COMS 354: The Visual Culture of Crime
Kristina Ezhova
260454703
April 9, 2015

“Monster”: Misogyny, Racism, and Popular Culture Kanye West is a prominent figure in popular culture nowadays and his reputation is quite complicated and conflicting. West is acclaimed as one of the best rappers of this era, and is celebrated as a successful entrepreneur and fashion designer. However, he is also frequently condemned for his outspoken personality and offensive attitude. From numerous acceptance speech interruptions to questionable interviews and statements, Kanye West has created a contradictory image for himself in the media and is often characterized as a misogynist. The music video for his single “Monster,” in which he collaborated with Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, and Nicki Minaj, was released in 2011 and almost immediately became known as deeply controversial: the six-minute clip, which depicts dead women hanging from ceilings and scantily clad in lingerie, was banned by MTV for its violence and explicit content toward women (Vassar). Undeniably, the misogynistic theme runs throughout the video, however, West has defended himself by stating that “the concept of models hanging or people being eaten alive or [other] type of visuals for a horrific video was purely artistic” and addressed the ignorance of misogynistic accusations by claiming that “they [women’s rights activists] couldn’t understand how a rapper can have a taste high enough to do something like that without being misogynistic” (Staff). This paper addresses elements of the “Monster” clip that depict elements of historical racism and sexual objectification through the animalistic and hyper-sexualized representation of women of colour in the video, while also drawing parallels between supernatural characters and thirst for consumerism. Undeniably “Monster” has sparked many discussions regarding misogyny and violence against women, however this video should also be embraced as a creative and artistic endeavour that addresses issues of the modern society: racism, objectification of women and consumer culture. Michel Mourlet stated, “Cinema is the art most attuned to violence.” (Mourlet) Kanye West’s clip is inspired by classic horror film genre and uses gothic and horror-related images. The artist, a voracious consumer of popular culture, references cult horror films such as “American Psycho,” “Saw,” and the allegedly haunted painting “The Hands Resist Him.” (McCall) The video portrays the quasi-naked, nameless corpse-looking models; some scenes depict black women as animalistic savages and demons. The video is set in a castle, with the setting being similar to that of Doctor Frankenstein. Jay-Z and Rick Ross appear in the video in darkly lit rooms, wearing expensive suits, and surrounded by half-naked corpses. Nicky Minaj performs two versions of herself in “Monster”: the vampire dressed in gothic-inspired outfit refers to her Roman Zolanski alter ego, and a pink-haired Barbie version, which is tortured by vampire Minaj, accentuates the qualities of a fun and girly girl, that loves all things pink (Figure 1). This scene represents the internal struggle over issues of identity and public image a young female artist faces: she is aware of her ‘Barbie’ image, yet recognizes it as fake and shallow. Ironically, the only member not featured in the music video is the Caucasian Bon Iver; the only Caucasians pictures in the clip at all are not only female, but also mostly dead.
Although horror is only one genre of film, horror movies can largely influence audiences across the globe in an effective manner. With the use of explicit images, artists have an opportunity to reach out to international viewers in order to raise awareness for a particular issue or social injustice. It is implied in the video that the ‘monsters’ that the rappers represent have killed the women. Lisa Downing writes in her article Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Aesthetic Violence and Motiveless Murder in French Decadent Fiction, “the murderer is set up as a privileged subject, while his victims are the mere matter from which he crafts his objects of art” (Downing, 191). Thus, the dead female corpses can be interpreted as the desire for African Americans to conquer white dominance and make up for the lack of privilege that they have in the Western society. Within the context of “Monster”, West positions himself as a black male that overcame the white domination as he is alive and white females around him are not; yet he is treated as a ‘monster’ due to the long history of black oppression that arguably projects a violent and aggressive stereotype on African American males in American society. The video portrays women as lifeless corpses and suggests that complete female passivity, lifelessness, and even death