APPROPRIATION
Onika Tanya Maraj, better known as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-born American rapper, singer, songwriter and actress. She has always been praised by her fans for being such a fashion icon but during this course I have realized that a lot of her ideas come from previous art works of the past. Appropriation is a practice that involves re making styles or arts from different cultures of the past. Nikki Minaj has used appropriation in many of her works but has also been wrongfully accused of appropriation as well.
THE CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL HEADDRESS Extravagant headpieces have been worn throughout history by numerous cultures. Americans believe that this only unique to Native American tribes. In a recent photo of Nikki Minaj used for promotional purposes she was wearing one of these traditional head pieces. Fans were in an up war over this use of
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What was surprising was remembering how much controversy this video caused when Sir Mix-a-Lot dropped the song in 1992. MTV would only play this song at night when kids were supposed to be sleeping. In his video the women wore shorts that covered their cheeks. The also wore tights underneath for extra coverage. Nikki didn’t use any of the clothing ideas from the original video. In her video the ladies wore basically hat you could describe as a bikini.
I think her intent for this video was to give the viewers what they want. Everyone says it all the time that sex sells; Nikki Minaj was sold. When this single was released featuring oily “asses” in a steaming jungle it was clear that she was not afraid to show off big butts. She wanted to show off the dance moves that are often recycled by artist and used to oversexualize black women. “Anaconda” welcomes these features by paring sultry imagination with empowering
Hip hop music videos present two-dimensional women that have unrealistic body proportions. Perry states that the women in these music videos are lighter-skinned with “long and straight or loosely curled hair” and have “a ...
Since young girls today spend more time surfing the web, they are exposed to more mainstream advertisements that boast sexual content, and as a result, many girls want to do the things they are seeing young girls just like Winifred do. In addition to exposure to sexual content on the internet, the music of popular culture leaves very little to the imagination. Women in these music videos are more often shown as provocative and wearing revealing clothing. Many girls look up to these women and want to emulate them because they are their favorite artist. For instance, Beyoncé’s album “Beyoncé” features the song “Partition”, where Beyoncé says “He Monica Lewinski all on my gown”. The sexual reference to Monica Lewinski is hypersexu...
1. What you are studying (which three works and the topic of your paper) Topic: I’m going to be writing my paper on Cultural Appropriation. I’m going to focus on cultural appropriation in music and hip hop. Then I’m going to use cultural appropriation in hair as a way of questioning whether cultural appropriation is actually cultural appreciation.
The music video for “Tip Drill” takes place in what is identifiable as a brothel, with scantil...
Rap artists’ using women in an offensive way in the lyrics and videos is something that has recently been taking affect. Many decades ago, rappers did not rap about women the way rappers
Lyrics expressed of feminism and another of exploitation. This is another huge controversy as now women are becoming more mainstreamed than men in the hip-hop culture. For example, female Rapper, Nicki Minaj was noted for one of the wealthiest rappers alongside some of the prominent men in hip-hop. In her article, “Now That's a Bad Bitch! The State of Women in Hip-Hop” Ahsa Layne stated, "But at what cost?" This implies how women are stereotyped by the image of their bodies and how men perceive them as words described so openly in hip-hop as “bitches” or “hoes.” When hip-hop was first starting out, we heard more women expressing unity and empowerment amongst each other and in the black community. For example, one of my favorite hip-hop songs is "Doo Wop (That Thing)” by Lauryn Hill was a song to encourage women to choose integrity over hypocrisy and self-respect over sacrificing their identities. During my time of hip-hop, this is what I preferred to listen to more. Now as we have the millennium culture where hip-hop has evolved in my eyes as almost unrecognizable. Consequently, it is a market driven industry of self-exploitation in the hip-hop culture and this type of exploitation sales at all
In our new age, social media-strained society, you will find different artists expressing their ideas on a controversial topic. One of the controversial topics is Cultural Appropriation. Cultural Appropriation is a “sociological concept which views the adoption of the use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon (James Young).” Consequently, many see it as an appreciation of a culture, while others feel it is a degradation of one. However, cultural appropriation should not be used as fashion, or blatant ignorance without knowledge of the culture first hand.
Have you ever taken offense when you saw someone dressed in traditional garments from your culture? In America, this happens quite often. Some people may not recognize it and some refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. Cultural appropriation is a situation in which a dominant culture steals aspects of a minority culture’s, such as hair, clothing styles, and music.
