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2021 Abstracts Stage 2

“I said it with my chest and I don’t care who I offend” Thinking of offence as a progressive voice.

Jessica Mary Louise Coates, 2021, Stage 2

This project explores the role offence plays in the creation of authentic and progressive discourses. It will be exploring this by looking at misogynistic rap lyrics, investigating the offence these lyrics cause. It will begin by discussing John Stuart Mill and Joel Feinberg in order to demonstrate how offensive rap lyrics offend rather than harm. Then it will discuss the work of Catherine Mackinnon, looking at how a minority of rap lyrics could be defined as pornography and therefore harmful. However, it will then demonstrate how misogynistic rap lyrics should be understood as responding to the world building of pornography. This project will then discuss how rap music also has the potential to challenge the belief system created by pornography. Through discussing Martin Heidegger, we see how misogynistic rap lyrics defy our everyday idle talk, creating a new authentic discourse. This discourse is created through the shock caused by offensive lyrics. We will see how shock has a liberating potential, as demonstrated by Walter Benjamin. Ultimately this project will investigate how rap’s offensive misogynistic lyrics shock us, forcing us to engage with them. This creates a new authentic discourse that allows the rise of progressive voices.

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