Watch
"Monster" by Kanye West [MONSTER, Kanye West] then read Latoya Peterson's "Black
Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye's Racialized Gender Politics" and
assess Peterson's reading of the video. Do you think that she's
correct in suggesting that "Kanye is...upholding the ideals of
white supremacy" or is she tailoring the video to meet her own
expectations? Clarify and support your answer.
N.B. This video contains language and images that may disturb some people.
The link to the video is there in the post. Just scroll over the empty space between the brackets and you should see it.
ReplyDeleteFrom the very get go I found Latoya Peterson’s essay to be flawed. In her opening argument, the author of "Black Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye's Racialized Gender Politics" claims that “all the dead women are white, with the possible exception of the second model in the bed. There are eight or nine brown* women in the video, all with prominent roles – and all of whom are alive.” This is blatantly incorrect because one of the first shots of the music video, which can be found at the 30-second mark, depicts TWO hung black women and only one white woman. The author also fails to make the observation that a majority of the zombies found in the film are, in fact, Caucasian. The music video even begins with a disclaimer stating that “The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people. It is an art piece and shall be taken as such” rendering Peterson’s argument completely useless. Peterson also makes the claim that because the African American women are depicted as monsters, it makes them inferior to the deceased Caucasian women and adds to a white supremacy ideal, but who is to say that the monstrous depiction of the women does not also place them in a position of power? After all these fearsome women who slayed the white women would in fact be superior in theories of survival of the fittest. Therefore it is my belief that Peterson is tailoring the video to meet her own expectations.
ReplyDeleteI think that she is incorrect with her statement about all of the women killed being black. This is not true because it happens at the beginning of the video. I don't see how she can claim that this is the case when it is the first scene. Secondly, I think that the women in the video, black or white, had prominent roles. I do not think that race played into this. It was a bold statement on Peterson's part to claim this. I think her whole article is bias and she manipulates it for her own uses.
DeleteWho is to say monstrosity is depicted as being inferior. The African American women are portrayed in a strong, confident, controlling manner. They were not the ones who got murdered and fell to their deaths by someone else's hands. The African American women had control and power, from a different perspective they could be thought of as the superior race out of the two depicted within the film.
DeleteI appreciate Peterson's attempt of assessing this video in a monstrous way but her claim of white supremacy are not accurate. Kanye West is trying to explain that he is a monster in the music industry. He talks about how much money he makes and how successful he is. The artist Nicki Minaj talks about how "tall her money is" in her portion of the video. Overall this video is using monsters to show how powerful Kanye West and the featured artists are in the music industry.
DeleteI 100% agree with the claims you made in you comment. You pointed out many deal breaking points in Peterson's work in the first 30 seconds of the music video. Right there should be enough evidence for this conversation to be over.
DeleteKyle, Be careful! You're overlooking that the version you're watching is a reboot. The one she's analyzing is at http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/62285/Kanye-West-ft-Nicki-Minaj-Rick-Ross-Jay-Z-Monster-Official-Music-Video/ and those elements which dismiss her point are far harder to assess there. I note also that you suggest that Peterson overlooks the fact that the zombies are Caucasian. She says that the white women in the film are dead--are zombies not dead?
DeleteAs to the disclaimer at the opening (also absent from the original leaked version), is that all it takes? Are all disclaimers legal documents that, through performative function, create the reality they assert? There should be some sense of irony that following the disclaimer, the first thing we see is a dead woman hanging from a chain, yet still dressed to seem sexy--as if women's primary function of being satisfactory to the male gaze is somehow expected even after death--non-misogynist? Perhaps, but I wouldn't dismiss it so flippantly.
I don't think Kayne makes a clear distinction as to the real monster. Kanye says repeatedly throughout the song that he is the "motherfuckin' monster" but then later Niki Minaj claims that she is a "motherfuckin' monster" as well. Is the monster supposed to represent male sexual dominance over females or the objectify females for as the means for sex? Kanye West seems to be playing toward male's view on women as only being sex objects rather than a so-called white supremacy model.
DeleteI think that Latoya Peterson has viewed the music video in an interesting way. She says "I’m not surprised that no one has looked at the very specific positioning of white women in the video as opposed to black women" which refers to her views on how the white women are depicted in this video. She says that the white women are the only ones being killed but the video starts with a hanging black woman. I think that the video is not geared towards one race or another but to show that monsters can be represented by anybody. Peterson is going off of the fact that "brown women" are the monsters and this is what she bases her stances off of. I think that this is a one sided view and she has some sort of bias in this case. I do not see any white supremacy or anything that would indicate this. The article seems to have a lot of her own opinion imposed on it by Peterson. I think that this makes it tailored for her own use and she uses it to show what she believes it shows. However, some of her points are exaggerated such as all of the women being black. I think that she manipulates the video in order to use it for her needs to back the article.
