The “video girl” image has been a stereotype that many Black

The “video girl” image has been a stereotype that many Black “Tip Drill”: A Public Response The “video girl” image is a stereotype that many Black women have struggled with for years. While women such as Oprah Winfrey and Maya Angelou take steps to ameliorate the image of the hypersexual Black woman through positive examples for women everywhere, videos such as Nelly’s “Tip Drill” have effectively worked against this. The video sparked a controversy around the country regarding the portrayal of Black women in music videos and led many people to ask the question: When is a video crossing the line between harmless entertainment and offensive material? In April 2004, Nelly was scheduled to gain support and donations for his bone marrow a prestigious, all female, Historically Black College. drive, “4 Sho, 4 Kids,” at Spelman College – But, after “Tip Drill” aired, many Spelman women felt the video was degrading. “Black entertainers have become the new myth makers, showing gangsters and bikini-clad women with hyperactive libidos,” said Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student affairs. “For non-black children it creates a gross misrepresentation of the black experience,” (Associated Press 4/9/05). Other students and faculty members shared similar views and felt that if Nelly wished to adopt a misogynistic tone, neither Nelly nor his endeavors deserved the support of Spelman College. A subset of our class conducted an informal survey with thirty respondents, all of whom are undergraduate students at the University of Michigan, to answer the question of whether or not Nelly’s video crosses the aforementioned line. The survey included questions pertaining to the impact the video had on each student’s mindset about Black women. The participants were a diverse group randomly selected on campus. The only requirement was that respondents had to have previously seen the video in order to fill out a survey. In analyzing our data, we observed that most students who were of a race other than African American, had not seen the video or even heard of the song. This may suggest that videos like “Tip Drill” never even enter mainstream society and therefore would not affect the societal views of races other than African Americans. It seems to be the opinion for most Black women and men alike, that the fear is not that our own race will lose sight of who Black women really are, but that other races and ethnicities may not ever truly conceptualize Black women outside of these images. One respondent wrote: “People outside of the Black community may not know that this is not an accurate depiction of Black women. For some it may be entertainment, but for others this may be their only understanding of culture and actual lifestyles in the African American Community.” While many students found the video to have a negative portrayal of African American women, they did not think it necessarily had an effect on their own personal perceptions. Feminist cultural critic, Bell hooks argues that because Black female sexuality has been represented as more free and liberated, many women, despite their talent, feel the need to project an image in which they are sexually available (Hooks 65). This is problematic because the Black female body only gets attention when it is and object of accessibility and availability (Hooks 65-6). Does this argument suggest that the women are at fault because they choose to represent themselves in a sexually explicit manner? Or is it the artist’s fault? Or possibly the music label’s responsibility? In our survey, only 11% of the respondents placed the blame on the dancers in the video. While the majority blamed all three parties, most pointed out that Nelly has the control to portray women a certain way, and he is wrong for reinforcing a hyper-sexualized image of black womanhood. What do other influential people in the music industry feel about the portrayal of Black women in music videos? This past New Year’s, Essence Magazine -- “the preeminent lifestyle magazine for today’s African American Woman” -- voiced its resolution to “Take Back the Music” (www.essence.com). According to the Essence website, “This is a year long in-depth examination of the many ways in which Black women are depicted in popular music, movies, television, and media”(www.essence.com). An article on the Essence website, called “What They’re Saying,” captures what prominent people in entertainment are thinking about the music industry and representation. In this article Nelly asserts that one reason why many people have an issue with what they see in music videos is because they don’t consider video-making to be an art form. He mentions that no one gave Halle Berry heat when she took a degrading role in Monster’s Ball, especially after she won an Oscar for it: “A rapper couldn’t use a line describing what she did in the movie let alone film it in a video, without getting heat for it.” Nelly does not feel as though any of this is a personal reflection of him: “I accept my role and my freedom as an artist. I respect women and I’m not a misogynist. I’m an artist. Hip-hop videos are art and entertainment.” He also argues that the women in these videos choose to be there, and for most of them, this is a stepping stone into an acting or dancing career. On the flip side of things, Fatima Robinson – a famous video director and choreographer – feels that “videos have to come out of the strip club” (“What They’re Saying”). She admits that as Black women, we love to shake our behinds and there is nothing wrong with that; she even admits to enjoying it sometimes. But, she points out, there needs to be a balance. “The fact that every video is based on that is ridiculous” (“What They’re Saying”). She describes how she has a hard time getting work because video producers want her to choreograph dances in a way that she deems degrading and unacceptable. Judging from the responses to our survey and comments made by members of the music industry, there does not seem to be a simple right or wrong answer to this ongoing debate. But the debate itself encourages people to take a second look at whom and what we support. It opens up the idea that there is oftentimes more to representations in popular culture than what appears on the surface. Our hope is that people will begin to think about these images and that one day we will eventually find an acceptable balance between protecting artistic expression and preserving Black women’s dignity. Works Cited Amber, Jeannine. “Dirty Dancing.” Essence Magazine. <; (April 6, 2005) Associated Press. “Angry Black Women Take Aim At Rappers: Spelman Students Don’t Like Misogynistic Images in Videos.” MSNBC. April 23, 2004. <; Byrd, Ayana and Solomon, Akiba. “What They’re Saying.” Essence Magazine. <; (April 6, 2005) Hooks, Bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992. Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. “Women Battling Hip-Hop.” Paula Zahn Now. CNN. 3 March 2005