Baby Got Back Analysis

The artist, Renee Cox explores our complex perceptions of the human body through her piece, Baby Back (2001), in the means of what I interpret as a socio-cultural response. The photograph consists of the artist herself modeling. The background is black, with the exception of a single yellow rose in the bottom right corner. The artist is lounging on a chair, nude with her backside turned toward the viewer. She is wearing red heels and has draped a whip associated with BDSM around her ankles. Her head is exactly perpendicular to the camera. She is sporting natural hair and holds a very purposeful gaze. With this pose in mind, I feel the artist is assertively and with her own power, calling out the overly sexualized culture she lives in. To begin, the title strikes an almost immediate connection with the hugely popular song, Baby Got Back (1992) by Sir Mix A Lot; a song that expresses the rapper’s inability to get an erection unless the pursued woman has a

This is important for the piece because through the previous centuries, the idea of beauty stems from ethnically white women, and the culture of the United States encourages all women to look as ‘white’ as possible. For African-Americans this can suggest ‘taming’ their hair, discouraging afros and locks or any means for African-American women to have their hair natural, and encouraging them to straighten their hair, wear wigs or weaves, etc. In Sir Mix A Lot’s music video, all of the dancers have straight, shiny and ‘white’ hair. I think that the statement Cox makes with her hair being natural is a direct criticism of media, society and culture encouraging women to look traditionally ‘white.’ This message is strengthened by the fact that it is not anyone but the artist herself modeling and using her own body to make this powerful