ReplyDeleteAt the close of the article, Peterson poses the question, "If the video was full of the corpses of black women, would it have provoked such an outcry?" Truthfully, a music video in which women are hanged from the ceiling, beheaded, or entirely oversexualized is bound to cause some unrest regardless of race. However, since Kanye West is a black artist, depicting white women as the main targets of his music video brings racism into the forefront. If a white artist had recorded this song and music video but instead black girls were the victims, the same if not more public outcry would ensue. Clearly, the dust from the race relations struggle of the Civil Rights Movement has not entirely settled.
DeleteI think that Latoya Peterson is tailoring the video to meet her expectations. For example, she talks about how all the dead women are white. That is not true because in the very beginning there was an African American woman hanging, along with the representation of the African American women being monsters, that does not mean they are alive and human. Latoya Peterson also makes the assumption that because the African American women are portrayed as monsters, that means that the dead Caucasian women are more desired and "superior". If one looks at the situation from a different perspective an argument could be made that the African American women are superior to the Caucasian women because they are the hunters and not the ones who fell to their deaths. The African American women seem to have control and confidence over their situation which could make them superior to those who could not take control and resulted with death. The African American women show confidence and control while the Caucasian women lie their dead and helpless, the movie represents how the viewer chooses to interpret it. In this case Latoya Peterson tailored the film to her perspective.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense Latoya Peterson's claim does seem to make sense because the white women can be seen as desired and "superior." They are placed in specific positions that make them appeal vulnerable to any outsiders. In addition, the African American women do represent monstrous roles, as in the case of Nicki Minaj. She is a dungeon dominatrix and tormenting her alter ego. However, just as you mentioned, Peterson may be tailoring the film to meet her expectations. Nicki Minaj can be seen as a sexual object of men's fantasies. In the age of Hip-Hop music, women are viewed as objects rather than individuals, no matter their race. In a sense, most males can be viewed as the monsters rather than African American women.
DeleteI read Latoya Peterson’s article and she mentions that all of the women that are dead are white. I disagree with her, in the very beginning there is an African American woman hanging of the ceiling just by a white women. Latoya seems to be tailoring this video so that it meets the expectations that she wants it to make. I feel that being her being African American had her view this in a different way then it would for a Caucasian women. When I watch it I found it that white women are easier to see dead than it would for an African American women. I did not see the African American women as monsters though, it made them seem less vulnerable, where as white women have been seen to be vulnerable. Peterson watched this video and manipulated it so that she could have her views be pointed out.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was easier to see white women dead also. If there were dead black women lying everywhere do you think it would have caused just as much controversy or more? Would people look have made as big as a deal out of it as they did with the white women? Until a video like this comes out we will never know. But I agree that it makes the white women look more vulnerable.
DeleteFirst off, there is no doubt that this music video is a little over the top; but in today’s society what is not overdone? After reading Latoya Peterson’s article, I would say that she most defiantly tailored the video to meet her own expectations. She claims "Brown women are relegated to the background, left to their own monstrous devices, shadow creatures performing their roles", and this is false because at the beginning of the video there are back women and white women grabbing Kanye through a metal door. Using this scene to fight the argument that the black women are regulated to the background, left to their own monstrous device will be rather easy. Clearly there are women in the background in this scene and none of them are dead, rather they are all grabbing one of the “Monsters” in the film. Another thing, I didn’t necessarily think the black women dressed as monsters were scary or representing anything other than what the song was about. I think this music video received too much hype then what it got.
ReplyDeleteI like how you started your post with a question and quotes from Latoya. The video got more hype than it should have, but it helped Latoya make her claim be known. Even though she might have not have been right, she wanted to tailor the video just to meet her expectations.
DeleteI don't think the video received to much "hype" at all, it received just as much hype as Kanye intended it to she he created it. In the rap industry at this point in time there isn't much of an artistic aspect to it. Kanye is one artist who has remained artistic and uninfected by the lack of though put into songs and videos. This video is one of many examples of this.
