Kat Stacks Video Exposes Hypermasculine Culture

Apparently women who enjoy the genital pleasures of entertainers, then come out about it is the new “in.” Introducing Kat Stacks, the newest symbol of hip-hop promiscuity. The names of her outed conquests: Bow Wow, Nelly and the whole Young Money roster.

Yes, the whole squad.

We can talk all day about how reprehensible this practice of industry exploitation is. Or how such news manages to be main fodder for our conversations when situations like Aiyana Jones or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill or general economic woes continue to persist.

But recent events have shifted Kat Stacks to the realm of relevant discussion. A video surfaced recently that included Stacks in a bar getting slapped and forced by some guy to apologize to Bow Wow and Fabolous. Apparently they were defending the rappers’ honor.

It’s not unusual for a man to defend a woman’s honor in public through brute force. But for a man to defend…another man…by slapping a woman down…in public? Is that supposed to be anything other than homosexual?

For all we know, these could be random dudes who have no affiliation with Bow Wow. In fact, he denied any involvement in the episode:

“You gotta look at it like this,” he said. “Skip Bayless talks terrible about Lebron…and I’m sure the city of Cleveland knows about Skip being all hot on him. Skip wouldn’t go to Cleveland, as bad as he talks about Lebron. And a Cavaliers fan threw a basketball at Skip; is you really gonna blame Lebron James for it? Lebron’s probably in his mansion chillin’ with his girl and his kids, he don’t know that fan. But that fan loves Lebron James. So you talk about him, in his city, and something happens, you can’t blame Lebron. So therefore you can’t blame me. The only thing you can associate me with is that somebody said my name.”

“I’m not an evil person,” he continued. “I don’t condone violence. That’s just the type of person I am. I just feel like, if anything, positivity is always the way out. So I think that maybe if she humbles herself a lil more and be positive and go about things differently, then hopefully she’ll be alright…but that’s not my style. I don’t put hits on people, I’m in the music business…if I wanted to fight, I’d be in the MMA.”

Doesn’t sound like Bow was too concerned with the fate of Stacks. In his statements, there wasn’t an express of shame for two dudes slapping down a woman. Instead, there was distancing. Implicit consent of the slapping and handling cloaked in an explicit denial.

Sounds like hypermasculinity to me.

Hypermasculinity is a long-term phenomenon in the hip-hop culture. It’s 20 years strong and to the point where “beat that p—y up like it’s some cake mix” goes in a song and doesn’t raise an eyebrow.

But this latest video episode isn’t about misogyny in hip-hop, per se. This is about a culture that was here long before hip-hop. This is about men beating their wives unabashedly. This is about not enough men taking a stand against overt male supremacy.

Who called out Dr. Dre on bragging about slapping Dee Barnes?

Who called out on Eminem killing his ex-wife on record, twice?

We could go down the list and ask the same question. And receive the same answer. In the comments section on the Youtube video above, many were applauding the episode.

Is this really the world we live in? Is that gangsta? Regardless of how trashy Stacks may or may not be for her part in inducing the wrath of Bow Wow’s or Fabulous’ people/fans, any man watching that video should be filled with abject disgust.

The most appalling part of this video and aftermath isn’t the men berating her and forcing her to apologize. It isn’t the brazenness in which they called Bow Wow’s name out. It isn’t people standing around watching. It isn’t the comments from anonymous avatars cheering the perpetrators in the video on. It isn’t even the reminder than male-on-female violence is so commonplace that we’ve become desensitized to it.

It’s the response, or lack thereof, by women in regards to this video. In our culture, too much masculinity seems to induce three actions in females: Some buck the system and call out sexism at every turn, some become apathetic and some become proponents of the system.

This advocacy doesn’t have to be overt; it can come by omission. For example, it’s easy to justify this video by placing blame on Stacks. “She put herself in this position.” “She should have saw this coming.” “She played in dirt…and she got dirty.” By treating this as a Stacks-specific situation, a blind eye is turned to the copious evidence that men are feeling increasingly emboldened to “straighten” a female out if, say, a man’s ego and reputation is hurt by the statements of an opportunistic female.

I don’t know the specifics of what she has on Bow Wow. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter. The hypermasculine culture, a beast that exists outside and within hip-hop, has been exposed for the world to see. Whether it was Kat Stacks or Beyonce that was slapped up should be irrelevant.

Unfortunately, it seems to be too relevant.

UPDATE: Kat Stacks latest video addressing the assault.