Benjamin Lynch

Professor Hemphill
Intersectionality Article Review
March 14, 2017

Djupvik, M. B. (2014), "Welcome to the Candy Shop! Conflicting Representations of

Black Masculinity," Popular Music, 3/2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

The article, Welcome to the Candy Shop! Conflicting Representations of

Black Masculinity, by Marita Djupvik analyzes 50 Cents music video Candy Shop
to shed light on the ways in which black masculinity is represented as controlling,
dominating and misogynistic (pg. 222). Djupvik theorizes that the African
American male has been selectively narrated, constructed, and expressed through
music, lyrics, and images of pop media (pg. 1).
Restricted by suppressive stereotypes originated during the slave years and
matured during the early 20th century, black males have closely been linked to
effeminacy, incompatible with white masculine ideals, because they are seen as
being submissive to, and incapable of resisting, the white man and his culture. In the
21st century, the black male still lives with anxieties and fears of the white man in its
many formspolice brutality, war on drugs, and low self-esteem. Djupviks article
examines how black masculinity often emulates several characters: the normal guy
who portrays a rags-to-riches narrative, the gangster who evokes early
youthand criminal activity (213), and the pimp who thrives on the acquisition of
both female bodies and wealth (213). Similar to the jolly fellows and rough-and-
tumblers, black malesaware that they cannot compete with the hegemonic ideals
of the white maleshowcase their masculinity as one that actively goes against
these ideals; they embody the rebel. This form of masculinity allows the black male
to release their fears and be un-submissive to the white males culture, important
since submission has long been attributed to black male effeminacy. To be
uncontrollable, dominant of woman, and braggadocio are important characteristics
for black males since hyper-masculinity[is] a strategy black men have used to
fight back (220).
The second realm of black masculinity rendered by this article is the
perception of escapism. Much as white males in the early 20th century used books
such as Tarzan and sports such as baseball to indulge in the passions of
manhood they had felt been suppressed by the over-civilization of urban cities and
capitalism, black masculinity uses performative conventions (214) that lie more in
fantasy than reality to assert for themselves a sense of manhood in a suppressive
culture. Vocally sounding hoarse and raspy (215) like a man, using numerous
female bodies to frame [the male body] (217) and assert his dominance, flaunting
provocative language and wealth, along with embodying the black characters in my
earlier paragraph, remain as much a fantasy as a reality (1) in the music videos.
The fantasized male, with sexual women and luxurious consumer goods, seems to
be inconsistent with the reality of many black males who face drug abuse,
imprisonment, poverty, gang violence, racism and white supremacy (213); yet,
allow many the ability to emotionally attain these unattainable ideals placed on to
them and escape from a boringeveryday life (213-214).
Djupviks argument presents a strong argument; yet, her perspective is too
focused. Although it can be sieved out of the article, Djupvik fails to examine the
underpinning influencespoverty, racism and white supremacy (213)that
cause black men to revert to macho masculinity, even choosing the song Candy
Shop in which she notes, none of these issues informs this video (213). This is
particularly disappointing since many artists use the influences of their culture to
inform their works; in turn, behaviors and attitudes that black artists and males
produce and embody are shaped by the culture they live in. Therefore, it is essential
we dont interpret their music from a hegemonic males perspective that stands on
the outside rather than within. To consider black masculinity from a white mans
perspective, in the words of Edward Baptists The Absent Subject, [might] normalize
the oppressions and fictions that dominating forms of masculinity inflict on others
(158) and makes it easy to condemn them for being too violent and misogynistic.
Instead, by considering how the hegemonic male and his culture that marginalizes
these men has influenced the way black men perceive themselves as masculine, we
might only begin to understand why they have constructed their manhood in such
fashion. Rather than showing the means and expressions of black masculinity,
Djupvik could have discussed why such characters are valued and imitated in black
communities.