Aggressively feminine: The linguistic appropriation of sexualized blackness by white female characters in film

Abstract

This article builds on previous research on white male cross-racial linguistic appropriations of blackness by considering similar appropriations by white female characters in film. Specifically, it examines how such characters use semiotic resources of hip-hop, particularly its language and music, to perform an aggressive femininity that is simultaneously raced, classed, sexualized and gendered. While these performances are racially complex because they push against the boundaries of US racial categories, they also erase the distinctions between black, Latino, gang and hip-hop cultures. Furthermore, in using hypersexualized blackness to construct a white female hip-hop and/or gangster identity, black females become invisible in these films. The study demonstrates that the mediatized representation of white hip-hop relies on problematic ideologies of both race and gender.