Chickenhead (sexuality)

"Chickenhead" is a derogatory American English slang term that can refer either to someone who performs fellatio^[1] or, derisively, "dumb female".^[2]

Etymology

The term originated in African-American sexual slang and gained popularity through use in hip-hop, notably the 1996 skit "Chickenhead Convention" on the album Muddy Waters by Redman.

History

The term "chickenhead" has been mentioned in the context of misogyny in hip hop culture. Ronald Weitzer and Charis Kubrin note that "A favorite rap term is 'chickenhead,' which reduces a woman to a bobbing head giving oral sex."^[3] Bakari Kitwana argues that many rappers refer to women, black women in particular, as "bitches, gold diggers, hoes, hoodrats, chickenheads, pigeons, and so on."^[4] Johnnetta B. Cole argues that hip hop's tradition to refer to black women in such terms disrespects and vilifies them.^[5]

Bibliography

• Morgan, Joan (1999). When chickenheads come home to roost: my life as a hip-hop feminist. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684822624.
• Bulbeck, Chilla. "Young feminist voices on the future of feminism". Sociological Sites/Sights, TASA 2000 Conference, (6-8 December). Adelaide: Flinders University.
• Springer, Kimberly (Summer 2002). "Third wave Black feminism?". Signs. University of Chicago Press. 27 (4): 1059–1082. doi:10.1086/339636. JSTOR 10.1086/339636.
• Massey, Carla (1996). "Body-smarts: an adolescent girl thinking, talking, and mattering". Gender and Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing (PEP). 1: 75–102.
• Stephens, Dionne P.; Phillips, Layli D. (March 2003). "Freaks, gold diggers, divas, and dykes: The sociohistorical development of adolescent African American women's sexual scripts". Sexuality & Culture. Springer. 7 (1): 3–49. doi:10.1007/BF03159848.

References

1. Richardson, Elaine B. Hiphop literacies. London; New York: Routledge, 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-32928-6, p. 42.
2. "Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings". Men and Masculinities, 12 (1): 3-29. doi:10.1177/1097184X08327696
3. Weitzer, Ronald and Charis E. Kubrin (2009). "Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings". Men and Masculinities, 12 (1): 3-29. doi:10.1177/1097184X08327696
4. Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002, ISBN 978-0-465-02978-5, p. 87.
5. Cole, Johnnetta B. "What hip-hop has done to Black women". Ebony, March 2007.