my full bio here

View My Blog Posts

Subscribe to my newsletter

* indicates required

Follow My social media

Visit Us On InstagramVisit Us On FacebookCheck Our Feed

The New Institute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go_ddI8Lu9k&t=7s

Sensuous Knowledge – Get the book (US version)

Sensuous Knowledge – Get the book (UK version)

Recent Comments

  • Evgen on There were no matriarchies in precolonial Africa
  • ทางเข้าเล่น joker on The challenge for western feminism in the 21st century
  • Schües on On Abortion
  • AneM on Polygamy in Africa has little to do with sex
  • Khalifa on Polygamy in Africa has little to do with sex

Archives

  • March 2023 (1)
  • February 2023 (1)
  • August 2022 (4)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (5)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (4)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (3)
  • May 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (2)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (4)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • August 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (2)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • March 2018 (2)
  • February 2018 (2)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (3)
  • August 2017 (6)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (3)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (2)
  • February 2017 (3)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • November 2016 (3)
  • October 2016 (3)
  • September 2016 (2)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • July 2016 (2)
  • June 2016 (1)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (1)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (3)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (3)
  • October 2015 (4)
  • September 2015 (4)
  • August 2015 (3)
  • July 2015 (2)
  • June 2015 (3)
  • May 2015 (4)
  • April 2015 (4)
  • March 2015 (10)
  • February 2015 (4)
  • December 2014 (3)
  • November 2014 (5)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • September 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (4)
  • July 2014 (3)
  • June 2014 (3)
  • May 2014 (5)
  • April 2014 (4)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • February 2014 (4)
  • January 2014 (3)
  • December 2013 (3)
  • November 2013 (4)
  • October 2013 (3)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (5)
  • July 2013 (4)
  • June 2013 (4)
  • May 2013 (6)
  • April 2013 (3)
  • March 2013 (7)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • January 2013 (5)
  • December 2012 (4)
  • November 2012 (9)
  • October 2012 (8)
  • September 2012 (4)
  • August 2012 (6)
  • July 2012 (6)
  • June 2012 (5)
  • May 2012 (8)
  • April 2012 (7)
  • March 2012 (5)
  • February 2012 (4)
  • January 2012 (6)
  • December 2011 (5)
  • November 2011 (6)
  • October 2011 (6)
  • September 2011 (8)
  • August 2011 (6)
  • July 2011 (5)
  • June 2011 (5)
  • May 2011 (5)
  • April 2011 (4)
  • March 2011 (7)
  • February 2011 (6)
  • January 2011 (7)
  • December 2010 (5)
  • November 2010 (9)
  • October 2010 (7)
  • September 2010 (5)
  • August 2010 (4)
  • July 2010 (6)
  • June 2010 (5)
  • May 2010 (3)
  • April 2010 (3)
  • March 2010 (1)

more articles

Black feminism and the polycrisis

March 17, 2023 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

… [Continue Reading...]

New writing on the Eco Gender Gap

February 16, 2023 By MsAfropolitan Leave a Comment

… [Continue Reading...]

Privacy Policy

https://msafropolitan.com/gdpr

Copyright MsAfropolitan © 2023