According to Dr. West, “rap music identifies young black women in five sexual personas: Diva, a woman who trades sexual favors for luxury; Gold Digger, a woman who trades sexual favors for basic necessities and leaves men bankrupt; Freak, a sexual powerhouse; Gangster B----, a "tough" girl; and Baby Mama, a child's needy mother” (Saengianpittsburgh, 2008). Since the 80s, hip hop artists has been accused to objectifying women. It captures the idea of controlling and demeaning women by “pimping them.” In “Why do music videos portray black women as exotic sex objects?”, the author draws attention highlighting what is put on bodies of African American women, which are “seen as inherently sexual and animalistic, with a heavy focus on body shape, particularly the posterior. The black woman’s ‘butt’ has been considered a distinct point of fascination for centuries” (Larasi, 2013). Although, rap and hip hop get more attention in popular media for sexualizing women, it is also being represented in other
While it is true that Minaj used a lot of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s words, it wouldn’t be entirely accurate* to automatically assume that she was expressing the exact same sentiment*. After all, Minaj does rap about sleeping with Troy and Michael * (cite), which seems to feed into the “Jezebel concept” * (cite, ad 948 – represented as a ho, characterized by sleeping around with men) and makes it appear that Minaj is willingly offering herself up for objectification. However, one must also consider the possibility that Minaj utilizes this objectification as an empowerment tool for women. While Sir Mix-A-Lot’s song* was projecting the message “I am a man and I am standing up for curvaceous women”, Minaj’s song declares “I’m a curvaceous woman and not only can I stand up for my body, but I can also do whatever I want with
(Minaj, My Time Now) By relating herself and her own personal struggle to be accepted into her genre to other women who share similar struggles, she is positioning herself has role model. Her aspiration seems to be for women to look to her as an example, showing them that she was told she couldn’t succeed and doing so despite. Her example transcends the world of hip-hop and is relatable to all women seeking success in professional fields dominated by
Cyrus was the host 2015 VMAs and she did a racist performance of using black culture, a popular, trending culture in America, to promote herself as “wild and dangerous” by using black people as “props” for butt slapping and twerking (Makarechi 2013). Therefore, Manji turned her acceptance speech toward Cyrus by calling her out on her liberalist discussion about her on media a few days earlier. Cyrus had stated that Manji should blame herself for not being nominated as the best music video of the year along with Taylor Swift and other artists (Feeney 2015). Manji pointed out how the entertainment industry chose white artists to win awards and ignored nonwhite artists even though their music was also very popular and well-deserving to received awards as well. Furthermore, Manji pointed out that if Cyrus was going to enjoy black culture, she should care about the black people who created that culture as well. Cyrus, on the other hand, refused to give a response (Feeney 2015). Hence, in summary of what Wiley thinks, she stated, “’[White feminism] thinks twerking is a revolution on Miley but wants to know why Nicki just won’t respect herself though’” (Button Poetry
Although the film has endured some criticism, the film’s after-after party at Kingston’s Club Mirage proved that Dancehall Queen isn’t “the invention of a perverted production team in search of celluloid satisfaction. Real-life dancehall queens stroked their crotches, winded their hips and rubbed their well-oiled buttocks” (St. Hill).
Women have consistently been perceived as second-class citizens. Even now, in times when a social conscience is present in most individuals, in an era where an atmosphere of gender equality 'supposedly' exists, it is blatantly apparent that the objectification and marginalization of women is still a major social issue. In reality, progression in terms of reducing female exploitation has been stagnant at best. Not only is the degradation of women a major problem that to date has not been eradicated, but it is actually being endorsed by some music celebrities. There are a growing number of people who purchase rap albums that support the fallacy that women are mere objects and should be treated as such. As the popularity of rap continues to climb at unprecedented rates, so too does its influence on the perception of women. In the vast majority of hip-hop songs, the depiction of women as sexual objects, the extreme violence directed towards them and the overall negative influence these lyrics have on the average adolescent's perception of women make rap the absolute epitome of female exploitation.
We have more or less gender stereotype and create our own set of standards how men and women are supposed to behave. The music video delivers a weird impression that something is wrong with the story because the characters in the video are acting opposite from society’s expectations of gender stereotype. The video portrays a couple’s normal daily life, which may have been seen everywhere, and it’s nothing special except that the perspectives of males and females are opposite from what we would expect. The main cast includes Beyoncé as a wife who is a police officer and Eddie Goines as her supportive husband who works at an office. In the video, the storyline is slightly twisted because Beyoncé