The Female Body in Hip-Hop Videos

Hip-hop has long been seen to be dominated by men. Successful male artists far outnumber successful female artists. As a result, hip-hop, as an African-American male dominated culture, has often been labelled misogynistic and sexist. A significant amount of work has been written on this subject regarding the impact and influence of female hip-hop artists such as Salt-N-Peppa, Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill. These pioneering artists, through projecting an image of womanhood quite different from the stereotypical portrayals of women as sex objects under the control of the male gaze so prominent in hip-hop videos of their era, paved the way for female hip-hop artists such as TLC and Missy Elliott to portray an alternative representation of women that challenged and redefined the generic norms in hip-hop that gendered the consumer of hip-hop videos as male. Indeed, the video to Queen Latifah’s ‘Ladies first’, contained ‘live  footage of  South  Africa’s apartheid riots overlaid with photographic stills of Black heroines – Winnie Mandela, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Harriet Tubman, and Madame C. J. Walker’ (Keyes, 2000:258). Not forgetting still the way in which female hip-hop stars like Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown conformed to, but used to their advantage it can be argued, the sexualised image of the female body as an empowering device against men in their videos.

Hip-hop can be viewed as ‘a culture where images are persistently foregrounded and where desire, consumption and bodily beauty are primary indicators of human value’ (Weekes, 1997:295). Although artists are of course valued in terms of lyrical skill and talent, the hip-hop culture and the appeal of this culture to today’s youth perhaps renders increased cultural significance to the way in which the body is depicted in music videos; an integral part of the recording industry today. The representations of the female body in these videos are important because whilst Weekes talks of ‘Whiteness as a yardstick for beauty’ (1997:295) for black females, the image of the female body in hip-hop videos sets up beauty in terms of body shape and sex appeal. This is problematic because, as Emerson explains: ‘The emphasis upon the body and physicality and the appearance of very thin performers, models and background dancers in music videos serves to inundate the young women who watch them with unrealistic and often unattainable standards of beauty’ (2003:9). Not only is this detrimental to the self perception of young female consumers of hip-hop videos who perhaps aspire to emulate the bodily images on screen, it also symbolically positions the female body under the control of the male gaze.

The female body as an object

One example of the objectification of the female body in hip-hop videos comes from ‘P.I.M.P.’ by 50 Cent.

The image above shows 50 Cent looking directly at the camera while he raps and a female leans wilfully against him. Although low-angle shots usually signify power and authority, in this case, power and authority is perhaps attributed only to 50 cent and not to the female due to the fact that she has her back to us. Thus, the viewer forms no bond with her except one that assumes her body as an object. This is reinforced by the fact that the low angle shot almost reveals her buttocks, ‘crudely, […] highlighting the erogenous zones of performers’ (Vernallis, 2004:33) and suggesting that women in hip-hop videos ‘cater to a male consumer’s sexual wishes, acquiescing to the idea of being owned by a man’ (Balaji, 2010:9). Images of the female body alongside images of cars and money are commonplace in hip-hop videos, as illustrated below in Dr. Dre’s ‘Still D.R.E.’ and 50 Cent’s ‘Amusement Park’.

The luxurious cars and the women that accompany them represent symbolic power and status, further implying that power, here, is attributed to the males as female bodies are represented as commodities and objects of male pleasure.

The image below, also from from 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P’ video, shows two females with leashes that are strapped around their necks.

This negative representation projects an image of the female body as not only controlled by the male gaze of the viewer, but now physically held back as though the sexuality of women needs to be suppressed. 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P.’ music video adheres to the tendency of hip-hop videos to use female dancers and performers that far outnumber male bodies in the video and their portrayed willingness to physically interact with the men reaffirms ‘the sexism of male privilege and desire’ (Vernallis, 2004:107). What is more, the treatment of the female body in the image above, is like the treatment of an animal; a dog on a leash. The fact that it is a female holding the leash perhaps only works to further this assumption for a male holding the leash may well have been too controversial, even by hip-hop video standards, though it makes the gesture no less repulsive.

In the representations of the female body as an object, it is evident that the female body must ‘live up to dominant notions of physical attractiveness and measure up to fairly rigid standards of beauty. The most striking example of this is the lack of variety in body size and weight’ (Emerson, 2002:122). Indeed, the examples provided above that promote this image of an ‘idealized and sexualized female body through an emphasis on physical attractiveness, thinness and youth,’ (Emerson, 2003:7-8) signify an explicit appeal to the male gaze.

The black female body

Emerson talks of ‘the excessive sexuality of the Black woman’ (2002:129), which is represented through the black female body’s ‘hypersexual construction’ (Emerson, 2003:7). One of the examples of hip-hop videos repeating stereotypes of the black female body entailing ‘sexuality of grotesque proportions’ (Craig, 2006:168) can be identified in Nicki Minaj’s ‘Massive attack’.

