Nikki Minaj’s Barbie Persona
Together with the songs' melody and lyrics, music videos are
powerful tools that tattoo human minds with images that shape a person's
attitude. Throughout the twentieth century, music videos have influenced
various perceptions on the images of women. No matter what the women in the
music videos are singing about, or what actions they are doing in the videos,
there is almost always a sexual overtone. For women to be portrayed in this way
has many consequences, for the images that we view in everyday life shape the
way we think. Viewing a music video that has a woman being portrayed in an
overtly sexual manner once may not have a very serious affect on a person, but
seeing many different music videos all portraying women sexually, and seeing
these videos over and over, does indeed shape a person’s mind to view women
with much less respect than they would otherwise. This therefore, is where the
problem lies.
Nicki Minaj and her alter egos are
always grabbing the attention of journalists, fans, and other hip-hop artists.
As one of the newest members of an elite group of emcees and rappers within the
hip-hop genre, Nicki Minaj displays her talent for theatrics by personifying
some of her favorite alter egos. While other female emcees (femcees) have
appeared throughout pop culture such as Lil’ Kim and Lauryn Hill, Nicki Minaj
arguably is the first to obtain this level of fame and notoriety. The release
of her debut album Pink Friday in 2010 was certified Platinum by the Recording
Industry Association of America, making her the first artist to have seven
singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at once (Iandoli). There is no doubt that
Nicki Minaj’s alter egos, especially Harajuku Barbie, have helped establish her
as a powerful femcee and have given her a lasting place in hip- hop history.
Throughout Minaj’s time in the
spotlight, her audience has seen her morph from one character to the next, all
adorned with different outfits, different tonalities, and different postures.
Her ability to seamlessly switch from one alter ego to the next then leaves
audiences confused and star-struck. While Nicki Minaj’s character Roman might
encourage heads to turn, her alter ego “Barbie” is the real attention grabber.
As a member of the rap group Young Money, founded by Lil’ Wayne, Nicki Minaj
was featured as the female voice on the hit track “Bedrock” in 2009. In the
music video, Minaj is featured wearing a black wig with hot pink highlights and
a “Barbie” insignia necklace. She established her Barbie persona with her
lyrics, ultra-girly body language, and high-pitched flirtatious voice, which
successfully prompted audiences to take notice and the media frenzy to begin.
The artist herself has almost become synonymous with her Barbie persona: a mix
of dramatic wigs, doll-like makeup, stiff plastic robotic movements, and an
army of fans she refers to as her own personal “Barbies” (Hawgood). Although
the Barbie alter-ego has been used before in pop-culture, most notably by Lil’
Kim, Minaj has given the character a new, hyper-sexualized makeover.
Nicki Minaj argues that she intends to push the envelope for women, and to pave the road for female-dominance within not only the hip-hop music genre but society as a whole. Hip-hop has long been associated with misogynistic attitudes towards women, encouraging females to obtain their identity through erotic power and overt sexuality (Weitzer and Kubrin 10). Lewd images of undressed women sprawled on top of luxury cars are common scenes in hip-hop music videos. Women are seldom seen as powerful and intelligent human beings—instead they are portrayed as sex objects with nothing more to offer than their bodies. In an interview with Interview Magazine, Minaj talks about the strengths she wants to instill in her fans and wants “people, especially young girls - to know that in life, nothing is going to be based on sex appeal. You’ve got to have something else to go with that” (Rachel 1). She claims to encourage her female audience to achieve more than a subordinate role in society and to push past the age- old method of achieving power through mere sexuality.
Realizing that Nicki Minaj’s Barbie
persona is influential, it is imperative to understand the message as a
representation of postmodern feminism. Through this postmodern representation
she attempts to empower women by encouraging them to attain a fierce hold over
their sexuality and reclaim the power over their bodies, and thus themselves.
Minaj’s goal of empowering women and nullifying male supremacy is somewhat
achieved by bringing attention to the misogynistic attitudes held in hip-hop
society. She clearly states in interviews and in her lyrics that she doesn’t
believe there is a decent female role-model within hip-hop culture and hopes to
pave the way for women to achieve the level of success and respect male rappers
like Jay Z and others have enjoyed for years. While she does attempt to break
new ground for women, she ultimately, perhaps inadvertently, promotes the same
patriarchal standards that have plagued society for centuries. While her
rhetoric might portray her as a hip-hop feminist, Nicki Minaj contradicts her
message of female empowerment by using the sexualized Barbie persona and once
again encouraging her female audience to use their bodies in order to gain
attention and power.
