Cultural visibility and female invisibility: The harmful duality endorsed by Bad Bunny’s “I Like It” and “La Romana”
Benito Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny) is emblematic of Latino success and power. As the top streamed Reggaetón artist of all time, the first non-native English speaking MTV artist of the year, and Spotify’s 2021 and 2020 most streamed artist worldwide, he certainly has the accolades to prove it (IMDb, n.d). Unlike artists that use conformity to white-washed music standards as a stepping stool for success, Bad Bunny has reached such great heights by unapologetically emphasizing his Puerto Rican and Dominican roots. In his own words, central to his self-brand are his culture, language, and jargon (Valerio, 2022).[1]
The music videos for “I Like It” (off of Cardi B’s 2018 album Invasion of Privacy, featuring Bad Bunny) and “La Romana” (off of Bad Bunny’s 2018 album X 100PRE) are in line with this emphasis on Latinx visibility, centering visuals of quotidian Latinx life. However, the videos simultaneously reinforce harmful misogynistic ideas that have been historically seen in Latinx culture. The tension between Bad Bunny’s promotion of Latinx pride and his derogatory portrayal of women ultimately suggests the continued acceptance and encouragement of gender inequality within Latinx communities. These videos have around two billion views combined, raising the question of whether an icon with such influence should be using his platform to battle these gender dynamics or to further cement their existence.
Both “I Like It” and “La Romana'' are aesthetic montages depicting life on a Latinx island. The clips are short, fast-paced, and ever-changing, showcasing small businesses, traditional Latinx dance styles, citizens, and many Puerto Rican and Dominican flags. These visual elements map directly to the auditory elements of the songs as well. In his “I Like It” verse, Bad Bunny references Latinx icons Celia Cruz and Bobby Valentín and makes a shoutout to “the Latino gang,” all while wearing a Puerto Rican national baseball team jersey. The song itself also heavily samples Pete Rodriguez’s ‘60s boogaloo classic “I Like It Like That,” overtly referencing the evolution of Latinx music and the long-standing roots of Reggaetón (Cardi B, J Balvin, Bad Bunny - I Like It). Though the lyrics of “La Romana” are not as explicitly representative of Latinx values, the track title is an homage to a municipality in the Dominican Republic, tying the lifestyle cues of the video to a particular Latinx reference point (Bad Bunny [ft. el Alfa] - La Romana).
Overall, both videos push a narrative of hard-working and culturally-rich Latinx communities, where spirits are high and lively. From watching both videos, viewers are left with a positive contribution to their “regime of representation” about Latinx individuals. As defined by Stuart Hall, regimes of representation are the collective understanding that consumers build from their media exposure to individuals in a particular group over time, or “the whole repertoire of imagery and visual effects through which ‘difference’ is represented at any one historical moment” (Hall, p.232). The positive representation curated by Bad Bunny works in direct contrast to preconceived ideas of Latinx individuals as “lazy,” “third-world,” and “criminals,” combating stereotypical notions of how Latinx individuals are perceived by others and perceive themselves.
While “I Like It” and “La Romana” generally curate a positive understanding of Latinx cultures, the misogynistic imagery heavily woven into both songs detracts from this effect. Both videos feature repeated vulgar shots in which the only object in the frame is a woman’s rear end or breasts, various clips in which Bad Bunny exerts power over the women around him, and much slow-motion crude dancing. Though Bad Bunny’s verse in “I Like It” makes various positive references to Latin identities, he also makes comments such as “I like how they shake ass, the Dominicans,” and “How good they fuck me, the Venezuelans” (Cardi B, J Balvin, Bad Bunny - I Like It). Here, he links the Latinx nationality of a woman, an empowering part of her identity, to his own pleasure, stripping that sense of empowerment away. As he sings this he is also the only figure in the foreground while out of focus women dance behind him, reiterating his importance over theirs. In “La Romana,” Bad Bunny sings “women walk without husbands,” and is then pictured admiring a woman’s rear end as she walks along the road (Bad Bunny [ft. el Alfa] - La Romana). The next clip cuts to her complying with his advance, smiling and tossing her hair as she dances flirtatiously with him. The pairing of this lyric and visual suggests that if a woman is not taken, she is immediately happy to serve as the object of any man’s affection, normalizing catcalling behaviors.
As defined by Andi Zeisler, a piece of media tailored to the male gaze is one “constructed to be seen by men,” in which women are hypersexualized and portrayed as posing no threat to male influence (Zeisler, p.7). Both “I Like It” and “La Romana” leave audiences with the impression that women in Latinx cultures serve no other purpose than to be lusted over by men. These portrayed gender dynamics then factor into the regime of representation consumers build of Latin culture; the audience comes to characterize gender norms in Latin America as entirely patriarchal. This is an oversimplification, as the videos do not address the women’s rights movements and activist groups emerging at the forefront of Latinx politics. Because the tone of both videos is prideful and celebratory, the omission of these movements is implied to be accepted by all within the identity group, oversimplifying the existing contention about the future of women’s rights among many Latinx individuals.
