Anaconda Analysis: Nicki Minaj

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How Do We Respect? An Anaconda Analysis At first glance, it is easy to disapprove of Nicki Minaj. The black female rap artist from Queens, New York, has gone out of her way to provoke criticism from fans and “haters” of the genre alike. This follows a decades-long rap tradition of speaking out in such a way as to attract the attention of those who would bowdlerize, money being another significant motivator (her production label, after all, is named “Young Money Productions.”) In her music video featuring Nicki’s latest smash single Anaconda, viewers witness Nicki and several of her voluptuous backup dancers – mostly Black women – brandishing their behinds at the camera and posing in ways that may very well be considered “suggestive.” This With that being said, American culture has in many ways maintained Christian values of decency, self-respect, and self-efficacy regarding women’s bodies that are at odds with what Nicki raps about and presents through the imagery of her music video. To understand why Nicki may be such a big fuss, one need only to compare these traditional American ideas of women’s bodies as portrayed in popular media and consumer culture, and the body image that Nicki is soliciting. As a psychological study conducted by Brit Harper and Marika Tiggeman in 2007 states, there is no doubt that Western women are subject to a great deal of pressure to conform to the thin ideal of feminine beauty (649). The women that Nicky casts in her music video do not fit the typical ideals of beauty that are found in popular fashion magazines that feature mainly white, skinny women with perfect skin. All the dancers, if subjected to a BMI test, might test overweight. One dancer has a shaved head, while another has a noticeably large birthmark on her left thigh that seems to suggest that Nicky was purposely considering something other than In the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, sociologists Ruby Gourdine and Brianna Lemmons conducted a study of college students, predominantly African-American students, to find out how they felt about misogynistic lyrics. They found that female rappers are seen as being empowered when they use strong lyrics such as the ‘‘B-word’’ by making the word their own (61). Although Gourdine and Lemmons feel that this kind of language may allow women to be portrayed as being abused and symbolizing persons who can be mistreated by males, giving a troublesome message to the youths (70), Minaj understands that if she is to be seen as empowered, she must fight fire with fire. Particularly, when Minaj raps, “Come through and f*** ‘em in my automobile,” it’s easy to see how misogynistic language has been turned against the man, and it is the female who is dominating the

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