blogpost9

Kristen Coyne

3-31-15

Blog Post 9

            African American women in hip hop often face many struggles to be accepted by the industry. Many of the megastars in the hip hop industry such as Beyoncé and Missy Elliott have made their own path to stardom and avoided some of the stereotypes brought forth by the industry.  Missy Elliot has been in the hip hop agency for a over twenty years but she has always used her sexuality as a form of power rather than a way of objectifying herself. According to the article “Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott and Nicki Minaj: Fashionistin’ Black Female Sexuality in Hip-Hop Culture-Girl Power or Overpowered?” Missy Elliot did lose a lot of weight at a period in time, but she did not use her leaner body in a sexual way. She uses choreography and her actual passion for hip-hop rather than the stereotypes the hip hop industry has set forth. But since Missy Elliott is not objectifying herself like many other hip-hop artists, the media began questioning her sexual preference. It is extremely frustrating that just because an artist does not wear revealing clothes and dance in a provocative way, she is questioned about her sexual orientation. Just because she is not using the male gaze to attract fans, she is questioned about her sexual preference. She handled the media asking these questions in a very strong way by saying that she does not need a man to be happy, as long as she is happy. This is the outlook that more women in hip-hop need to realize. Another hip-hop artist that is very empowering is Beyoncé. She does show off her body, but I don’t feel that she objectifies herself. She is seen as a very powerful artist and is know as “the queen”. I also feel that she shows off her body for herself, not to impress others in the industry. However, Nicki Minaj is not as empowering as Missy Elliott and Beyoncé. In my opinion, she represents herself in a very degrading way. For example, in the music video Anaconda, her butt is the center of the video and the song. She also has implants to her butt to make it bigger, whereas Missy and Beyoncé are all natural. I feel that since Nicki Minaj is still an up and coming artist, she feels that she has to present herself in this way, but once she is more settled in the industry she will calm down with the way she objectifies herself.