In class, we briefly discussed Nicki Minaj and how she used the idea of
black female sexuality to gain notoriety within the hip hop music world.
Glancing through her music videos from the past seven years, there is a lot of hypersexualization
of African American women, including herself. She often has over the top
costumes or outfits that draw attention to her figure and many of her songs
focus on things that male rappers focus on-wealth, sex, women (men for Nicki).
Does this mean that black women have to use Western ideas about black female
sexuality to make it within the music world?
Looking at other famous black women musicians, there are a variety of
genres, styles, and music. The hip-hop group TLC comes to mind. They are
similar to Nicki Minaj in the hip hop genre, but still have their own unique
style. Their fashion choices reflect the time period of their popularity, but
they still have form fitting outfits that accentuate their curves or how small
they are. Their dancing and lyrics may not be as pronounced as Nicki Minaj, but
that doesn’t it make it less sexual.
Even Beyoncé can be subject to the western ideas about black female
sexuality. She was widely accepted by white audiences, probably because her
music sounded closer to pop rather than hip hop. However, when she came out
with Lemonade, she got a lot of backlash from white audiences because it had a
much different sound and message than they were used. Saturday Night Live
parodied the reaction with a sketch, “The Day Beyoncé Turned Black." I included
the link at the bottom of this post because it’s great.
Black female sexuality in music almost has to fit certain criteria in
order to be recognized, but this also opens them up to more critique. Even
though there are Western (white) ideas and norms when it comes to black female
sexuality in music, there are many white people that reject these ideas as
immoral, lowly, etc. For example, I went to a private Christian high school and
we would get in trouble if we were caught listening to non-Christian rap or hip
hop. (I actually got in trouble once because I was wearing a shirt that had The
Beatles on it. Since they had claimed to be bigger than Jesus, my shirt was
considered inappropriate.) But we were told that certain music was too sexual
and therefore immoral. However, the immoral ideas they had about black
sexuality came from imperialist ideas about it. Their ideas about sexuality in
general were similar to the moral reformers of the Victorian era.
Black females in music videos are often portrayed as hypersexualized,
with little regard to what time they were popular. While some black female
artists can escape some scrutiny if they appeal to white audiences, the
hypersexualization doesn’t go away. This issue consists of both race and
sexuality and it would be interesting to see how music videos of different
races and cultures portray sexuality differently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociMBfkDG1w
This blog post is extremely interesting and relevant to the hypersexualizing of African American women in popular culture as seen through music videos and in the public spectrum. The problem for artists like Nick Minaj, as opposed to artists like Beyoncé, is she pushes the ticket of white, evangelical expectations in entertainment through new, sexualized styles. This is seen, as you describe, through the explicit nature of dance to clothing choices that Minaj chooses to wear in her music videos and in the public setting. If you look at this from the background of why she, and many other artists take part in these acts, it can be discovered through little research that she is obeying the commands of her record label whom she is under contract. These record labels know what will turn heads, and what will bring views to videos and listenrs to music which is their sexualized, monetary content. Many protestant organizations condemn these messages, and even protest over the sexual content, but these responses still provide views and publicity. Many people see Nicki Minaj as a liberated black woman, who has everything a woman could want from the body to money. However, she is, in a loose sense, controlled by a hierarchal system who tells her who to be and what to do to make vast amounts of money for record label company. As long as Nicki Minaj, along with other black women involved in the hip hop industry, continue to push the ticket of hypersexualized music through dances, verses, and lack of articles of clothing, people will continue to look and listen in awe.
ReplyDeleteA harsher parallel to Nicki Minaj, from the Victorian Era, would be Sartjee “Sarah” Baartman. This would have been relevant to include in this blog post because Baartman’s case is one of the most famous historical forms of the extreme hypersexualizing of African American women in the entertainment industry. Sarah Baartman, otherwise known as the Hottentot Venus, was subject to the interest of white, imperialistic European society of the Victorian Era because of her large buttocks and her so called African “savagery”. In this time, the enslaving of African Americans was common, along with the inability of African Americans to make any money or get jobs because of their skin color and low standing in society. However, Sarah was considered by her boss, Hendrik Cesars, a free black woman who would perform hypersexualized acts of dance and showing off her buttocks to the masses of England and Ireland, and later, the bourgeoisie societies of Paris. This is similar to Nicki Minaj based off of the selling of her sex appeal to white society. Cesars, and Minaj’s record label, saw the opportunities in their clients based off of their unique biological figures to turn heads and make money. Both Minaj and Baartman receive positive and negative reviews, but receive much publicity based off of white societies interests in African American sexual culture. Sure Nicki Minaj is much more free than Baartman, and has the ability to make her own decisions, but both Minaj and Baartman careers are both defined by societies obsession of sex through movement and skin color as seen through the modern hip hop industry.