HSAN takes a stand regarding the portrayal of women in hip hop and Kimora Lee Simmons takes her rightful place at the helm:
Taking a stand on the issue of portrayal of women of color in entertainment, specifically in Hip-Hop music, women in the entertainment industry have joined forces to announce the launch of the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WEEN).
Fashion mogul Kimora Lee Simmons, singer Joss Stone, Universal Records EVP and Motown Records President Sylvia Rhone and Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Valeisha Butterfield are notable participants, which includes more than 80 influential women in the entertainment industry including corporate executives, recording artists and educators. The group has been meeting for the last several months to develop WEEN’s mission statement, program and strategy. Simmons has been tapped as the organization’s national spokeswoman.
I know I’m an awful, cynical person whose deprived upbringing in the South means I will never understand the sophisticated yet selfless ways of the big city but I just love the timing of their appearance as Congress prepares for hearings on the representation of women in hip hop media to shore up their own faltering ratings.
Because, deep down inside, I know they really care and that it’s not just another campaign to blunt the force of moral outrage as it threatens the bottom line of hip hop business.
Related Coverage:
Variety: Congress holds hearing on hip-hop
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network Launches
Russell Simmons Helps Diamond Industry Get Ahead Of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blood Diamond Flick
This is great!
Stay cynical . . . everyone should be cynical about this.
But I’m also pleasantly happy about this news. I like the whole WEEN thing. If the right people get involved, this could be a very influential network.
The Oxygen Network Network doesn’t really offer anything for women of color.
If this is done right, this could be a very profitable venture — educationally, socially and finacially.
They actually started this WEEN thing way before the congressional hearings were announced. Things like this take planning; you can’t just spring it up in that short amount of time. The first WEEN meeting (which a friend of mine attended) was held right after the Don Imus thing. Since then, they have been planning – creating a website, getting members, being strategic. This is just the formal launch.
Instead of being cynical, you should recognize that regardless of when the first meeting took place, that the organization is needed. That’s why the first meeting – in which only 20 guests were invited – had over 200 guests respond and nearly 100 attend.
I think that says a lot.
O, your anonymity says a lot.
Just because there is a need does not mean that the organizations that spring up to address that need are deserving of support.
Given the history of anything that connects social issues and Russell Simmons, the first and most appropriate stance is one of suspicion. I only said I may have been cynical in order to soften my initial criticisms since this organization hasn’t actually done anything.
I’m not saying that there wasn’t planning before the announcement of the Congressional hearings. Everybody with any sense has seen that this kind of thing is coming, whether they expected Congress to come in at this point or not.
But if you spent as much time watching these people as I do, you’d realize that no marketing move should be taken at face value.