Nicki Minaj Vs Lil Wayne

Women in the music industry are portrayed in certain ways such as appearing easy, exposed, playful and available. The music industry is male dominated and although there are successful female artists within the industry the shine never appears upon them. The singer who I am going to focus on is Nicki Minaj. She has become highly successful in the music industry, known for her sexy image and her skills to rap sing and dance. But even her becoming successful she still has not quite made the cut - to overtake male singers and rappers.

Nicki Minajs image is what has people fascinated and quite shocked since she was introduced to the music industry. She refers to herself as the 'Black Barbie' and in most of her music videos reveals a lot of her body and raps about sexual nature using her explicit style. Her first ever appearance was in a song called 'Bedrock' which featured successful male rappers such as Lil Wayne, however the lyrics Nicki Minaj raps give those listening an idea that women are easy and available.

The music video that I am going to focus specifically on is Nicki Minajs song 'Super Bass'.This music video itself is very stereotypical of how women are expected to be.

As you can see above is an image of part of her 'Super Bass' music video. This image shows several girls including Nicki Minaj in tight white vest tops and tight short jeans which are un-buttoned. Nicki Minaj being an icon in the music industry is portraying women to have to be the perfect body shape, with big boobs, big bum and a skinny waist. Also the shorts being un-buttoned can portray women to be easy and 'up for anything'. 

This next image above shows Nicki Minaj to be very revealing, but to also she is very voyeuristic which shows that women are able to catch men's attention. However do women really have to be half naked to accomplish that? According to Nicki Minaj it appears so. Nicki Minaj has a body that is said to be 'perfect' and what a women's body should be like. She represents those who are proud of their body and have a similar body to hers. Although there are some that are similar to Minaj herself, there are those who feel that Minaj portraying herself in this way in her music videos is stirring up that it is okay for women to be revealing and to appear easy when that is not the case. 

Below are two articles which talk about Nicki Minaj, and the way in which she presents herself to the public.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/27/nicki-minaj-children-explicit-lyrics

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2012/apr/27/nicki-minaj-looks-pictures

Lil Wayne is a very successful and famous rapper who is known worldwide. He has his own record label in which he signed Nicki Minaj. Minaj and Wayne have both been successful in what they do - Minaj however could not exceed Lil Wayne's level, no matter how much she tried to. Although she may be signed to his record label it is very possible for her to become more successful than him. But of course we are in a patriarchal society where no matter how much a woman can try and aim to be of a higher status than a male it will never be accomplished. 

Women are represented and stereotyped to be housewives and are increasingly pressured to look good. They have negative representation and are almost always portrayed as empowered. This gives a overall impression that women are portrayed unfairly and as if they are sexually available.