Bad Bunny’s work has evolved since 2018: in recent years, he has come to be known as an advocate for breaking down gender inequity in Latin communities and beyond. He has publicly worn androgynous and feminine clothing, as well as shirts with slogans demanding justice for the murder of transgender women in Puerto Rico (Venkataramanan, 2022). In a more recent video, “Yo Perreo Sola” (2020), he dons full drag as he raps about violence and sexual harassment against women. Despite his visible strides towards progress, it is important to question whether this shift will effectively spread his message, or if his efforts towards change will be hindered by the works like “I Like It” and “La Romana” that exist in his canon.
Works Cited
Bad Bunny (ft. el alfa) – La Romana. Genius. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://genius.com/Bad-bunny-la-romana-lyrics
Bad Bunny. (2019, Apr 6). La Romana [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPg3M4C9N9w&list=RDkPg3M4C9N9w&start_radio=1
Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin – I Like it. Genius. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://genius.com/Cardi-b-bad-bunny-and-j-balvin-i-like-it-lyrics
Cardi B. (2018, May 29). I Like It [Video]. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlNMmZKwpA
Hall, S. (1997). In Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 225–249). essay, Sage.
IMDb.com. (n.d.). Bad Bunny | Awards. IMDb. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9559545/awards
Valerio, S. (2022, October 24). Un Verano Con Bad Bunny: 'Made in America...Latinos Make America. It’s Important to Remember That.' Kensington Voice. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://kensingtonvoice.com/en/un-verano-con-bad-bunny-made-in-america-latinos-philadelphia-music-festival/
Venkataramanan, M. (2022, October 26). For Bad Bunny's fans, he’s more than a global superstar. He’s a political icon. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/19/bad-bunny-political-activism/
Zeisler, A. (2008). In Feminism and pop culture (pp. 1–21). essay, Seal Press.
[1] Though Bad Bunny’s songs are written entirely in Spanish, the English translation of lyrics will be provided in this paper for the sake of clarity.
Commenter: Gabriela Solomiany
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia,
I really enjoyed your piece! I believe your analysis of the topic was great. As a Puerto Rican Latina I could actually relate to your blog post to a great extent because I have experienced this type of misogyny within my culture. I agree with all the claims you made in your work, however, as time has passed this has indeed changed. Bad Bunny has transformed himself into an advocate for women and is a feminist. He denounces and criticizes machismo, and misogyny in his new album, more specifically in his songs “Andrea” and in “Yo No Soy Celoso”. Due to this, I think you could have incorporated this transformation of Bad Bunny. However, your piece truly impressed me and made me feel seen and understood as a Latina.
As I was analyzing your piece I was drawn to your statement about how women are hypersexualized in Bad Bunny’s music videos, “I Like It” and “La Romana”. Due to this, they leave the viewers with the impression that “women in Latinx cultures serve no other purpose than to be lusted over by men” (Nehme). This made me think about Misogynoir Transformed by Moya Bailey. Bailey speaks about the hypersexual, unrapeable, Black seductress: The Jezebel from the Antebellum period. The Jezebel was hypersexualized by white men. Moreover, these white men gave the hypersexualized Black woman only one purpose and it was to give white men pleasure and to birth the next generation of the workforce (Bailey, p.3). The hypersexualized women in Bad Bunny’s music videos and the hypersexualized black woman of the Antebellum period, the Jezebel, were both hypersexualized by men and were appointed a purpose by these same men. The purposes these women were given were to serve men.
Commenter: Rebecca Anderson
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog post and even went back and rewatched both music videos and feel like I have a much more complex understanding of each of them now. When I first saw the blog title I immediately thought of Zeisler so I was excited to see her name and the whole section on the male gaze.
I also thought a bit about Moya Bailey’s Misogynoir Transformed when I was reading the post. Although much of the book is specific to Black women, there are parallels with some of her more general discussions of intersectionality, hypersexualisation in the media, and digital alchemy as a tool for all women of color.
Her discussion of digital alchemy that begins with the anecdote about Google searches for “Black women” versus “(white) women” struck me – the idea that women of color are hypersexualised far more than white women is evident both in Bailey’s story and in the music videos discussed in the blog post. Similar to the Google searches Bailey describes, Bad Bunny’s videos’ representations of women of color are in a sexualised and objectified manner that cater to the male gaze. Much of the music videos are slow-motion dance shots zooming in on just the female dancers and especially on commonly sexualised parts of the body.
I also thought there was a connection to Bailey’s description of the crossroads wherein there is hypervisibility in the media via sexualisation yet invisibility in situations concerning safety. Bailey talks about how Black women are invisible when they need life-saving attention yet hypervisible when they can be sexualised for profit – the same dynamic is apparent in Bad Bunny’s music videos. He has monetary incentives to sexualise female dancers in his music videos because it will get him more views, likes, attention, and as a result, more people buying his merchandise, going to his concerts, brands sponsoring him, etc. As a result, the women of color are sexualised and hypervisible for a male artist’s profit while they are invisible in situations that concern their wellbeing.
