Essay: #HotGirlSummer

One of the first write ups I did for my Black Sexuality Course. It's been almost three years, but its relevancy has continued.

The Role of Black Sexuality in Megan Thee Stallion's #HotGirlSummer

The complexities that exist in Black sexuality come from oppression, colonization, and the whiteness that is heavily rooted in sexual liberation and repression. The way Black women’s bodies are viewed sexually was meant with resistance during slavery and Jim Crow. It was meant with resistance during the women’s and Civil Rights movements. It was meant with resistance during the LGBTQ movement. There are academic spaces to discuss Black sexualities because of its history, because of its intricacy. However, those spaces aren’t necessary to understand how Black sexuality is resisted and displayed. The summer of 2019 was labeled as #hotgirlsummer, a hashtag created by Black artist and student, Megan Thee Stallion. While the term quickly became adopted by women of all races, it’s clear through Megan’s lyrics, style, and presentation that the hashtag was a way for Black women to reclaim their sensuality. Her music and style have opened the door for visual discussions on sexual agency, Black female empowerment, and the role whiteness plays in those factors.

Self-agency is a form of liberation. In the United States, the understanding and recognition of self-agency are what allowed Black men and women to liberate themselves from the chains held by white Americans. It’s been a few centuries since the sexual coercion and physical abuse white slaveowners pushed on Black bodies. It’s been over fifty years since the sexual revolution in America. It’s been over two centuries since Sarah Baartman. Patricia Collins in “Black Sexual Politics” talks about how Baartman was kept in a cage until she had to “[parade] before [an] audience” (26). The audience would then “[poke] and [prod]” at her butt to check its legitimacy of it. Black women have come a long way. They have created their own individuality in a world of Kardashians, white women who are praised for the bodies Black women were shamed and fetishized for. In “Black Bodies, White Bodies” by Gilman, 18th century Europeans invested their time in understanding Black sexuality to prove Black inferiority. They searched for any proof of “deviant sexuality” (209). One researcher claimed Black women had an “apelike, sexual appetite” (212) and “primitive” genitalia (212). They compared the so-called hypersexual Black women to the morals and beauty of European women. They used the sexual bodies of Black women to justify the dehumanization and over-sexualization of all black bodies, not just the adult ones but children too. The image of “pure white Woman womanhood” (Collins 30) created the intense desire for white anthropologists to control them through religion and control them through preconceived notions of whiteness. Through music, Black women have created a space where one can look but not touch their bodies.

The presence of Black sexuality in music has reclaimed tropes created by misogynoir. Collins writes about how Black sexuality is a form of sexual liberation. Modern Black female musicians find a way to empower Black women through the art of music. From Destiny Child’s Bootylicious and Megan Thee Stallion’s Big Ole Freak; those two songs used the black female body as a high standard for sexual attraction. Megan Thee Stallion is a rap artist and college student who coined the term “Hot Girl Summer”. What is Hot Girl Summer? Hot Girl Summer is about having fun and defining your own agency, not letting men and whiteness define it. Hot Girl Summer is a movement, one that calls for all Black and female-identifying women to reclaim both their pleasure and joy. Gina Dent’s “Black pleasure, black joy: an introduction” defines black joy as the representation of all the emotions attached to communities, while black pleasure represents personal intimacy. Lyrics like “See, I’m a big ole freak, I like to talk shit” from Big Ole Freak, “I’m a hot girl, so you know ain’t shit poppin” from Hot Girl Summer, and “I’m that cash shit” from Cash Shit are three major hits that embody #HotGirlSummer. These songs capture the pride that exists in being a sexual being, having confidence in an intimate relationship, and autonomy.

History can be deceiving. While most teach about the injustices of the white race, it fails to mention the oppression of Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Black people. It must derive from fear. There is power in education. Black girls and women would benefit from learning about how white people have used their bodies as experiments. Sexual repression in American society exists to block Black women from fighting, but music, fashion, and physique have been used as a form of rebellion. If Black female existence is a threat to whiteness, then Black sexuality is a revolt