{"id":1341,"date":"2010-04-03T09:58:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-03T07:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2010-06-21T09:33:30","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T07:33:30","slug":"when-female-nudity-and-sexist-tropes-do-not-coincide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/?p=1341","title":{"rendered":"when female nudity and sexist tropes do NOT coincide…"},"content":{"rendered":"

rarely does it become apparent that things are more complicated than “naked female body” = sexism, but it should be quite recognizable when you see it<\/a> [text under “later edit”] just like it is obvious when it’s the common variety of misogynist imagery<\/a>; it has to do with the way the gaze is engaged, with context and attitude and agency and message and history:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

So I finally got around to seeing the much-discussed music video for Erykah Badu\u2019s single \u201cWindow Seat,\u201d from her new album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)<\/em>, which came out yesterday. In it, she is featured walking around a Dallas street, stripping before a gaggle of pedestrians before being shot. The video concludes with the word \u201cGROUPTHINK\u201d oozing in blue letters from her head and a spoken outro. I\u2019ve since seen it several times and can now trail behind the tweets. If you haven\u2019t seen it already, you can check it out here.<\/p>\n

First off, I\u2019ll come out and say that I like this music video. I\u2019ve liked the song since I heard Badu perform it with longtime collaborators The Roots on Jimmy Fallon a few weeks back. I\u2019m also really glad people are talking about it. As a long-time fan<\/a> of her work, it\u2019s about time people acknowledge that she has consistently been at the center of some of the most interesting, challenging, and readable music videos since the start of her career. \u201cHoney\u201d<\/a> (which she co-directed) is my favorite video of the past few years \u2014 it\u2019s overtly political, visually compelling, dense with references, takes a revisionist\u2019s attitude toward music history, and is funny as hell. But she\u2019s had me as a supporter since the first time I saw \u201cOn & On\u201d<\/a> back in 1997.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little disheartening that people are only now starting to talk about one of her music videos, as I think some of why Badu has been overlooked has to do with our culture\u2019s racialized conceptions of how female musicians are supposed to comport themselves as video subjects across musical genres. White ladies like Bj\u00f6rk or Madonna can \u201celevate\u201d the medium to \u201dart,\u201d but black women \u2014 usually packaged as R&B, hip hop, or pop stars \u2014 need to be commercially viable. If they\u2019re down with glamour, spectacle, and easy objectification, so much the better.<\/p>\n

Badu\u2019s never played that game, and has perhaps been under the radar as a result. …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

from “My thoughts on Erykah Badu\u2019s \u201cWindow Seat\u201d” @ Feminist Music Geek<\/em>
\n(read the whole thing<\/a>)<\/p>\n

also read: “Freeing the Black Woman’s Body”<\/a> @ The Root<\/em><\/p>\n

and “Erykah Badu ‘Window Seat’: What Do Nude Bodies Mean?”<\/a> @ Womanist Musings<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

rarely does it become apparent that things are more complicated than “naked female body” = sexism, but it should be quite recognizable when you see it [text under “later edit”] just like it is obvious when it’s the common variety … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,38,28,9,41,3,35,8,17,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-racism","category-bodily-autonomy","category-body-image","category-critica-sociala","category-english","category-feminism","category-intersectionalities","category-links","category-media","category-musics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fia.pimienta.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}