When the term ‘femcee’ was first used it described a female rapper who was recognized for creating revolutionary music during the time when men controlled the hip-hop industry. These femcees preached to stop that slandering of the female image through their music that desired equality not only from hip-hop, but society as a whole.
Femcees were one of many feminists who used their First Amendment rights to speak out on the daily obstacles females struggled to overcome.
Femcees who sparked this movement such as Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, and MC Lyte paved the way for prospective female rappers to get the respect they deserve.
These women would use similar explicit lyrics to show their strength in comparison to their male counterparts’ style of music.
The difference between an emcee’s explicit lyrics compared to a femcee’s is their intentions. Male rappers used vulgarity to promote and reinforce their hardcore image. Female rappers used vulgarity to draw attention to the content of their message: the fair treatment, respect, and acknowledgement of women.
In 2001, Sarah Jones, a feminist rapper, wrote a politically detailed anti-misogynist poem entitled “Your Revolution” which described how women’s images were sexually degraded in hip-hop and rock music.
Filled with extremely sexual innuendos and metaphors, Jones’ poem challenged rappers’ assumption of women being useful only for sex. Jones is speaking directly towards those who degrade women which she classifies their actions as their ‘revolution’ the continual objectification of women.
"Your revolution will not happen between these thighs”
Jones continued by stating the clothing, cars, and physical attributes take away from the ‘real revolution’ which represents women break the misogynist stereotype of what they believe a woman should be.
This poem, which publically aired over Portland, Oregon, KBOO radio station gained positive and negative feedback. The DJ who played the poem, Chisun Lee, was quoted in The Village Voice having said, "Jones's song is inspirational. It says it's cool, you can be in the hip-hop game, but you don't have to be no 'ho.”
Neither Jones nor Lee realized that the publically aired poem would immediately get censored by the Federal Communications Committee.
The federal government was given the power to censor radio airwaves because radio was considered to be public trust. A problem with the FCC’s censorship was there lack of rules to abide by and no way to measure the obscenity of an individual’s self-expression.
Over the years, the FCC made changes to their rules of deeming material obscene. The material must lack redeeming social value in order for the FCC to censor it.
The FCC failed to recognize the political and cultural context in Jones’ poem and censored it from being played over the airwaves. Jones sued the FCC but initially failed, until she appealed the court’s decision.
Jones dug up a seven year-old court case that forced the FCC to reevaluate how they measured obscenity. In the case, Action for Children's Television v. Federal Communications Commission, one judge had changed his opinion on the FCC’s power to censor broadcasting stating their reasoning was too vague which violated the First Amendment. It’s seemingly unconstitutional for the FCC to censor someone’s opinion unless the medium for distribution is broadcasting because it can easily be widespread and unintentionally heard by children.
After two years of the case being debated in the courts, Jones’ “Your Revolution,” was found not indecent even though it was filled with sexual references and suggestive images. According to the FCC, Jones’ poem wasn’t “patently offensive as measure by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.”
Resources:
Action for Children's Television v. Federal Communications Commission, 59 F.3d 1249 (D.C. Cir. 1995).
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica, 438 U.S. 726, 750 (1978).
Full text: Your Revolution. http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2001/da011212.doc
Sarah Jones v. Federal Communications Commission. news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/fcc/jonesfcc012902cmp.pdf