The image above shows Nicki Minaj ferociously moving her head in all directions whilst kneeling on all fours. The fact that she is in a jungle in green camouflage and green hair adds to the spectacle of excessive black sexuality and the stereotypical view of ‘the nature of black sexuality and the ‘otherness’ it is constructed to embody’ (Hall, 1997:287). What makes the image of the black female body in this music video even more problematic is the fact that the artist is herself a black female hip-hop artist. Emerson argues: ‘The high visibility of these stereotypes in contemporary black popular culture demonstrates the extent to which dominant notions of Black womanhood and sexuality have been internalized and are reproduced within Black culture’ (2003:8). To some extent, Nicki Minaj fails to challenge the stereotypes that are aimed at black female bodies in hip-hop videos. Perhaps one could argue that the image and spectacle of the body of Nicki Minaj today is reminiscent of the way in which the body of Sarah Baartman was viewed, only in this instance, as Lexis B (2010) notes in Clutch Magazine, ‘Nicki Minaj has of course allegedly enhanced her buttocks considerably for the sole purpose of sensually presenting them to new audiences she hopes to commandeer.’

Side-on shots of Nicki Minaj in ‘Massive Attack’ and ‘SuperBass’ reveal ‘her steatopygia – her protruding buttocks, a feature of Hottentot anatomy’ (Hall, 1997: 265). Despite being a black female hip-hop artist, it can be argued that Minaj only gives further impetus to the portrayal of distorted ideologies of Black women’s sexuality as ‘the imagery so stridently argues that their bodies are for ogling and sex’ (Vernallis, 2004:72).

 

Alternative representations

On the other hand, ‘Hip-Hop culture, instead of being entirely oppressive to women, may actually create a space for Black women to assert independence, agency, and control of their sexuality’ (Rose, 1991, cited in Emerson, 2002:89). Indeed, hip-hop music videos also entertain the idea that ‘a woman does not need to alienate her sexuality to be assertive, nor must she be a one-dimensional sex object’ (Emerson, 2002:130).

 

 

 

In Remy Ma’s video to ‘Conceited’, the female hip-hop artist uses the male body in a similar way to how the female body is used by male hip-hop artists. The image above shows Remy Ma having just walked over the top of a man lying on her bed, being lifted off the bed by two topless males. This sequence in the video champions the idea that women can ‘take charge of their own sexuality and make a conscious choice not to be victims of either men or sex’ (Goodall, 1994:85).  A similar representation of female power over male power appears in Remy Ma’s video to ‘Whuteva’.

The image above shows a young black female stepping on a line of topless men. Azibo vehemently argues that ‘the racial imagery predominant in music and music videos is so endangering to African-centered consciousness as to render any descriptive term an understatement’ (2010:144). For this reason, these alternative representations of black womanhood over-powering male dominance become invaluable for they redefine black womanhood from the position of subject rather than object in a hip-hop culture that has consistently pushed a particular image of black female bodies on screen.

Returning to Nicki Minaj, in the video to ‘SuperBass’, the images below show her pour a pink liquid over her own chest and then proceed to pour it over the topless male.

Here, ‘what results is a space where the erotic can become articulated on a woman’s terms’ (Emerson, 2002:131). However, this is also problematic because these conflicting images leave the audience confused because ‘while promoting female subjectivity, they are promoting female objectivity concurrently’ (Shelton 2000,  Smith-Shomade 2003, cited in Thompson, 2004:1-2). Perhaps it is possible to understand the female bodies that use their sexual power to their advantage over the dominant male hip-hop culture as ‘exercising their ability to control their definition  of womanhood’ (Weekes, 1997:123), and as simply multifaceted in their being.

Many examples can be drawn upon in the hip-hop videos of today where women are represented as objects of desire and remain bodies on display. Stereotypical representations of African-American women as ‘loose, immoral, and hypersexual’ (Goodall, 1994:85) also still resonate in the current scene. It is important however to acknowledge the continued attempts to portray an alternative image of the female body in hip-hop videos. Nicki Minaj in her music videos portrays ‘a sexuality for women which would be assertive, uninhibited, freely expressed and lustful: that is, a sexuality which allowed females the same sexual privileges as culture accords to men’ (Lewis, 2002:304). Indeed, Emerson points to the multiple and ambivalent interpretations and analysis that can be extracted from such representations when he suggests: ‘What emerges is an effort on the part of the Black female artist to assert her own sexuality, to gain her own sexual pleasure. Whether this indicates compromise or capitulation to objectification and exploitation is not definitively clear’ (Emerson, 2002:130). The representation of the black female using her own sexuality as a means of empowerment certainly gives credence to the notion that ‘the erotic offers a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation’ (Lorde, 1993:340). Emerson elaborates: ‘a process of negotiation in which objectification of the female body must be present in order for the performer to gain a level  of autonomy, to gain exposure. While this seems on the surface like “selling out” to the dictates of patriarchy and the marketplace, I would argue that instead, it affirms the multidimensional nature of Black womanhood’ (2002:130). The mere existence of these alternative images of the female body is an important contestation in the African-American male dominated hip-hop culture, the question of whether or not this primacy has liberational agency or is another manifestation of patriarchal control, is open to debate.