Scribblin' sinnin' sh*t: narratives of rape as masculine therapeutic performance in the strange case for and against Tyler, The Creator

Abstract

The presence of rape narratives in the recorded work of rap artist Tyler, The Creator, offers compelling terrain to explore how the apparent post-feminist cultural landscape has given rise to masculine anxieties and the ways in which they are articulated in rap music. Via a feminist-informed content and film analysis, this article examines the instances of rape narratives in the audio and visual work of Tyler, The Creator, and suggests these texts might be understood as symptomatic of feelings of resentment towards women in an era of improved gender equity. This article further argues that such sexually hostile texts function as a ‘therapeutic’ and performative strategy to allay these anxieties whilst simultaneously revealing the patriarchal structures upon which Tyler, The Creator’s particularly vulnerable, deviant masculine subjectivity is premised.