We are used to seeing men with guns or other weapons in movies, television shows and music videos, but the image is still startling when a woman has any kind of weapon (except maybe a kitchen knife). Nicki Minaj doesn’t stray away from this startling image in her new music video in which she holds machine guns while looking vivaciously feminine.
About two weeks ago, Minaj revealed this controversial video for a song that will be the newest installation on her album Rise of an Empire. The song is called “Lookin’ Ass N—-.”
This Nov. 2, 2013 file photo shows hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj at the Power 105.1’s Powerhouse Concert at the Barclays Center in New York.
The lyrics to the song demonizes aspects of men that Minaj detests and thinks to be unmanly. She chastises men for not having jobs, lying to impress women and not being endowed. Minaj sings “I would never f— a non-man ass n—-.” Besides her castigations against non-masculine men, she also berates men for looking at women’s bodies. This last complaint seems unjustified given the revealing outfits she wears in the video and the single shots of body parts that objectify her, but I guess she just means be more discreet, guys.
Even though the video has raised controversy, Minaj defends her choices in an interview with radio hosts of Hot 97, saying women should be “empowered in our way, not no suit and tie way.” She says she is in the position to encourage women to empower themselves in this way and to make it clear that women “don’t always wan to tell you how much we love you.” Minaj probably has a lot of anger because of the male-dominated field in which she works, particularly since rap music is not known to produce videos that empower women, but I don’t think she has made as loud a statement as she could have made with this video.
Close ups of body parts is a common “aesthetic” tactic in all kinds of media, and women are most often the object of this. Minaj’s video employs this tactic and even puts her in front of the male gaze, with a close up shot of the eyes of the man who is looking at her.
Minaj’s willingness to give in to the objectification of women and give into violence is a quiet and ineffective message at best.
