Can't Say I Disagree with That

Stanley Crouch is urging the ladies to "stop buying into rap's misogyny." I agree wholeheartedly, and not just because my wife and I are trying to conceive:

The regular defense of the worst of hip hop is that these images should be accepted because they provide a way for black men at the bottom to become successful. An additional aspect of this defense is that young men are making so much money one should not mess with the flow of the dough. The next defense is that anything that makes money is good - especially if it is not illegal. At the end of the argument is the manipulative racial ploy that black people should not use "white" standards to attack something that comes out of the neighborhood, that arrives from black street culture. This last point has been far too successful for far too long among middle-class blacks, who are often made to feel as if they have lost contact with their roots and should never question anything "authentically" black, lower class and street.

You'd think there would be no defense of calling yourself a pimp with pride, or even acting the part. And despite the apparent disintegration of anything like sexual morality among the young, I can't believe women would permit that particular dynamic in any popular culture arena, much less participate in it. I guess my worldview is past quaint and rushing headlong toward outlandish in this regard, but I hope that Marilyn Manson gets his wish that America takes a hard turn back toward stricter moral standards, if only to separate the truly debauched from the amateurs; if the few times I've seen Girls Gone Wild have taught me anything, it's that there's nothing all that sexy about young, ignroant girls aping what they understand to be sexy behavior, generally from MTV or some other sad source. It's really kind of pathetic. And while women keep accepting that lot in life, it's not going to get any less so.