After years of being under the wing of rapper T.I., Iggy Azalea wiggles herself into the mainstream with her album “The New Classic,” featuring “Fancy” featuring Charlie XCX . However, following in the footsteps of many other female artists, Iggy has calculated a persona almost ingenuine to herself to have success. This calls into question why many female artists have to almost rebuild themselves to become successful, while male artists typically do not.

For years, Iggy has rode”the struggle” story of being a white girl from Australia trying to burst into the rap scene. As indie legend goes, Iggy, then known as Amethyst Amelia Kelly, worked tirelessly in Australia to save up money.  She eventually announced to her parents she was going on vacation to the United States and never returned. Somehow along the way, Atlanta-rapper T.I. discovered her and signed her to his label.

Iggy rap skills are above average, as they have to be in order for her to be taken seriously by the tight-knit rap community.

However, what rubs some music critics the wrong way is her rapping style and persona. Not only does she rap in a “dirty south” style that should be impossible for a born and raised Australia who still has a thick accent when she talks, she acts stereotypically “black.” As some critics say, she behaves as if she’s Nicki Minaj, although she grew up in outback.

In fact, Iggy admitted in a New York Times interview that  she “know[s] how to pander,” meaning she knows what it takes for a female to break into the music scene and what parts of herself to manipulate to become that image.

Plenty of musicians and actors portray different people on the job than in real life. That’s why “revere the artist, not the man” is a saying in music world. A person’s music and a person’s onstage persona often differs from the actual person.

However, it’s becoming a frequent and troubling pattern for female musicians to change themselves for fame.

For two mainstream examples, look to Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj. Katy Perry dyed her hair, started showing more cleavage and kind of dropped her religion by the wayside to become famous. She’s now one of the world’s biggest pop stars. Nicki Minaj possibly surgically enhanced her behind and dumbed down her lyrics to appease the rap world’s standard for women. She’s now one of the biggest rap stars.

Meanwhile, attempting to find male stars who purposely re-did themselves to become famous is difficult.  In fact,  the only one that comes to mind is Elvis Presley and all he did was dye his hair (which had a surprisingly strong affect on his career).

Why do women have to change themselves so much to become hit music artists? It’s most likely a response to society’s standards for women within that specific music genre. If Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj didn’t change themselves, their differences may have separated them too far from the mainstream of their genre.

As for Iggy specifically, the rap world is unforgiving towards women -especially white, foreign women. Women in general have to bend to rap genre, not the rap genre to them, as proven repeatedly by the its treatment of female rappers . Either a female rapper sexualizes herself and dumbs down her lyrics (or keeps her lyrics dumb), or she’s out of the game. Iggy dreamed for years about becoming a rap star and regardless of the critics, she has done what she had to do to reach that goal.

We may have to wait a few more years, maybe a decade before a genuine, fresh and brave female music artist bursts onto the mainstream scene. While artists like Nicki and Katy are likely too far in to change, Iggy is still fresh enough to change the game. Hopefully she takes the chance and refuses to be complacent to the mainstream standards.