“I’m a feminist, do you hate me?”: Constructions of Feminism by Sajsi MC

Abstract

The paper focuses on the public persona of a popular female rapper from Serbia, Ivana Rašić, performing under the stage name Sajsi MC. As she openly calls herself a feminist, my goal will be to shed light onto how feminism is constructed in her discourse and music, taking into account the specificities of the post-socialist Serbian society and the transformation of the market (and life in general) into a neoliberal one, as well as certain strategies of the popular music industry. Given that she is active within the music market, and is involved in the creation of various products offered for consumption to audiences in the region, my goal will be to understand how feminism, as a category and a label, is envisioned, appropriated, reimagined and renegotiated within such a context, and how it is used by Sajsi MC as a strategy for positioning herself within the local music industry.