Recently, Nicki Minaj released the video for her new single “Anaconda.” Since I like her music, I watched the video. The song is sexually explicit, and I expected the video to be the same way. The video did not shock me, but the comments about the video on YouTube did.

Almost all the comments tore Nicki Minaj down. Most of them called her a “slut” and “whore.” The worst one, in my opinion, talked about her not having any self-respect and her lack of “feminist values.” To me, this is the worst one because being a feminist and standing up for the rights of girls and women is something Nicki Minaj prides herself on, and it’s a reason I like her as a person.

Men release videos and songs with the same sexual themes, and it is considered cool. The actual “Baby Got Back” video and song, which inspired “Anaconda,” is a song objectifying one body part of a woman, yet people consider it an amazing song. Chris Brown released a song this summer calling girls “hoes,” and it was the song of the summer. In Jason Derulo’s video for “Wiggle,” all the women are half-naked and shaking their butts in front of men. Then you have Snoop Dogg, rapping that a girl has a bright future behind her and implying that her butt is the only thing that can get her a job or ahead in life. Yet, these men are not as harshly criticized. They are admired, looked up to, and all these songs and videos are loved. However, when a woman owns up to her own sexuality, she is a “slut” and not a feminist.

There was one good comment that stood out for me among all of the bad ones. It talked about how the song and video are about a woman expressing her sexuality, and that is true. If you listen to the song, the video is not surprising. The lyrics are all about how she uses her body, her sexuality and her femininity to control powerful, rich men in her life. There is a line in the song that says, “And he telling me it’s real, that he love my sex appeal. Say he don’t like ’em boney, he want something he can grab.” From that line alone, it is no surprise that Nicki Minaj shows off her butt in the video. Like other artists, male and female, Nicki Minaj is allowed to express her sexuality through her artwork in any way she sees fit, but that doesn’t make her a whore or a slut, nor does it make her any less of a feminist.