DeleteThe author Latoya Peterson tailored Kanye’s West music video “Monster” to her own expectations. In her article "Black Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye's Racialized Gender Politics", Peterson discusses how she thinks that Kanye West is showing white supremacy in this video. This claim is tailored by her because Kanye does not use race to show who is superior. Both white and black women are shown being dead. Furthermore, both white and black women are highly sexualized and shown as victims of torture. The author tailors the video to meet her expectation because her claims do not agree with the events that happen in the video.
ReplyDeleteKanye West definitely does not depict one race as being more superior than another one because he shows both white and black women as being "dead". Latoya Peterson views this music video in a manner of what she wants it to be about rather than what it really is about. Her article is very biased in this way because she says that the only dead women in this article are white and that is clearly not the case because multiple black women are shown looking dead in the video and Peterson failed to mention this information in her article.
DeleteLatoya Peterson's article mentions that all the dead and monstrous women in the video are white. This is incorrect because in the opening scene you see twp black women hanging from the ceiling. Additionally, the two black women shown sitting on a couch who Peterson mentions are "alive" look just as "dead" as the white women who she also claims are the monsters. Later in the video a black woman is also shown laying across a dining room table and she appears to be "dead" also. These are just a few examples of black women who appear to be monstrous or "dead" in this music video. This article is definitely tailored to meet Latoya Peterson's own expectations of what she wants the video to be about. Clearly she was incorrect to say that all the dead women in the music video were white.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Latoya Peterson probably should have been more careful in stating that "all" of the dead women in the video were white. However, this does not make her argument completely invalid. She definitely tailored the video in her own way but also makes some good points such as the monstrosity of brown women. This is certainly shown through the monstrous image of Nicki Minaj in the video, as well as other representations.
DeleteAfter reading Latoya Peterson’s “Black Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye’s Racialized Gender Politics,” I disagree with her as she mentions that all the dead women are white. In the being of Kanye’s video, there are two African Americans hanging from the ceiling next to the white one. I would say Latoya tailored the video to her expectations and seeing that she is also African American, she would view it differently than white people would. The video showed both whites and African Americans was victims of tortured and sexualized. Kanye doesn’t show who is more “superior” in the video which makes Latoya’s claim wrong.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Latoya wrote her article based on her own opinions, with few facts to back up her claims. I also noticed the dead black people and I thinnk Latoya's argument is not a valid one. I would agree that her article is not a vaild sorce when making a claim about Kanye's video.
DeleteLatoya Peterson makes some valid arguments in her article "Black Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye's Racialized Gender Politics" regarding how Kanye West's music video for his song "Monster" may have slight hints toward racism and gender roles. However, she completely twists and stretches the small nuances of the video in order to validate her thesis. For starters, she disregards the disclaimer at the video's beginning, stating that it should "in no way be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people." While this statement does not entirely negate the overtly sexual and explicit language of the song, as well as the provocative depictions of some of the live women in the video, it does help often the blow of what the viewers are about to see. Similarly, Peterson claims that the song and music video are used as an outright display of racism, with all white women seen as completely dead while their black counterparts are fully alive. She failed to mention the black woman who was hanged using chains within the first thirty seconds, as well as a riveting and living white woman who is seen multiple times throughout the video. "Monster" focuses more on male empowerment and dominance over women, depicting all women as helpless at the hands of the "monsters," aka the men seeking to be in control.
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out the claimer at the beginning of the video. She obviously didn't take this into affect as she was writing her piece. I feel as though Latoya used this video in the way in which Kanye did not want people to see it as. She jumped to conclusions that were not meant to be draw to clearly support her thesis
DeleteI have to say I disagree with your claim that ""Monster" focuses more on male empowerment and dominance over women, depicting all women as helpless at the hands of the "monsters," aka the men seeking to be in control." The music video portrayed these women as monsters putting them in a more dominant position than the men. This is especially evident in the scenes featuring Nicki Minaj in which she portrays a dominatrix like character. I don't believe this video was misogynistic either because of its overtly sexual nature. The women in this video honestly seem to use their sexuality more to their advantage than disadvantage.
DeleteThe disclaimer was added long after Peterson's piece. And since when are disclaimers iron-clad rule? I always think of my time in South Africa, when a Boer would say, "I'm no racist, but...". As you can imagine, what followed was some of the most racist diatribe one could imagine. Just because one adds a disclaimer to something doesn't grant one immunity from inspection. The first scene after the disclaimer is a sexualized female corpse hanging from the ceiling: there's some irony there.
