<P> Another favorable understanding of the trope argues its meaning is flexible and can positively evolve . For example, one definition of this term claimed "for a 30 + year old man, who has his ish together, a down ass chick is someone who is down for you in other ways...Both versions are loyal and have your back but...the 30 + DAC is not willing (nor required) to sacrifice herself or her goals for her man . They are building together ." </P> <P> Despite these positive readings and the fact that ride or die chicks are often the subject of male praise or female self - identification in hip hop, they have also been critiqued as a negative and damaging ideal imposed on Black women . Critics have argued that ride or die chicks are a heterosexual male fantasy that privileges male pleasure and ignores the costs women must pay to fulfill this fantasy . Hip hop feminist author Gwendolyn D. Pough claims the rising number of Black women in prison, currently the fastest - growing prison population, is evidence of the high cost ride or die chicks must pay . </P> <P> The ride or die chick can also be understood as a hip hop reiteration of the Madonna--whore paradigm . In this understanding the ride or die chick is the Madonna and her opposite is the trick / hoe . Unlike the "Madonna", the ride or die chick is sexualized, but unlike the trick / ho, her sexuality is praised and valued . The ride or die chick is not seen as sexually deviant because her partner is the only man with access to her body . Like the Madonna / Whore, in this schema women's sexuality is only for male pleasure and is limited to fulfilling one of two restrictive opposing roles . Also like the Madonna / Whore, in this understanding the ride or die chick is a sexual script although, unlike Madonna / Whore it is specific to Black women . In an interview, hip hop activist Toni Blackman noted that it is not the sexuality of these scripts she is troubled by, but that "woman's choices are only limited to A, B and C. When a guy gets to choose between ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP ." In this critique the problem with the ride or die chick is not its specific meaning but its place as one of several stereotypes, or scripts, that supposedly represent the entirety of Black female behavior . </P>

Where does the saying ride or die come from