The goal of this exercise is to identify the intellectual problems that motivate research essays.
Estimated time: 30 mins
Due by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 10th
Reading
View the assigned music video and read the two assigned readings. (As mentioned in Blackboard, the music video contains explicit lyrics; therefore, if you prefer, you can watch it with the sound muted since the lesson will focus on the imagery in the video.)
Writing
In a comment below, use a few sentences to explain what Peterson observed that motivated her to write her essay. Using a quotation from the text, explain why she thinks writing her essay was important.
The use of white woman as dead objects in a black cast playing leading roles in the music video was one cause that motivated Paterson to write her essay. Black women having a notable role was the second motive but, more importantly nicky’s quote when she says: “ok first thing is first ill eat your brains/then imma start rocking gold teeth and fangs cause thats what a m**** moster do.”
That fact that black women are playing major roles yet they are depicted as mosnters such as werewolves is what piqued Paternson’s interest.
The social media outrage that the video generated was also a factor that let to her essay.
In the video, dead women are white while black and brown women are monsters. White women play roles as corpses. Black and brown women play roles as wild beast. This strong contrast is obvious racism. There are a lot of violence and bloody scenes in the video. These scenes make people feel uneasy. These factors prompt Latoya Peterson to write an essay to express his views on racial discrimination and violence.
Latoya Peterson states “within the racial context, it’s designed to simultaneously play into America’s deepest fears and deepest needs at the same time: the fear of black men (in general) and their alleged desire for white women.” Racial discrimination has always existed especially for black women. The position of black women in the society is always lower than that of white women. This comes from the history of the United States. Latoya Peterson hopes to advocate human rights equality through his essay.
Peterson observed the roles that the white women and black women played. She was intrigued as to why many people on social media were talking about other factors of the video but nobody bothered to mention how all the roles that black women played were monsters and white women were just dead bodies. She also observed the characters that Nicki Minaj played and how Nicki is playing the part that women are seen as in movies, sexual material or desirable.
Peterson feels that writing her essay is important because she points out the key elements that make the video that people aren’t bothering to mention. As she stated ” 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 dives deeply into the history and construction of black women as beast-like and fearsome, the sexualization of violence, and how the video is a win for both normalized misogyny and upholding the ideals of white supremacy”. She is focusing more on the elements that may seem normal to everyone else because they are used widely in music videos but instead she wants people to understand why they stand out so much in this particular video.
Peterson observes this specific positioning that in the video the black woman are monster and all white woman are dead . this specific positioning could easily be related to racism . However , Peterson thinks less people will notice this strong contrast by stating : So, 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 dives deeply into the history and construction of black women as beast-like and fearsome, the sexualization of violence, and how the video is a win for both normalized misogyny and upholding the ideals of white supremacy.
Peterson’s essay could show the realistic issues being reflected in the video。
Peterson is trying to show that the most important reasons that black people are getting discrimination are that the white people think that they are more “Noble” and “Exalted”, they are judging people through the color of skin. in addition, the other reason is that according to the histories of most countries of white people, they are winners in the history so that they are being so “inflated” and “arrogant”. For example, according to this essay, the author writes that “One aspect to this distrust was the vaulted position of white women – placed on pedestals, all other women were seen as lower beings compared to this perfect ideal of whiteness. To this day, this idea plays out time and time again, on fashion catwalks, in horror films, and in music videos”. In my point of view, it is safe to say that the most dead people are white women, in other words, the black women are more powerful because at least they are alive. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the world is dynamic and multifarious, and all races are having values and right to be respected no matter what color they are.
In the music video for the song “Monster” by Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross & Bon Iver, Peterson observed that the majority of the dead woman depicted were white while the monster crew consisted mostly of black women. This is notable because the colored women as monsters and white women are represented as ideal objects of lust and desire, which is a problematic idea.
She also observed that one of the prominent featuring artists, Nicki Minaj, tortures and sexually acts on her alter-ego in a dungeon against its wishes. The one torturing wears black and the victim wears white to signify the good. This fulfills the common horror movie scene of a distressed woman. However, they are both highly sexualized. The female rapper strongly plays her part of the video, however, she acts a mere object of sexual desire.
The author claims that although there seems to be much outrage and discussion surrounding the video, “no one has looked at the very specific positioning of the white women in the video as opposed to black women, which dives deeply into the history and construction of black women as beast-like and fearsome. the sexualization of violence. and how the video is a win for both normalized misogyny and upholding the ideals of white supremacy”. Which means, that among the heated discussions there is no mention of the notable things that Peterson observed. Her essay promises a deeper look into these observations and what they signify.
