Myths About Pimps: Conflicting Images of Hypermasculine Pimps in U.S. American Hip-Hop and Bisexual Pimps in the Novels of Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim

Abstract

The traditional image of the urban U.S. American pimp functions as a powerful symbol of Black hypermasculinity throughout contemporary hip-hop culture. This image perpetuates entrenched stereotypes that characterize Black males as violent, rapacious beasts and Black females as hypersexed, valueless mules. Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim, in their novels Whoreson (1972/2007) and Pimp (1969/2007), employ pimp characters in direct conflict with the American hip-hop version of the pimp in their marked openness to non-normative sexualities, signaling an alternative possibility for Black male sexuality. Bell hooks and Darieck Scott argue that Black males must quit trying to compete with White males for sexual supremacy and embrace a politics of failure marked by new constructions of sexuality that are less destructive. Rejecting a sexuality based on hypermasculine White patriarchy in favor of a more open Black sexual politics creates a sexual map that may lead to a uniquely Black sexual politics.