ABSTRACT
This chapter explores sexualized imagery in current rap music through the lens of Black feminist theory, paying special attention to the work of Nicki Minaj. Black feminism is a scholar-activist tradition positing that intersectionality is the most effective way to analyze the lives of Black women. Matriarchs are undesirable women who rule Black homes with an iron fist and emasculate Black men in the process. The issue of sexualization and the male gaze are points of contention between Black feminists who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s and those who grew up in the hip hop generation. Black feminists of this generation continually grapple with the grays: what it means to be both ratchet and respectable and how they can enjoy hip hop culture even while critiquing its misogyny. The relatively flat representations of Black women as sexually available certainly are widespread within rap music content.