Hi Sophia! I really enjoyed reading your perspective on Bad Bunny as a Latino cultural icon and your analysis of the objectification and over-sexualization of women in his music videos. Not only is the content very interesting, but your use of language is also powerful and persuasive. It is important for society, especially fans, to hold artists with large platforms accountable for their representations of marginalized groups.
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t previously watched the music videos for “I Like It” and “La Romana;” but I did before writing this post. As a woman of color, I felt profound discomfort watching some of the demeaning depictions of Bad Bunny’s backup dancers.
I noticed that many of the dancers were Black and considered how Moya Bailey would share many of your concerns. Bailey coined the term "misogynoir" to describe the “co-constitutive racialized and sexist violence that befalls Black women as a result of their simultaneous and interlocking oppression at the intersection of racial and gender marginalization” (Bailey, p. 1). Black women occupy a marginalized place in society, making them particularly susceptible to race and gender-based violence. This is particularly disconcerting when one thinks about the added power dynamics of a wealthy, famous, male artist like Bad Bunny, working with nameless background dancers.
Furthermore, even if no harm came to the background dancers themselves, depictions such as the ones in Bad Bunny’s music videos still have implications that reach beyond the individual or inter-personal level. They further perpetuate harmful stereotypes about Black women that affect how those who view the videos interact with Black women in their lives.
Bailey argues that misogynoir is “perpetuated through popular media” and controls “the way society views marginalized groups and how we view ourselves” (Bailey, p. 1). Bad Bunny’s music videos are designed to be shared and liked on digital platforms. His videos are highly consumed, having received billions of views each. Thus, they occupy a prominent cultural place in society and on the internet, which makes the demeaning messaging even more dangerous. Repeated depictions that otherize Black women affects not only how they are viewed by society but also has negative consequences for how Black women view themselves, their potential, and place within the world.
- Anusha Mathur
Bailey, M. (2021). Misogynoir transformed. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Hi Sophia!
ReplyDeleteYour piece about Bad Bunny's power and platform within the popular culture industry reminded me of the greater problems that many refuse to address about the music industry and its reaping effects on women in particular.
For years, women have been the props for music videos, album covers, and fulfillment of the male gaze by the over-sexualization of their bodies (Robinson, 2020). After watching the music video "I Like It" and "La Romana" this idea holds true by the extreme emphasis on female body parts and the revealing outfits. The camera zooming in directly on the background dancers behinds and then Bad Bunny contributing a prolonged stare were aspects of the music video I felt were unnecessary and quite derogatory towards women.
The unfortunate aspect of this music video, is that the over-sexualization of women has been prominent in the music industry for years (Robinson, 2020). In Lisa Robinson's Nobody Ever Asked Me About The Girls: Women, Music, and Fame, she discusses witnesses how women were sex figures for most male leaders in the music industry. She acknowledges the music industry is no different from any other industry; whether it's politics or the corporate world women are discriminated by men (2020).
I thought it was fascinating how Robinson mentioned during her travels on the road as a journalist for music stars like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, that whatever demeaning act the men did against women she thought of it as "the way it was" and how "everyone" did it (2020). This act of "looking past" the wrongdoings of men, and establishing "sex, drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll" is just how the industry operates ultimately hurts women's abilities to further their careers in the music industry if they don't consent to the industry norms.
Bad Bunny is one of many music icons to amplify the sexualization of women in the music industry. There will be many more to come unless we come together to fight against this discrimination.
Bella Corman
Robinson, L. (2020). Nobody ever asked me about the girls: Women, music, and fame. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
My blog post was also about men and how they treat + talk about marginalized groups of women. I know a lot of Bad Bunny fans, especially in queer communities, so I appreciate that you included the last paragraph detailing how he is raising awareness for Puerto Rican national and global social justice issues. Aside from that, Zeisler and Hall were excellent choices for the music videos.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to draw on another reading from class to help you make your point I would draw on Moya Bailey's theory of respectability. Her book describes respectability as "the idea that if marginalized groups comport themselves well, they may be able to be accepted into society” (p. 15). I think Bad Bunny himself plays into this by acting more traditionally masculine as he was building his career. He wanted to be rich and famous. The way he'd seen most other masculine artists of color perform their gender in public spaces and in the media fell in line with expectations of degradation, over sexualization of women, and anti-femininity. Now, a lot of artists, including other POC like Lil Nas X are choosing to play into respectability for a specified amount of time at the beginning of their careers to ensure successes (assumedly both monetary and award-wise) and then moving away from that choice once they feel more comfortable. Both rappers are LGBTQ men of color who have created huge fan bases and many enemies along the way too. As a queer, disabled, low-income student who has lost housing before and currently spends breaks in a hotel, I can understand wanting to have more fans than enemies. However, Bailey would say that their status as a celerity should encourage them to push against respectability more aggressively.
- Lex Gilbert