DeleteIn Latoya Peterson’s “Black Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye’s Racialized Gender Politics” she makes the claim that the majority of the corpses are white females. This is not the case, as numerous African American women are seen in similar positions as their dead white women counterparts. Her claim that “Kanye is… upholding the ideals of white supremacy,” by placing the African American women in monstrous roles, can be interpreted in a different way. These African American women could actually be seen as the powerful ones or those in control because they are the survivors. Additionally, both the white and African American women, who are dead, are helpless and unable to change their outcome. Instead of reading the article as “white supremacy,” one could read it as male dominance. All hip-hop music videos depict women in a negative role, no matter their race. These women are seen as sexual images or “video vixens.” For these reasons, I feel that Latoya Peterson’s interpretation of “Monster” is tailoring the video to meet her expectations.
ReplyDeleteYou are right when it comes to Latoya Peterson and how she is tailoring Kanye West's video to meet her expectations. She must have not of been watching the music video very closely because there were white dead women shown in the video as well. Kanye West is very creative and is one of the great rappers of our time. She must not be a fan of Kanye West since she made these claims which are completely false.
DeleteI find Latoya Peterson's "Black Monster/White Corpses: Kanye's Racialized Gender Politics" completely out there in her claims. The whole time while I was reading the article I kept thinking I pretty sure Kanye West is not researching about how black women are connected to werewolves or any writings by feminists. I think Peterson was grasping at straws to meet a deadline. I could be wrong but she was looking way to into that music video. A music video is supposed to be flashing and show the artist in weird situations and costumes because its something we dont see everyday. But in any music video women are depicted as objects of sexual desire and I dont think that is going to change anytime soon. Also the whole idea of Kanye upholding the ideals of white supremacy...? I think he is just full of himself and wanted to be front and center during his song which happens in most music videos.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about Kanye just wanted to be the center of attention in his videos. Also, I think Latoya Peterson simply didn't do enough research to make the claims that she did. The only thing I think she may have been right about was Nicki Minaj's role as a monster, but also forever as the sex symbol not associated with men. I don't think she was calling for a change, she was stating that Nicki Minaj's role in the video was interesting as well as sexist. I think Peterson acknowledges that there will not be a change with the way women are viewed in hip hop videos any time soon.
DeleteAfter I read Latoya’ s piece I feel as though some of her assumptions are wrong. From the beginning of the video, text pops up saying, “The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people. It is an art piece and it shall be taken as such”. For me that proves that in no way was Kanye trying to present racism or superiority. Throughout the video in numerous areas there are blacks as well as whites shown either dead or alive. I feel as though Latoya made assumptions through her own mind without clearly seeing both sides of the video.
ReplyDeletei didn't even think to read that intro when it poped up. that completely explains that Kanye is not trying to be a racist. i think Peterson did the same thing i did and not pay attention till the music started because that explains it all. there are people of black and whites that are dead like right in the beginning when the black girl is being hung. Peterson makes drastic claims that aren't really back up by good evidence. she is trying to work the video to fit what she is saying but it doesn't work.
DeleteBy that logic, if I kill somebody, but preface it with "but this isn't murder", I can't be sent to jail?
DeleteI also read the intro and that disproves any theories of it being discriminatory. He is not saying what he is doing is wrong, rather just waning not to take offense for it.
DeleteEven though there is a "warning" in this video, I still believe there is some racial problems presented in the video. However, Latoya does overexaggerate. So in some way she is wrong. It is true that there are some black dead women presented in the video, and Latoya obviously refuses to see this. She is definitely too focused on her own thoughts to see all that is in the video.
