he song Anaconda can be seen as a sex-positive statement about a woman’s ability to own her own body and sexuality. The video however, completely fails to follow through on the songs potential for a powerful feminist message. Instead it relies on the tired trope of hypersexualizing women’s bodies. It opens with Minaj and backup dancers in a jungle setting, writhing and sweaty as they grind against the ground and each other. This familiar popular music catchphrase was rerecorded as “Oh my gosh, look at her butt” for minja song. The tittle of the song, “Anaconda,” refers to another line sampled from Sir Mix-A-Lot: “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hun.” These two clips are used as the bridge to move between Minaj’s description…show more content… Minaj explains that her sexual favors are desirable to these men because, “He can tell I ain’t missin’ no meals, say he don’t like ‘em boney, he want something he can grab.” She ends the song be proclaiming, “He love this fat ass this one is for my bitches with a fat ass in the fucking club.” Minaj’s songs can be read as an interruptive statement championing women’s self-esteem, body confidence, and sexual agency. While it is indeed refreshing to some people to hear a popular female artist celebrate her figure and narrate her own sexual desires, Anaconda holds deeper meaning beyond provocation and innuendo. Minaj’s song perpetuates the white patriarchal construction of black female bodies as consumable sexual objects. People discuss denigration of black womanhood and
Lightford…show more content… Though internationally embraced and massively popular for more than two decades, “Baby Got Back” is still a song about how men want women to look specifically for maximum sexual gratification.
Minaj’s attempt to rework the song into first-person female perspective fails to change the underlying message: black women’s bodies are constructed as hypersexual less than human’s objects to be used for the gratification of men. Minaj’s suitors claims to “not like them boney” and to “love this fat ass,” but she voices no personal joy or gratification from embodying this feminine ideal. She seems to only care about her fat butt insofar as it bring her male attention and the opportunity to swap sex for clothes and drugs, which places her in the advantageous position of one who can flaunt her various appetites without societal condemnation.
Postfeminist discourse falsely conflates female material success and individualized self- expressions with female empowerment
Feminist scholars have been helpful at reminding us about Baby got back, the images of women portrayed in the media. African American beauty, especially African American
