Nicki Minaj shocked a lot of people with her Anaconda video. It has women writhing and very barely dressed, and the whole entire video predominantly features her ass. It features lot of other women’s asses, too, but Nicki’s gets star billing.
I find it..interesting.
Because sure, you have writhing, mostly naked women, which I would normally be against due to objectification, but in Anaconda, it comes across less as objectification of those women and more a power play. Less like, “I shake this to turn you on,” and more like, “YOU ARE HELPLESS AGAINST THE POWER OF MY ASS.”
Most of the video, Nicki looks contemptuous, not seductive – she’s got an awesome body, she knows it, and she owns you with it, and she knows that, too.
My personal favorite part is when she starts to seductively eat a banana – then instead, breaks it in two, hacks it with a knife, and then tosses it away with a disgusted look. Also worth mentioning is when the dude she’s grinding on in the end tries to lay a hand on her ass, she swats it away and walks off without looking back as he stares after her helplessly.
On the down side, Nicki falls back into body shaming OTHER women with about five or six repetitions in a row of “Fuck those skinny bitches”, and this is not how we do feminism, people. We do not build ourselves up by knocking other women down. Boo.
Pros: Nicki owns the world with her ass and doesn’t give a shit if it turns you on or not.
Cons: Fuck those skinny bitches.
Feminism grade: B