"Snubben trodde han var cool för han hade en pistol" : Maskulinitet, våld och föräldraskap i svensk rap

• Hip hop has grown into a worldwide genre of popular music inrecent decades. While the genre is often associated with sexism and homophobia, this article examines how masculinity is constructed in rap lyrics. It focuses on two central themes in contemporary configurations of masculinity: violence and parenting. The material consists of rap lyrics from 39 rap artists in Sweden during the last two decades. It is analysed from post structuralist and intersectional perspectives, with a discourse analysis combining broad thematic coding with close readings of selected extracts. The article shows how violence is both connected to class and racial dimensions of inequality, but simultenously shared as a gender norm across such differences. Violence is both reinforced as a norm of masculinity, but also called into question through various means, such as use of irony. The analysed lyrics contain descriptions of parent-child relations from the perspective of both positions. These narratives display a similar ambivalence; they simultenously hold fathers to task for perceived parenting failures and reinforce problematic patterns of masculine parenting. In sum, the article shows how violence and parenting are important loci for contemporary configurations of masculinity. The intersectional and poststructuralist theoretical perspectives, which have been relatively downplayed in studies on men and masculinity, enable attention to the ambivalences of gender discourses, which often contain elements of both reinforcement and subversion.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Genusstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Gender Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Discourse analysis

fatherhood

gender

hiphop

intersectionality

men and masculinity

poststructuralism

rap lyrics

violence

Diskursanalys

faderskap

genus

hiphop

intersektionalitet

män och maskulinitet

poststrukturalism

raptexter

våld

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)