The New Cool

I went to see a movie last night with Girl Alex and Hanna, her sister. We had Indian food first, then went together to the cinema. The movie we saw was called "Hustle and Flow." It would not have been my first choice, Ms J. But the girls wanted to see it.

The contemporary story was built around a Memphis pimp and his "hoes". The pimp discovers he has a gift for writing and performing rap music and struggles to free himself (and his girls) from the shackles of black poverty. I enjoyed the story, Ms J. But I must admit to feeling a little uncomfortable in the seat between Alex and Hanna. Alex is just eighteen and her sister, seventeen.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but here in North America, it's become trendy to be a poor, un-educated, disrespectful and violent inner city black youth. Or at least to talk and dress like one. Even affluent white kids wear their baseball caps sideways and pull their pants down to below their buttocks, covering themselves with basketball jerseys that are as long as dresses. Wearing clothes that are five sizes too big is cool. Rap music is cool, especially if the lyrics glorify violence and degrade women. Drugs are cool. So is violence. Knives. Guns. Gangs even, I suppose. I just don't understand it, Ms J. I just don't know how it became cool to hurt people, and to disrespect others and yourself.

I read a post a few weeks ago by Jack over at Quick Quack . He wrote his entire post in the vernacular of the young blacks in his neighbourhood. I understood the words, but together, they made no sense. I may as well have been reading the phone book. That's the way the characters spoke in "Hustle and Flow". As if that weren't hard enough to understand, they spoke with a Tennessee accent. A Negro Tennessee accent. I understood very little of the first twenty minutes of the movie, although I did hear numerous references to "hoes", "bitches", "niggers" (a word that makes my skin crawl!) and "mother-fuckers." But as I said earlier, this is all cool. It's become a part of popular youth culture throughout Canada and the U.S. Frankly, I find it absolutely appalling.

It appeals to teens because they're anxious to assert their independence from their parents and this filth is another way they can rebel against society. I worry about Meagan. She already uses words like "mo-fo" and "bitches". Not as a regular part of her speech, I don't think, but it's clear she's looking in that direction. I've told her I won't countenance language like that. Hopefully, she'll come to realise how disrespectful it sounds.

In the car on the way home, I asked G.A. and Hanna what they thought of the film.

"I liked it," said Alex. "But I hated how they always called women 'bitches'. It sounds awful." And she wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"I liked it too," said Hanna from the back seat. "But I agree with Ally. A bitch is a dog. We're not dogs. We're women."

I smiled broadly in the glow of the dash lights. Maybe all is not lost, Ms Journal. Maybe there's hope yet, for the future of youth.

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