Walker
Gibson’s book, Persona: A Style Study for Readers, examines
the effect persona and other literary devices can have on a piece of
literature. When writing about an author’s persona, Gibson acknowledges the
connection between the rhetorical device and Aristotle’s three rhetorical means
of persuasion. Gibson notes that the first of these three building blocks of
persuasion, the character of the speaker, is most closely involved with
persona. After explaining the Latin origins of the word persona, meaning mask,
Gibson writes about the effectiveness of “putting on an
act” or “taking on a character.” He states that “the means of communication we
choose, the roles we play, and the language we use, are creative decisions we
make” (Gibson 4). Nicki Minaj undoubtedly uses her persona to develop her ethos
as a performer, to boost music sales, while also attempting to send a message
to listeners about the role of women in hip-hop and in society. Instead of
letting her audience see her natural personality, she incorporates different
personae to create interest among the public.
Barbie message
is helping to equalize the status of women and men in society or to widen the
gap even more. While some might argue that Nicki Minaj's rhetoric denounces
patriarchal standards and aims to equalize the status of women and men in
society, I believe her goal is nullified with the use of her Barbie persona,
ultimately encouraging women to use sex in order to gain power instead of
promoting a message of acceptance and respect for women in their natural form.
I examined the
history behind feminism and to define some of the key words that are associated
with the term. There are three different waves of feminism in the United
States. First-wave feminism falls historically between the years 1896-1920 and
is signified by the Women’s Suffrage Movement. The authors of the book Catching
a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for
the 21st Century cite
the beginning of the first-wave “in 1848 at the women’s rights convention in
Seneca Falls, New York, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her colleagues wrote the
‘Declaration of Sentiments’” (Dicker and Piepemeir 8-9). The authors continue
to discuss the central goal of the wave as “gaining a legal identity for women
that included rights to own property, to sue, to form contracts, and to vote”.
The abolitionist movement also played a significant role during first-wave
feminism. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were both influential
leaders of this wave. Once the right to vote was obtained for women, feminists
like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan took the stage and began demanding
economic and social equality culminating into second-wave feminism. In this
movement, lasting from the 1960’s to the present day, feminists tackle a wide
array of issues ranging from female reproductive rights to equal rights within
the workplace. Literature such as Betty Friedan’s The
Feminine Mystique as well as countercultural and civil rights
movements helped ignite the second wave encouraging heightened feminist awareness
and activism (Dicker and Piepmeier 9).
The wave
focused directly on “equal opportunities in employment and education, access to
child care and abortion, the eradication of violence against women, and the
passage of the Equal Rights Amendment”. The efforts of second-wave feminists
helped begin closing the gap between men and women in the professional world
and also legally with the Equal Rights Amendment. Although second-wave feminism
is still ongoing, there are certain feminists who have broken off to form the
third-wave feminism movement. After experiencing the effects of first and
second wave feminism and realizing its emphasis on the white, middle-class
women, women of color and lesbians began voicing their experiences, thus mobilizing
the third wave.
This wave, which
encompassed a larger demographic of the female population in America, “called
for a recognition that identity is intersectional- in other words that gender,
race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality are interlocking and that oppression is
not experienced simply along one axis” (Dicker and Piepemeir 9). This wave
began in the early 1980’s and was a result of a growing population of minority
women who wanted to address race and identity equality within society as well
as a combination of many other causes. This third wave of feminist ideology
came as a result of the
conservative Reagan and Bush administrations, leading to the formation of
organizations like the Third Wave Foundation and the Riot Grrrls who “used
their punk rock sensibilities to create music that proclaimed their defiance of
sexist norms and confining gender roles”. Although it is true that many goals
of the second wave are carried through to the third wave, feminists from the
third wave are responding to “a world of global capitalism and information
technology, postmodernism and postcolonialism and environmental degradation… therefore
concerned not simply with ‘women’s issues’ but with a broad range of
interlocking topics”. Third-wave feminism attempts to take a step away from
gender, using ambiguous language that strongly discourages female or male roles
within society. Feminists associated with this wave “use beauty, sex, and power
strategically” (12) examining pornography and other sex work either with a
sex-positive stance or an anti-pornography position.
