Anaconda Controversy

Music videos are one of the biggest forms of media in western culture with which adolescents come into contact on a daily basis. Female rapper, Nicki Minaj, certainly uses this media form to popularize her 2014 hit “Anaconda” in order to convey important messages pertaining to body image. At its’ release, the video was met with controversy as it illustrates both positive and negative ideas pertaining to female body images and eating.

For generations, full-figured women have been ‘fat-shamed’ for not being a size zero nor having a small waistline. However, in recent years there has been a shift to promote a positive body image for these curvy women who were once ‘fat-shamed’. This is evident in the music video ‘Anaconda’ as Nicki Minaj includes dancers who defy the “skinny” standards of being a size zero. Instead, Minaj as well as her dancers all flaunt and glorify their curves, all the while stating men “want something [they] can grab”, implying the desirable nature of full-figured women.

This popularized phenomenon of skinny-bashing is evident in ‘Anaconda’ as Nicki Minaj insults women who have thinner body images. From the very first line of the song, the male rapper states his “anaconda don’t want none unless [she’s] got buns ”, implying that only women with curves will appear attractive to men and skinny girls who don’t have sizeable derrières are deemed undesirable. The skinny-bashing is reinforced further as Minaj refers to smaller sized women as “bitches” and states to “fuck the skinny bitches [because she] wanna see all the fat ass bitches”. In these lines, Minaj puts down women with thin body images by insinuating they are not wanted in “club” as men “don't like em [women]