Stereotypes In Anaconda

Women in the media have always been systemically categorized according to their race. Whether it’s asian women only being given specific roles in hollywood, or black women only being able to succeed in a specific genre of music, this has always been the case. This effectively forces depictions of racially diverse women - specifically black women - into highly exoticized categories, where their features are fetishized and eroticized. Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” begins with an overview shot of a jungle, panning on a tree. Immediately a monkey runs by on a branch, and then the camera pans down to Nicki and three other women. This beginning makes it seem like the music video will be a depiction of stereotypes of black women, but that is not the case.

Black women rappers are “[placed in] a very narrow strict divide between those women who are viewed as having a very sexualized image or not.” (Lane, 789) Unlike most rap music videos, where women's bodies are on display for men to look at, Minaj creates a space that is dominated by women and she is in control of her sexuality. When she is portrayed as what can be called an “object” she is on display for other women, not men. The most prominent moments in the music video in

In the music industry, but mostly in the rap and hip-hop field, black women are seen as objects of sex. If women are too masculine within the rap field, they are not seen as being “profitable” yet if they are too feminine they are deemed too sexual. Within the rap genre black men "policed [whereas] black women rapper's central contestation is in the arena of sexual politics.” (Rose, 147) Along with this, due to western society's obsession with the “different,” black women are erotisized and sexualized within their own field of work. Certain parts of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” music video is set in the jungle. This small factor on its own plays in to the exotisization of black women, playing in to the notion that black women are “otherworldly.” Although this is the case, it is clear that Minaj is in complete control of what is going on in the video. She makes eye contact with the viewer, as if taunting them to say something against what is taking place. Along with this, the music video is almost one hundred percent dominated by black women. These women are using the stereotypes once used against them, to benefit them now. Usually, “black women’s bodies in rap music, offer a body with no agency. [Their] rear ends are either the theme of the song or the star of the music video, but rarely do these women get to express anything outside of a sexuality that is already shaped by the desire of the male artist.” (Lane, 789) This though, is not the case in “Anaconda.” Nicki