Beauty is in the eye of the male gaze: DreamDoll, Doechii and Baby Tate

In 2019, DreamDoll vlogged about her body being 100% plastic-free. In 2021, Baby Tate clapped back at body-shaming trolls on social media. And in 2022, Doechii appeared in the visual for her major label debut completely nude. What do these three moments in time, and these three unique artists, have in common? The subversion of the male gaze.

The male gaze is the idea that everything women do is held up to the lens of what straight men want to see. And although the male gaze reigns in all forms of media, it couldn’t be more present in rap, where women’s bodies are the currency with the highest exchange rate.

In this episode, we dig into the ways in which the male gaze body-checks the culture. Whether it’s coming from ex-boyfriends, internet trolls or entire corporations, the pressure is real and it’s never been more normalized. But we’ll also show you how the women running rap today are pushing back against that body policing by reclaiming their bodies, showing them off and making art that defies the gaze.

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Audio story produced by Gabby Bulgarelli and Sam J. Leeds
Audio story edited by Soraya Shockley and Sam J. Leeds
Audio story engineered by Gilly Moon and Josh Newell
Podcast theme and original music by Suzi Analogue and Kassa Overall
Fact-checking by Greta Pittinger