DeleteI do not agree with Latoya Peterson's reading of Monter by Kanye West. Her claims were exaggerated and only sometimes true. Kanye West is known for being a controversial artist, and I think people like to read into everything he does in a negative manner. At the end, we see a white woman dressed in black, smoking a cigarette. Also we see a white female "monster" dragging a man further into her lair. That uproots Peterson's claims that every white woman in the video is a dead victim. I think Layoya Peterson watched about thirty seconds of the video, saw the two dead white girls in the bed with Kanye, and believed she had enough to write a paper about Kanye being racist.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge Kanye fan and believe him to be one of the most artistic individuals of our time period. With that being said this means I have listened to all of his music multiple times and have noticed his topic choice and the trends associated with the topics. Though Latoya's interpretation is extremely strong towards the racist end of the spectrum she is not completely wrong. Latoya stills manipulates the video by saying only white women are dead and all the black women are monsters because this is not true, there are hanging black women is the beginning scene. Kanye has always touched on the racist side of america especially towards african americans in such songs as Jesus Walks, All Falls Down, Diamonds, and Spaceship just to name a few. Kanye also always touches on being under the spell of consumerism in most of his songs saying things such as lottery tickets are just a way to get people to spend money along with designer clothes. This video is meant to be a sarcastic representation of how society looks at african americans and white people. Yes, he chose to use women and the subject matter of monsters but thats because it is appealing to the audience. The part of Latoya's article that is not a manipulation is when she mentions white women being perfect and all other races being held on a lower pedestal. Like I previously said the video used women because it is appealing so you must look at it as white people being held at a higher level then all other races. In this interpretation Latoya is completely correct and if you were to listen through Kanye's Late Registration and The College Dropout albums this would become obvious. Kanye knew exactly how this video would be interpreted and he knew that this is exactly what he wanted.
ReplyDeleteKanye West is known fro being a controversial artist and is often times seen in a negative manner. I don’t agree with Latoya Peterson's interpretation of the music video. One of the things she said was that all the white women are dead and that isn't true. We see a white woman at the end smoking a cig and there is also a white woman dragging a dead guy somewhere. Most of Peterson's claims aren't supported or even correct. I think she watched some of the video and then decided to start writing because some of the things she says aren't correct. I don’t think Kanye is a racist and I don’t think that race had anything to do with this music video.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think that racism had anything to do with the video. I honestly didn't see anything racist about it. Peterson's claims that she made about the video being about "white supremacy" seem absolutely ridiculous to me. If that's what she thinks about the video then that's fine, but she needs to find a better way to support her view.
DeleteI think Latoya Peterson is tailoring to meet her own expectations in her article "Black Monster/White Corpses: Kanye West's Racialized Gender Politics." The reason I believe this is because there is a combination of dead white and black woman shown in the music video. Latoya Peterson said that only white dead women were shown which is completely false. She was going out on a limb with her claims and I am a little confused in why she did this. I don't believe Kanye West was thinking about white supremacy when he came up with the concept of his video. Kanye West is a grammy winning artist who is very creative when he comes up with his music videos. I think Kanye West was calling himself a "monster" because he has had a lot of conversial moments during his career which has gotten critcism and people see him as a "monster" in that way. Latoya is entitled to her opinion even though her arguement is very one-sided and bias.
ReplyDeleteI think that Latoys Peterson is making her own assumptions in Kanye's viedo, monsters, without vaild evidence to back up her statements. There was a definate combination of dead black and white females, all the dead people were not white. I do not believe that Kanye was trying to show white supremacy in his video. Kanye has always been known as a very creative artist who does some crazy things, but i do not believe that was the message he was trying to get across in this video. I think Latoya should get some more facts if she is going to keep making assumptions about different artists work.
ReplyDeleteBefore anybody else weighs in, let me note that Peterson is doing a reading of the leaked version of the video that preceded its official release. You can see it here http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/62285/Kanye-West-ft-Nicki-Minaj-Rick-Ross-Jay-Z-Monster-Official-Music-Video/ and the "but there were black women hanging from the ceiling in the beginning" doesn't apply to that version. But it does suggest that West and his directors added those women before the official release. Why?
ReplyDeleteEven so, catching the author out on a single point doesn't necessarily all the dismissal of the entire piece. This kind of "gotcha" logic often obscures more detailed and complex thinking on issues rather than encourages it. Think about the representation of women throughout the work. It's not enough to point to the disclaimer (also added after initial reactions to the leak) and assume that saying something isn't offensive means that it's not.
See also http://its-her-factory.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-everybody-doesnt-seem-to-know.html and http://www.spin.com/#articles/defense-kanye-wests-monster for defenses based on the official version.