can be erotic. Such objectification of women is clearly problematic and is precisely what caused the final version of the video to begin with the announcement “The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any group of people. It is an art piece and shall be taken as such.” (Soderberg) However, one can argue that Kanye, as an aware consumer of culture himself, is pointing to a bigger issue of female objectification in our society at large. The modelesque white women draped on couches are fetishized not just by the video ‘monsters’, but by the monstrous consumer culture: they are dressed in expensive-looking lingerie, some are wearing jewellery, their nails are perfectly manicured and they generally serve as decorations to a particular scene, rather than as an active part of it (Figure 2, 3). Arguably, this is the artist’s vision of the modern society, where women are still underpaid, frequently sexually harassed and constantly bombarded with advertisement that provokes physical self-obsession. Brian Jarvis in his article Monsters Inc.: Serial Killers and Consumer Culture describes the importance of mannequins as “a crucial symbolic function” (Jarvis, 336). He states that they “epitomize the ideal of 1980s body fascism: tall, youthful, slim, impervious to wrinkles, scars and blemishes, untouched by illness and aging” (Jarvis, 336). Walter Benjamin in his book The Arcades Project describes the mannequin as “the model for imitation… Just as the much-admired mannequin has detachable parts, so fashion encourages the fetishist fragmentation of the living body . . . the woman mimics the mannequin and enters history as a dead object.” (Benjamin, 78) Therefore the fetishized images of dead women are merely a projection of consumerist society that we live in: females throughout past two centuries were the primary target of fashion and beauty advertising. This continuous bombardment by images and messages in various media outlets “aimed to promote an anxious policing of female body. The imperative was to manufacture that sense of inadequacy and self-dissatisfaction which is the essential psychological prerequisite for luxury purchases.” (Jarvis, 333) The white female smoking a cigarette (Figure 4) echoes the ‘heroin chic’ movement in modeling in the early 1990s: borderline anorexic, the girl is wearing dark make-up that covers up her inner beauty and does not let one see what is under the face she draws on. The woman looks confident, yet arguably, she is still a victim of consumerism and a lifestyle that advertising agencies are telling her to live. Female vampires in the video also echo the overarching condemnation of consumer-driven societies – it is common to use vampirism as a metaphor for capitalism. Jarvis traces parallels to Marx’s vampirism comparisons: ‘‘Capital is dead labour which, vampire-like, lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.’ (Marx, 342)
Black females in the video are contrasted to white women, as they are evil, cannibalizing and aggressive demons and savages. Although such depictions are reminiscent of historical racism and prejudice, one could argue that West has consciously played into the idea of racial segregation in his video. In the post-civil rights era mass media is encouraged to place black women as the subjects of race-gendered prejudices that are rooted in the history of oppression. The artist is therefore perpetuating the ideals of white supremacy: as black women are relegated to the background, and left to their own monstrosity, white females are the victims of hyper-sexualisation and eroticism, while they are still privileged by their race. Throughout Kanye West’s “Monster” video, the representation of women is conflicting and complex. Although the clip was regarded by many as racism and misogynistic, West has produced a piece of art that is provoking and sparks discussions on racism, sexual oppression and consumer vampirism. Sexualisation of women in the video revives racism and generally degrades females in general; being lifeless in the clip is a parallel to being silent in reality, be it regarding female sexuality, objectification of women, or addiction to consumerism that has projected norms on females for over a century now. Instead of condemning West’s video, critics and average viewers should instead ask themselves a question as to why the overplayed ‘dead women’ concept caused such a rift amongst people. Maybe it is time to readdress the issues of racial segregation and over-sexualisation of females, as the post-feminist and post-civil rights era still evidently has countless issues to tackle on its agenda.
Appendix
Figure 1.
Screenshot from vimeo.com
Figure 2.

Screenshot from vimeo.com
Figure 3

Screenshot from vimeo.com
Figure 4.

Screenshot from vimeo.com

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