Sex and the Barbie: in defense of Nicki Minaj (Minor Post #3)

  One of the more inexplicable subjects of this week’s readings uses rapper Nicki Minaj as a jumping off point for examining the connection between postfeminism and hyper-sexuality. Author Jess Butler examines a whole world of context in her article, and largely I agree with her conclusions, but I found the preoccupation with sexuality puzzling insofar as she attributes it purely to postfeminism. What makes this so puzzling is the feminist “sex wars” of the 80s and 90s that she herself makes note of. I stated in my core post this week that I believe postfeminism to be a transitional pattern between thematic waves of feminist movement. I must out myself as a bad feminist to admit that I was surprised to realize that “3rd wave” is officially believed to have been started in the mid-90s. In my own limited view of the movement, it seemed to me that everything from the mid-80s to the mid-00s held enough cohesive similarity to be called the same. The “3rd wave” that started in the 90s apparently introduced something of a racial awareness, but ultimately the main win of the 3rd wave seems to have been empowerment – especially sexual empowerment. In the brief backsliding or complacency of the postfeminist plateau period, tokenism comes into play, with sexuality itself often playing the token. One’s expression of sexuality becomes a consistent and constant proof of the success and therefore obsoletion of feminism (3rd wave).

Indeed, some of the aspects of postfeminism that Butler distilled in her conclusion fits better as the burgeoning of a new (fourth) feminism, one in which gender is intentionally obfuscated, the concerns of racial inequality sit at the forefront, and aesthetics don’t require identity for validation. 1st through 3rd wave feminisms fought for definition: the definition of personhood, of autonomy, of empowerment. Fourth wave is stacking up to be a movement of multitudes: true intersectionality requires, after all, an exhausting process of addressing each and every possible interconnection in a whole series of definitive and multi-varied personhoods.

As such I find myself wishing to defend Nicki Minaj’s right to self-expression and intentional ambiguity. Minaj is a great example of new 4th feminism, which eschews concrete definitions of gender, or the requirement to belong to any one aesthetic or identity. And it should be acknowledged: 2nd and 3rd wave feminism has largely not been beneficial to minority groups and WOC, making feminism to any minority woman born during (or purely familiar with) those waves at best a nuisance, at worst an enemy dressed like a friend. When Nicki Minaj says she’s not a feminist, she means she refuses to identify with a group/movement/system of belief that has done little to understand, support, or include her. That’s not postfeminism, that’s just facts. There was no existing movement that fit her values. And why would she endorse one that doesn’t endorse her? Perhaps if there is a feminism that looks more like her, she'll begin to recognize herself in it. But she doesn't have to identify that way if she doesn't want.