Popular culture elevated the pimp from despised figure to hero.

Evidence

The contemporary glorification of male violence against women has caused the pimp, once a despised figure in communities, to be elevated to the status of hero. The pimp’s misogynist treatment of women was romanticized in movies like Sweet Sweetback or Cool Worlds and in books like Iceberg Slim that glorified his exploits. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 320