Voices of Misrepresentation: Nicki Minaj

         In my personal opinion, I think Nicki Minaj is a bad representation of women. She is the most sexualized female artist in the music industry right now other than Miley Cyrus. Even her name Minaj, is sexual. It is a play on the French phrase ménage a trios, which means threesome. She portrays this image of a black Barbie doll. She even has a Barbie doll created after her. An issue with the Barbie doll is the fact that Barbie is the white ‘mythical norm’. The Nicki Minaj Barbie has much lighter skin than Nicki herself. Nicki is not properly represented by this Barbie that is apparently supposed to be in her image. It also ignores the Black girls that might play with the doll and not feel accurately embodied by Mattel the creator of Barbie. Minaj reinforces the white image of beauty rather than representing and embracing the beauty of Black women.
         She wants to be known for the way she looks. She wears very provocative clothing in her videos that bring attention to her breasts and butt. Not all women have big breasts or a big butt but they see her as an ideal image of beauty and think there is something wrong with their bodies because they do not look like her. Reportedly, Nicki has had breast implants and butt injections to be created into this image. Women should be happy with the way they look and not feel the need to change. It is wrong to have plastic surgery when there is nothing physically wrong with your body. What needs to change is your ideals and beliefs that there is something wrong with you. Women need to have a positive body image.
            I commend her for being a successful female artist in the rap/hip-hop genre that is dominated by men. It shows women that they can sing in a genre that is typically looked at as a male genre. Women can do what men can do, whether this is in an occupation or something else. I wish Nicki would do it in a less sexualized way because she is doing the same thing to herself that male rappers do to women in their music videos. If she didn’t look the way she did, she wouldn’t be as successful.
          The first song that made Nicki Minaj become popular is “Super Bass”. I think it’s important to take a closer look at the lyrics of this song. This is especially important as when people generally listen to music they do not pay that much attention to the lyrics. The title of the song itself is a play on words of “superb ass”. When she addresses the male in the song she repeatedly draws attention to the fact that he has money with lyrics like “got stacks on deck like he savin’ up” and “he got the right kind of bill”. She is showing that women only care about how much money a guy has or how he looks. The lyrics, “he be blazin’ up” signify this. She also use derogatory language within the song. I find the line “you’ll get slapped if you’re lookin’ ho”, very anti-feminist. It doesn’t even fit with the lyrics of the song. I don’t understand why as a woman she would want to address another woman as a ho. She also condones physical violence with reference to slapping. You can slap a woman if she looks like a ho? Is this what Nicki is trying to say? The line “then the panties come off” basically is telling girls or women listening to the song that if you like a guy have sex with him. If you like a guy you should get to know him and let him get to know you. You can’t have a positive relationship with someone just based on sex. I don’t understand the line, “I can tell that you're in touch with your feminine side, oh”. She talks about his eyes and they signal that he is in touch with his feminine side. I think she is trying to say he is emotional. I do not believe this makes him more feminine. She is condoning the stereotype that females are emotional and caring beings.
         The fact that Nicki Minaj is black, she is representing more women than the typical pop star, but yet she is trying to become this white image. We see her failing to represent black females. She sexualizes the females she represents which is not a fair representation of all women. She brings up anti-feminist messages as well in her songs. What are your thoughts about Nicki Minaj?