All three
waves of feminism share the goal of breaking down the sexist restraints of
patriarchy, or
male dominance, within society and encouraging equality among genders. From
this stems many different tactics or devices used to equalize the playing
field. Sex-positivity, a movement encouraged by postmodern feminists,
“criticizes the restrictions on women’s sexual behavior and denounces the high
costs imposed on women for being sexually active” (Vance 35-36). Disidentification,
the contrast to identification,
is a term studied by Diana Fuss in her book, Identification
Papers. In it she writes that “what at first may
appear to be a refused identification might in some cases more accurately be
termed a disavowed one – an identification that has already been made and
denied in the unconscious” (Fuss 62). By understanding
the use of disidentification we can come closer to understanding what widens
the gap between genders and what can close it.
Nicki Minaj’s
Barbie persona can most clearly be seen with her outward appearance.
When Minaj
performs on stage or is seen out in public, she is always wearing a wig. Her
hair is the first to make a statement, whether it is a large neon-green beehive
or a black and white polka dotted bob, her wigs are always shocking. Oftentimes
Minaj can be seen wearing a platinum blonde wig cut with bangs that frame her
face. This look is very iconic of the Barbie persona. Minaj is also famous for
her dramatic doll-like makeup. She will always be seen wearing incredible
amounts of eye makeup, false lashes, bubblegum pink lipstick, and flawless
skin. Her nails are always painted bright neon colors, while her clothing is
loud and over-the-top. Her outfits heighten her sexuality by drawing extra attention
to her breasts and her backside. She will usually be
seen wearing a corset top that accentuates her breasts and tight, shiny pants
that leave little to the imagination. She dramatizes her curves and contributes
to the hyper-sexual image of the Barbie persona. Almost nothing about Minaj’s
outward appearance is real: from her nails to her clothes to her eyelashes,
everything is fake and exaggerated.
The rhetoric
Nicki Minaj uses in her music and interviews express her desire to “play
with big boys”
and show other women that they can be just as powerful as men, yet her Barbie
persona does just the opposite. The persona she adopts follows in the same
footsteps women have been resisting for centuries: a highly sexualized,
unintelligent female will change her hair, clothing, nails, and makeup simply
to attract a man. The problem with the persona Minaj adopts stems from the
connotations and the history it carries with it. The image of Barbie’s “blond
hair, blue eyes, wasp-thin waist and improbable curves have embodied American
culture’s ludicrous yet deeply harmful beauty standards. These beauty standards
are grounded in racist notions that associate whiteness with virtue and
loveliness”. By creating a “Black Barbie” Nicki Minaj hopes to reappropriate
the image but “given this history, the lure of Barbie for [Nicki Minaj] might
seem to reflect an internalization of white beauty standards” (Todd). Instead
of reappropriating the image, Minaj simply seems to use this persona in order
to gain mainstream acceptance.
Minaj’s goal of female empowerment is real, yet her method of rejecting patriarchy seems to be more concerned with pushing a persona, which will in turn encourage sales of her album and her merchandise.
While Minaj’s goal of encouraging women to strive for the same level of power and success as men is indeed valiant and important, her method of achieving that goal is ultimately harmful to women. Nicki Minaj’s Barbie persona fails to reach the point of female empowerment and instead encourages women to gain power through the use of their bodies.With millions of fans watching the young star, Minaj has a major platform to raise consciousness, defy the objectification of women, and reject patriarchy—thus setting an example for women all over the world. Rather than encouraging females to rely on their intelligence and ability to equalize the gap between men and women, Nicki Minaj parades standards of plasticized sexuality as a means of garnering media attention, financial success, and power.
Bibliography:
-
Dicker, Rory, and Alison Piepmeier. Catching
a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century.
-
Fuss, Diana. Identification
Papers.
-
Gibson, W. Walker. Persona;
a Style Study for Readers and Writers.
-
Rogers, Mary F. Barbie
Culture
- Claytor, Stephanie.
"Black Women Embrace Their Kinky, Curly, Hair in Natural Hair Movement."
- Caramanica,
Jon. "Gaining an Edge In Female Rap Race."
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