Feminism in Effect!

September 29, 2010 12:33 AM

Jenny Hagel has a three part YouTube series about "a dumpy women's studies professor [who] transforms herself into a ghetto fabulous rap star to convince people to care about feminism. When she's finished rapping...they still don't care." Parts 1, 2 and 3.
posted by Kattullus (33 comments total)

"Nothing solves real-world problems like academic theory!" This is amazing.
posted by NoraReed at 12:43 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

That was excellent. The youtube comments, not so much.
posted by liquorice at 1:01 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Needs more autotune.
posted by iamck at 1:05 AM on September 29, 2010

Kattullus' First Law of Aggravation Free Websurfing: Never scroll down when viewing a YouTube video.
posted by Kattullus at 1:05 AM on September 29, 2010 [11 favorites]

I.. hate to ask this, because I am 100 percent behind the spirit of this series, but... does her flow get any better after the first video?
posted by ShawnStruck at 1:25 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

...Like Lozen/the Apache warrior/who killed a horse/with a very small knife...according to Wikipedia/---OPEN SOURCE!!!

(It's funny because it's TRUE.)
posted by iamkimiam at 1:27 AM on September 29, 2010

ShawnStruck: "I.. hate to ask this, because I am 100 percent behind the spirit of this series, but... does her flow get any better after the first video"

Um, no. But it does get better in other ways! (see my comment directly above...that 'flow' is from the second video)
posted by iamkimiam at 1:28 AM on September 29, 2010

But you *really* need to see the third one. I almost fell out of my chair (and am still laughing as I type this. I think I will be again at various points throughout the day).
posted by iamkimiam at 1:37 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

I didn't enjoy this very much. It started to drag very quickly, the acting was poor, the idea of doing a humorously bad rap is not an original one and could have been done much better, and the 'Let's do a montage' joke has already been done by Team America. "Nothing solves real-world problems like academic theory!" is a good line, but the rest of the humour was fairly pedestrian. The third video before they started rapping was quite funny though.

That's my opinion anyway – no disrespect to those who like it!
posted by mattn at 1:43 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hagel's three part video: thesis - antithesis - synthesis?
posted by Bromius at 1:46 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

She said that lip gloss was the enemy. Lip gloss. That cracked me up.
posted by anitanita at 2:06 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's a rape whistle ... without the "e".
posted by chavenet at 2:40 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Men might not menstruate, but our flow is definitely more powerful than that of some feminist professor.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:56 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

The writing for the rap setups made me chuckle. The one liners were decent. The ideas behind the lyrics were awesome. But the execution of the rap segments was awful.

Deliberately bad rap by white people has been done to death, and her flow was whack as hell. "My name is _____/ and I'm here to say" would not have sounded out of place in any of them. For a series that is being built around rap, you should bring your A game! Whatever you are spitting has to be tight.

So, I wanted to like this so much. But I can't say I'd want to watch 'em again.
posted by ShawnStruck at 3:51 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

She said that lip gloss was the enemy. Lip gloss.

What if it's poppin'?
posted by louche mustachio at 3:54 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

There seems to be a trend for ironically bad rap as comedy again, now that people are forgetting... A Warning From History.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 4:49 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

That's my opinion anyway – no disrespect to those who like it!

Are you new here?
posted by milarepa at 5:03 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Forget it. I don't listen to bad rap by white people, and 'ironically' bad comedy rap is the worst. If all you spit is shit it must be because that's all you're full of. If you don't have skills don't open your mouth in my house.
posted by fuq at 5:35 AM on September 29, 2010

YOU'RE a PhD in gender studies!

Reminds me of this excellent Cat & Girl strip. "I want to be a gender politician... to help people."
posted by sonika at 5:38 AM on September 29, 2010

Are you new here?

Good point. 'It' being the YouTube series, not my opinion.
posted by mattn at 5:39 AM on September 29, 2010

That was hilarious! Alright Chicago!
posted by travertina at 5:42 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

The bucket of birth control pills in the last one had me dying.
posted by King Bee at 5:44 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, that was hilarious—thanks for posting it. I'm glad I'm not such a rap purist I can't enjoy this kind of thing.
posted by languagehat at 6:24 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

What has two legs and bleeds?
Half a dog.
posted by yoHighness at 7:27 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

/not feminist-ist
posted by yoHighness at 7:28 AM on September 29, 2010

When I was in college they didn't have "dumpy women's studies" as a major.
posted by eye of newt at 7:32 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

fuq: “Forget it. I don't listen to bad rap by white people, and 'ironically' bad comedy rap is the worst. If all you spit is shit it must be because that's all you're full of. If you don't have skills don't open your mouth in my house.”

You really don't understand what's going on here – probably because you refuse to watch it. Nobody's doing 'ironically' bad comedy rap here. I accept that that's obnoxious, and I know what you're talking about – rap by people who hate rap because rap is supposed to be 'funny' – but I haven't seen that particular breed of annoying cultural condescension in a good while now. This is nice because I think it's clear she's actually in earnest about trying to do it right, even if she's not fantastic at it. Nobody's being ironically bad at all here. And the other guys in her video aren't half bad, honestly.

Besides – authenticity is plenty important, but acting as though that's the sum and substance of hip hop is contradictory. That's not what hip hop is about. Hip hop is inclusive, it's not black or white, and if it's very much about competition it's not about cutting anybody out or pushing them away just because their skills don't measure up to anyone else's. Hip hop isn't an ownership society; it's a spirit and a method. This stuff is in that spirit, even if the method isn't highly refined.
posted by koeselitz at 7:46 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

(Besides, the line it's a rape whistle... without the e! is straight-up genius.)
posted by koeselitz at 7:53 AM on September 29, 2010

Please let's not let ghetto be a funny word.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:58 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Stop. You had me hooked at dumpy women's studies professor.
posted by wcfields at 9:41 AM on September 29, 2010

There seems to be a trend for ironically bad rap as comedy again, now that people are forgetting... A Warning From History.

It burns!
posted by davejay at 10:23 AM on September 29, 2010

Silly white people...always turning to "rap" when they wqnt more people to listen to them.
posted by hal_c_on at 11:28 AM on September 29, 2010

Sometimes browsing tags backfires on you. I thought maybe she could rap, and resorted to doing it. But it actually does look like she couldn't rap for shit and got taught by those four suckers.
posted by cashman at 8:26 AM on October 26, 2010