DeleteThemes of race and gender are made very obvious in this video, yet at the same time it is difficult to pinpoint specific claims being made. While I agree with the general direction of Latoya Peterson’s argument, I also feel that there are apparent flaws. The disclaimer at the beginning discourages any criticism or deep interpretation, stating the video is simply a work of art. This does not mean that the video can’t still be analyzed, but it makes it more difficult to take Peterson’s argument seriously when the video was not supposed to be taken that literally in the first place. However, the majority of the dead women are undoubtedly white which is pretty hard to ignore. It could be simply that white women have more pale skin than “brown” women, and portray a better image of death. On the other hand, it could also represent some sort of racial difference such as power or supremacy. I do agree that Kanye could be suggesting ideals of white supremacy, as he has previously done in the past through his music. However, it ultimately comes down to how one interprets the work of art. I believe Peterson has taken a certain view on the video that mainly supports only her own particular argument.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Kanye West in all his infinite wisdom thinks he is upholding the ideals of white supremacy however he fails to make this apparent in his music video. The white woman in his film are depicted as lifeless and manipulative while the black woman are mysterious and alive. Latoya Peterson's assessment of Kanye West's "Monster" makes him seem like a lyrical genius who artistically is able to bring up a point about racism and sexism through the use of "monsters" and "bloodsuckers." Kanye fails to bridge a link between his presentation during the music video and his lyrics. The lack of depth and emotional appeal in Kanye's lyrics is appalling. He lacks a cunning ability to demoralize woman with lines such as "Less talk, more head right now, huh?" and "Head of the class and she just wants to swallow shit." Niki Minaj and her inability to be coherent conveys herself as a dungeon dominatrix torturing her alter ego. I believe Peterson tries to make this more significant than needed be. She claims that she is a monster and resembles that she is suffering because there is a side of her that is demeaning and sexually explicit which makes her worthy of sympathy. Overall I think Peterson's arguments are faulty and ignores parts of the film that contradict her statements.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Latoya Peterson's reading of Monter by Kanye West. Her claims were exaggerated and only sometimes true. Kanye West is known for being a controversial artist, and I think people like to read into everything he does in a negative manner. At the end, we see a white woman dressed in black, smoking a cigarette. Also we see a white female "monster" dragging a man further into her lair. That uproots Peterson's claims that every white woman in the video is a dead victim. I think Layoya Peterson watched about thirty seconds of the video, saw the two dead white girls in the bed with Kanye, and believed she had enough to write a paper about Kanye being racist. So no, I do not believe Kanye is a white supremacist at all, and Peterson is not correct on all of her claims.
ReplyDeletePeterson's reading of Monster by Kanye West bothered me for a few different reasons. Her claim of most of the corpses being white females is completely wrong. Within the first minute of the video there was at least one black girl shown hanging from the celling. Also, the zombie-like women in the background were both black and white. To me, there was nothing racially disturbing about the video. Maybe if there were no black women or no white women in the video there could be something to say about racial superiority. If anything, having both black and white women in his video makes it seem like Kanye is against racism. It definitely seems like Peterson is tailoring the video to meet her own expectations. It's fine if that's what she believes but she should have found a better way to support it.
ReplyDeleteLatoya Peterson writes an interesting review about the music video and how the video reflects the radicalized gender problems. It’s clear that this music video is built on offensive and disparaging values, but Peterson comes up with a new opinion. She mentions that all of the dead women in this video are white whereas the black women are alive and tend to be fearful characters as fake werewolves. She also mentions that “black women belong in the monster crew, simply for being born dark” and “all other women were seen as lower beings compared to this perfect ideal of whiteness”. However, this point is not that convincing because obviously Peterson uses this video to meet her own experience. For instance, at the beginning of video, there are two African American women hanging. And there are just a few scenes at the end of the video where black women appear to be like barbaric monsters.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading the article by Latoya Patterson I had a completely different interpretation of the video. I didn’t see it as a video to point out the racial disturbance among the white and black girls but instead I saw it as a message pertaining to the status artist had within the music industry. The fact that all the women in the video were either void of life all together or merely in a possessed like state of mind showed me pedestal that artist were on compared to the women omitting Nicki Minaj. It was as if the women in the video were representing the groupies and video girls that we so often hear about in the industry. Also I think the song was named monster to emphasize the difference between the women and artists of the video. Patterson interpreted it much more different than I did originally so I think she was catering to her own expectations.
ReplyDelete^^^ That's Marcus Swafford
DeleteLatoya Peterson’s “Black Monsters/White Corpses: Kanye’s Racialized Gender Politics” talks about the dead and monstrous woman that all happen to be white women. This is not true. The viewers are presented with a couple of dead black woman who are hanging from the ceiling. There are also some black women who maybe be alive but are not acting like they actually are. They look like they could be dead. I think Latoya is over exaggerating a little. There may be some racial or gender controversy presented in this video, but I do not think it is as much as a problem as she sees it. It is as though she is too focused on what she believes that she is cannot see everything that is presented.
ReplyDelete