It's been a good few months for girl power in hip-hop. We've seen J-Lo join Iggy in ass-loving sisterhood, Rihanna stand up to the NFL's victim-blaming, and Nicki rally the troops with her unapologetic self-love and radical inversion of the male gaze. But just in case you were starting to feel like mainstream culture was some sort of safe space for women, the boys came back this week to remind us that it's always two steps forward, one step back in matters of feminizzle.

First we had the epically stupid Internet feud between Snoop Dogg and Iggy Azalea that had even Iggy's detractors standing up for her (and by "feud," I mean Snoop got high and posted a bunch of dumb shit about her on Instagram). It all began when Snoop re-posted a meme of a black albino man captioned "Iggy Azalea no makeup." Iggy replied that she didn't understand why Snoop would be "such an ass to" her on the Internet "for no reason" when he'd always been nice to her in person, while he continued to post super mature stuff like "so we just gonna ignore that [sic.] fact that iggy looks like Marlon from White Chicks." Then he brought out his whiteface alter ego "Todd" to say "cool out lil sis he was only jokin."

Up until that point, it could've been minimized (not by me, but by some) as harmless ribbing from a stoned perma-teen only vaguely aware of all the messed up ideas about sex and gender he was perpetuating. (Best way to insult a woman = imply that she looks like a man trying to pass as a woman, because trans women are horrible monsters!) Then he slipped up and showed his teeth (in a now deleted video):

"Bitch you fuckin' with the wrong nigga. And your nigga better check you before I do. You fuckin' bitch. You cunt. Heh heh."

I realize much of hip-hop is a battle. But as I understand it, the "beef" is just a platform for each artist to create the illest rhymes possible. The barbs may be pointy, but they're more about cleverness than meanness. What's clever about parroting institutionalized misogyny at a woman? If anything, it shows you've got nothing else.

Of course, we have at least made enough progress as a culture that when someone is a misogynist minus the humor, not even the most asinine of "free speech" warrior bros can defend it as "just a joke." Iggy knows that the best response to a low blow like this is a combo of call it out/rise above, which is exactly what she did when she tweeted "fathers love your daughters ;-)" and "don't want her growing up believing she can't speak her mind without being called a bitch for it." Point Azalea. Even Snoop's apology made him look like a sexist jerk, as it seemed directed more towards TI than the female rapper herself:

The exchange's racial aspect complicates things further; two of the images Snoop posted were of a white-looking black person and a black-looking white person, the implication being that Iggy is trying to be black in a way that pisses people off. Many of the Instagram comments addressed the topic directly: "She looks like that meme though she needs to stop trying to be what she's not she acts black," said one. Which: fair enough! I'm not going to argue that Iggy Azalea has never said or done anything racially problematic. But two wrongs don't make a right, and if Snoop has a problem with Iggy's appropriation he can address it directly, not make random snipes at her femininity that distract from the problem at hand (if that is even the problem at hand) and make her look like the bigger person.

And just when we were cooling off from that idiocy, Future and Wiz Khalifa decided to deal with their respective breakups by releasing a collaboration called "Pussy Overrated" that's basically a dis track about their recent exes, Ciara and Amber Rose.

It's ostensibly about groupies, which makes it worse, because what a nice way to see the mother of your children. Like Snoop Dogg's flailing, it brings no cleverness to the table, substituting misogynist clichés for creativity and reiterating many of society's conflicting expectations of women: women are gold diggers, women are fake, women are too sexual, women are prudes, girls have cooties, these hos ain't loyal, I am a stern old bachelor. Women are nothing but warm squishy holes, of which I grow tired. It's extra ironic that both of their relationships ended because they supposedly cheated on their partners; if pussy is so overrated, what did you sacrifice your family for?

Amber Rose has already responded by reproducing some of the taunts below a smokin' butt selfie, as if to say, "methinks the manchild doth protest too much":

While most rational beings can see both of these incidents for what they are, social media reveals many fans still on the wrong side of this issue. I know misogyny in hip-hop is nothing new, but that doesn't make it any less depressing, especially coming from rappers who have been hailed as innovators of the genre. Despite supposedly carrying hip-hop into the future (no pun intended), they're still dragging a lot of old-fashioned bullshit with them. Then again, this week of fail might yet be salvaged if we get a cutting feminist response called "Dick Overrated" out of it, as numerous Tweeters have requested. Will you do us the kindness, Ms. Minaj?

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