Spot the Difference: Music Video or Erotic Film?
3 attributes that can be used to sum up the mainstream hip-hop industry: materialistic rappers, misogynistic violence, and naked girls. Some of the most praised and respected rap songs are attached to videos that walk the tightrope between an acceptable music video and pornography. However, this very notion that women are seen as mere sexual objects is precisely how rappers make money and women get hurt in the process.
You can scroll to any second-long moment in Tyga’s music video for his hit song, “Taste”, and it will undoubtedly be filled with naked girls twerking on each other and getting sprayed on with whipped cream. A prime example of the male gaze, this video is the definition of the objectification and oversexualization of women. Women are seen wearing nothing but small bikinis, dancing on the mansion’s balcony and in the pool, touching themselves and twerking into the camera. Even when the scene changes to the skate rink, the girls are wearing lingerie and bikinis, erotically dancing on the rink floor. Not only does the videography depict the male gaze, but the lyrics exaggerate this view: Tyga raps, “Make all these bitches scream / Ah, pretty little thing” (Tyga, 2018). He objectifies the women, calling them “bitches” and “things” and referring to them only in sexual contexts.
Andy Zeisler explains the male gaze, stating, “by positioning women as nothing more than objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable, the male unconscious reassures itself that, really, it has nothing to fear from women” (Zeisler, 2008, p. 8). Tyga’s music video does a spectacular job of sexualizing and objectifying women, placing them in little to no clothing and having them dance for the men. Oftentimes, the girls are only seen from the back, neglecting to show their faces and creating a further objectification of their bodies. The male gaze also creates a submissive narrative for women, making them worth nothing but sex in order for men to assert their dominance without worry that women may fight back.
Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’” paints the picture of a man’s utopia: pouring bottles of wine all over naked twerking girls on a lavish yacht. A mere location shift away from Tyga’s “Taste”, Jay-Z’s video is filled with girls in bikinis dancing and twerking around stationary men and the occasional sultry stare into the camera. As is true of Tyga’s video, women seem to simply play the role of an accessory to these big-shot rappers, diminished to another mere chain or cigar that just sits there and looks pretty. As Jay-Z says, “You know I thug 'em, fuck 'em, love 'em, leave 'em / 'Cause I don't fuckin' need 'em,” reaffirming that women are only good for sex, but completely dispensable (Jay-Z, 2000). However, he goes a step further, rapping, “In the cut where I keep 'em / 'Til I need a nut, 'til I need to beat the guts,” insinuating that women are best kept hidden and out of sight until they are summoned to have sex–with violent undertones (Jay-Z, 2000).
The binary opposition that Stuart Hall introduces is reproduced by the distinction between man and women, separating their roles and asserting an extreme power dynamic between the two (Hall, 1997, p. 229). With the clothed men rapping and simply enjoying the company of naked dancing women, Jay Z’s video creates a stark difference between the roles of women and men in both fictional and real-life contexts. The polarization between man and woman fuels the stereotypes then created that men are powerful and have complete domination over submissive women whose only use is to please men and be sexualized.
Misogynoir, a term coined by Moya Bailey, is defined as “the uniquely 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, 2021, p. 1). Black women in hip hop music videos are typically only looked down on as submissive objects, only of use as the subject of sex and violence. Bailey brings up the example of “the Black woman as the hypersexual Jezebel,” a stereotype of Black women that dates back centuries (Bailey, 2021, p. 3). The internalization of this stereotype plays into the misogynoir perspective, placing Black women especially at the mercy of this belittling sexual stance. Black women in hip hop music videos play an extremely promiscuous and seductive “Jezebel” role, quite literally stripping naked and seemingly enjoying the rappers slapping their asses while rapping about how they don’t respect women.
Not only does this affect the way marginalized Black women are seen by society, but it also influences how they see themselves (Bailey, 2021, p. 1). The constant presence of this stereotype in popular media creates a notion of how Black women should act to be accepted, causing the depreciation depicted in music videos to translate into real life experiences. And as Hall describes, stereotypes are seemingly “fixed in Nature” and therefore difficult to change once presented which becomes extremely harmful to Black women when exposed into popular media (Hall, 1997, p. 249). Therefore, both men and women internalize this stereotype and cause Black women to be seen–and see themselves–as objects of sex and physical violence meant solely to play into the desires of men.
As these songs and music videos blow up and gain tremendous popularity and profit, the stereotype of the female as a sexual object continues to be prevalent in subsequent music videos, reinforcing this structure. “Big Pimpin’” being a VMA nominee for Best Rap Video speaks for itself; the people love this sexualized content and in turn, it runs a profit for these rappers who continue to propagate this narrow view of women (IMDB). We can only hope for a more favorable future where women are given the respect they deserve–and maybe a garment more of clothing.
Works Cited
Bailey, M. (2021). Misogynoir Transformed. NYU Press.
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices: The Spectacle of the 'Other'. Sage.
IMDb.com. (n.d.). Jay-Z feat. Ugk: Big pimpin'. IMDb. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8110276/awards/?ref_=tt_awd
Jay-Z. (2000). Jay-Z - Big Pimpin' ft. Ugk - YouTube. Youtube. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgoqrgc_0cM
Tyga. (2018). Tyga - Taste (official video) ft. offset - youtube. Youtube. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjxulQ1bEWg
Zeisler, A. (2008). Pop and Circumstance: Why Pop Culture Matters. Feminism and pop culture. Seal Press.
Stella your blog post was truly insightful as you compared rap music videos to borderline pornography, I have noticed this before and I believe its not discussed about enough on how this perpetuates common misogynistic narratives not only in the music industry but in our society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI would just like to discuss on how you mentioned a continued parallel in the content between videos and pornography. This essentially alludes to Adorno and Horkheimer’s views of how the popular culture industry demonstrates overall standardization. “Culture now impresses the same stamp on everything. Film, radio, and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part...Under monopoly all mass culture is identical.” (Adorno, T. Horkheimer, M. 1944). This essentially means that all aspects of the pop culture industry especially in the entertainment industry is molded into a paradigm of sameness. Additionally, for artifacts to become pop culturally significant it has to be resembled after a previously significant similar artifact.
You mentioned that women in rap music videos are seen as just sexual objects, and just by looking at the music videos top 5 songs on the current rap billboard 100 chart, 4 out of 5 of these videos involve women wearing revealing clothing and being portrayed as hyper sexual. I also found this interesting because some of the artists of these songs are women too. These videos are all standardized to the misogynistic perspective of women as sexual objects, which essentially proves the points of Adorno and Horkheimer.
Great points, loved your perspective! - Xian Scott