In the Music Video “Monster” by Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross & Bon Iver, Peterson observed that all of the white women were shown dead whereas black women were part of the monster crew and were alive.This and other things shown on the music video like the black werewolf women which later on she says “The depiction of a black woman as a werewolf piqued my interest immediately. In fact, the first time I watched the video, I stopped playback to get a closer look.”and the social media outrages after the video”monster” made her write the essay.
The video abstractly presents two groups people in our society: one is white women, and another one is black women. Interestingly, Peterson notice that most the white women are dead, and the black women are considered as monsters. However, even though those white women are dead, they still worth to be loved and cherished. Conversely, those alive black women are always considered as the monsters and “worthless”.
In another aspect, Nicki Minaj shows “female suffering is sexy” through her performances.
This essay is important because it reflects a real phenomenon: low social status of black people and very high social status for white people. Comparing other races, white women are easier to improve their status because of their skin colors. Even for black men, their desires also are own white women instance of black women.
Peterson observed in the video the roles and positions of the women in this video. She noticed that most, if not all the dead in the video are white women while black women were shown as different types of monsters like zombies or werewolves. She also wanted to explore the rappers roles that they’ve chosen to play in the video. She talks about the “supremacy” of white, to the point that “even in death, white women are worthy of love, tenderness, and a starring role in male fantasies”.
The reason Peterson wrote her essay is that she saw the roles that black and white women play in the video. Something that was not mention in social media. All the dead or inactive bodies are white women while all the monsters or active roles are black women. She considers that “it is fascinating to see who is interpreted as “monster” and who is interpreted as “woman.””. She also mentions that “Even in death, white women are worthy of love, tenderness, and a starring role in male fantasies. Brown women are relegated to the background, left to their own monstrous devices, shadow creatures performing their roles.”
Peterson observed in the video about the role and position playing of both White and Black woman, In Peterson’s observation, the Black woman is being described as a monster while white woman is being identified as dead, irony, she discovered that the dead are being treated more cherish and valued compare to the group of”monsters” who are capable of love and care. This video reveals a strong context of obvious racism. In the video, Celebrity Nicki Minaj used a lot of sarcasm to criticise or spoke out to the wrong image of black people, she quote ” “Ok first thing is first I’ll eat your brains, then I’ll start rocking gold teeth and fangs cause that’s what a (*) monster do.”
What makes Peterson wanted to write this essay is she want to reveal the key factors or truth that people frequently ignored when the context coming with race and colors or in another word discrimination and racism, as well as the outrage of the media where she thinks it’s a good time to spread awareness of Amercian Racism.
In the music video, black women are monster and all white are dead. Peterson thinks writing her essay was important because she observed the very specific positioning of black women and white women in the video. She wants to express her anger against black racial discrimination. She says: “The fact that the majority of the women pictured lying dead where white, while black women are all part of the monster crew is generally not mentioned.” Many people ignore or neglect this issue. Many people insist on white supremacy, black women and white women have unequal social status. She writes that “Even in death, white women are worthy of love, tenderness, and a starring role in male fantasies. Brown women are relegated to the background, left to their own monstrous devices, shadow creatures performing their roles.”
In the music video, “Monster” by Kanye West featuring Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross & Bon Iver, Peterson observes that in the video the roles and positions of the women in this video. She noticed that most, if not all the dead in the video are white women while black women were shown as different types of monsters like zombies or werewolves.
What makes Peterson wanted to write this essay is she want to reveal the key factors or truth that people frequently ignored when the context coming with race and colors. She writes that “Even in death, white women are worthy of love, tenderness, and a starring role in male fantasies. Brown women are relegated to the background, left to their own monstrous devices, shadow creatures performing their roles.”
Many of the scenes in video are unsettling,All the dead women are white and the black women’s eyes are incomplete. Brown women are described as monsters. They play the role of beasts.In Kanye’s video, the conversation surrounding the dead woman makes Latoya Peterson think of the black reality of strong racial discrimination.Entrenched racism in the United States, and the scene of violence in video, as well as to the three kinds of color of skin role positioning of the woman, let Latoya Peterson through writing this article to express dissatisfaction with racial discrimination .
In the context of race, America’s deepest fears and deepest needs go hand in hand, mainly in the fear of blacks and the desire for white women, says Latoya Peterson.He thought Kanye was racist.Latoya Peterson hopes to use the article to call for racial equality in the real world, and hope to inspire more people to think.