Weinstein, S. "Pregnancy, Pimps and Cliched Love Things"

Subtitle: Writing through Gender and Sexuality.

This is a study of a group of young black and latino/a people in Chicago who all write poetry and/or rap. Weinstein opens with a discussion about literacy and gender stereotypes that is interesting: the idea that literacy, or at least School Literacy, is associated with being feminine, and how this is a problem with young boys, and even more so with African American boys. She cites the work of Tom Newkirk, but cites other work too that shows the correlation may not be quite so neat.

Most of her study consists of the writing these youths do out of school. She focuses on ways in which the males tend to either treat women as sexual objects or glorify them a visions of love; sometimes both; sometimes in contradictory way. Also, males tend to use rap and poetry aggressively, perhaps to counter the notion that creative writing makes them feminine.

Women have contradictions to deal with too. They both tend to challenge notions of femininity and reinforce them. Weinstein points out the modern women rappers tend to write more exclusivily about sex than their male counterparts, whose subject matter more often includes social issues, etc. Weinstein shows us the writing of the only female wrapper in the study, who belongs to an otherwise all male rap group, and whose lyrics are highly sexual, but still contain contrary notions of sexuality and virginity. One of her major points is that we need to not be afraid of this type of work; we need to see it and not ingore it. The writers are working through important gender and identity issues, and these texts provide valuable insight into understanding these phenomena.