Vivisection of the Anaconda of Dehumanization:  An Analysis of the Visual Rhetoric of the Ideology Normalizing Violations of Women's Dignity in Popular Culture

Generally in the world we are living in nowadays, most people, especially teenagers, are intended to make themselves embrace the mainstream of a given culture, or so-called “popular culture,” which is a vivid example of the bandwagon effect - a phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases the more that they have already been adopted by others. Despising the fact that most part of popular culture nowadays is contrived, grotesque, incredibly sexist and even dehumanizing, a voluminous amount of people still embrace them in order to get adopted by others. Though some of them will argue that most of the popular music does not have as much sex and violence as assumed, they are still basically presenting fantasies of hedonistic pleasure or gratuitous violence of youth. Therefore, under the effects of such sick, problematic culture, all those ideologies that are immoral are being normalized among teenagers and causing an explosion of serious violations of women's dignity in our modern society.

The popular culture affects every possible aspect of it, including television programme, music, magazine, photography and other forms of visual art everywhere.Anaconda,  a wide-spreading song by famous American female rapper and singer Nicki Minaj, from her third studio album,The Pinkprint, was released on August 4, 2014 by Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, and Republic Records as the second single from the album, with its own cover art - the first thing that will catch your attention before you press play. While it may appear that a cover is centred around the music alone, as a matter of fact, the visual work of a cover serves as a portal into what the listener can expect from the music, and even what kind of musician lies behind. Therefore, a large part of the degrading message, or ideology, is not only demonstrated directly in the song Anaconda which promotes degradation, prostitution and objectification of women to young girls, but also can be received even without physically listening to the song, but looking at its very own cover art image, which adds credibility to represent what kind of musician Nicki Minaj is.

The cover image ofAnacondadisplays nothing else but female body figure of the singer of the song with nonverbal behaviour, emphasizes on Nicki Minaj’s glowy, tanned, mostly nude female body, especially her body figure of an unnatural big, round derrière, with only white, blank background. Therefore, there is nothing in depth or any other meanings that we as the audience be able to expect for other than sexiness of her body. On the cover, Nicki Minaj squats low in a cotton candy pink sports bra and G-string with a pair of royal blue Jordans, promotes a kind of standardized sporty beauty with her pose, sport bra and Jordans, trying to prove the origin of her beauty and sexiness comes from working out in the gym. Though the concept of

physical exercise seems to promote positive message of being healthy, on the contrary, Nicki Minaj actually gives out the misleading message that all women should do or are currently doing more exercise only in order to get sex appeal like her, instead of being fit and healthy, thus they can also attract males’ attention. The narrative of the image elevates the degradation, prostitution and objectification of women and the worshiping of hedonistic masculine power, suggests the only possible value of women is their appearance and the capability of sexual attraction. Moreover, the image not only correlates with the ideology of standardizing the concept with beauty but also even serves as a tool corresponds to her song in order to show contempt for “the skinny bitches (Da Internz and Polow Da Don),” which addresses the women who have other body-shapes in an unacceptable dehumanizing and disrespectful way. The wearing a pair of white pearl earrings is an abnormality in the image because it doesn’t fit the sportive atmosphere that the narrative tries to show. The specific abnormality reflects a sense of fashion and materialism which is clearly represented in her song’s lines “gettin' some coins...keeping me stylish” as well, adds the element of “good taste” and makes the image lack of creativity.

In their book “Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Central Idea Culture (2009),” Marta Sturken, and Lisa Cartwright,two leading scholars and professors in the emergent and dynamic field of visual culture and communication, provides a comprehensive and engaging overview of how audience understand a wide array of visual media and how narratives use images to express themselves.By supplying the reader with information about relationships of power that looking evolves and the actual analysis of several images, Cartwright and Sturken build their claim that practice of looking helps us to understand the world. The study also provides the idea that a visual image, more often than not, produces in us “a wide array of emotions and responses” ()  The pose of squatting low in the image was specially designed for giving a detail, complete view of her totally exposed big, round derrière, corresponding with the degrading lyrics “Oh my gosh, look at her butt...He say he don't like 'em boney, he want something he can grab,” produces the “emotions and responses” of visually sexual pleasure and desire in men, and probably shock, envy, jealousy or shame in women.

Consequently, the emotions and responses that the image produces may also improve the role of this specific image as element of “contemporary advertising and consumer culture” (). It is not only represented in furtherance of selling more Nicki Minaj’s contrived song with sexual appeal as if it’s the only way of advertising, but also to the extent of advertising or even forcing people who follow the mainstream culture to absorb the concept of the ideology and “assumptions about beauty, desire” that represent a kind of standardized beauty and desire which tells all women that if they don’t have her sex appeal including of her big, round derrière, then they are worthless because men do not like the “boney” body they can’t “grab” with Nicki Minaj’s body figure and wearing to the consumers and even the whole society. In conclusion, Nicki Minaj exhibits her self-absorbed pride of her significant contribution to advertising the ideology normalizing violations of women's dignity in her song’s cover image.

Regardlessly, with all the efforts shown by the narrative Nicki Minaj and also the music industry in order to sell out both the song and the dehumanization within, the image must been playing a remarkably important role in the success of the song Anaconda,which was nominated for Best Rap Song at the 2015 Grammy Award,  two categories at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, Best Female Video and Best Hip-Hop Video, winning the latter. Such success serves as a creditable evidence of how the ideology of the image fits in the “consumer culture,” and leading all those ideologies that are immoral are being normalized among the music market and the consumers, which including large part of the teenagers. As a matter of fact, those productions of the popular culture, including of the idols, the music and the image, not only standardizes the teenagers’ way viewing of the world and themselves, but also should be blamed for causing the teenagers’ mental health problems, especially the teenage girls. As Susanna Schrobsdorff cited in her article  “There's a Startling Increase in Major Depression Among Teens in the U.S.,”According to the department of Health and Human Services, “rates of depression among girls ages 12-17 in 2015 were more than double that of boys,” showing the fact that more and more teenage girls are suffering depression. Therefore, the analysis of the image Anaconda provides a piece of evidence that how a wide-spreaded example of the popular culturesuggests the only possible value of women is their appearance and the capability of sexual attraction;producesshock, envy, jealousy or shame in women; and promotes the standardized beauty and humiliate the women of other body shape. All these factors certainly became the root of many mental sickness of these pitiful teenager girls who suffer under the bandwagon effect. If such anaconda of dehumanization is and will be continuously accepted, embraced and encouraged by the mainstream culture, then we shouldn’t be surprised by all the immoralities and criminals against women and furthermore the whole human being in our modern society, for the natural, gifted appreciation of beauty and art is swallowed by the anaconda.

Work Cited:

Anaconda, Single Cover Image.  August 4, 2014.  Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, and Republic Records. Digital.

Da Internz and Polow Da Don. “Anaconda.” Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, and Republic Records, August 4, 2014. Digital.

Sturken, Marta and Lisa Cartwright. “Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Central Idea Culture.” New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.

Susanna Schrobsdorff. “There's a Startling Increase in Major Depression Among Teens in the U.S.”TIME Health.November 16, 2016. Digital.

Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “The politics of staring: Visual rhetorics…” critical encounters with Texts, edited by …,, Boston:...., 2011.167-183. Print.