Erykah Badu's Nude Video and Embracing the Black Derriere

People are praising and criticizing Erykah Badu's new video "Window Seat." All the hoopla is over Badu stripping nude. I've been reading other blogs to see how people are feeling. Some say it's art others say she's just trying to sell records. If you haven't seen her video, it takes place in Dallas, Texas were President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. You can watch the video below. She's addressing this term we hear at the end of the video called "groupthink." She explains groupthink to the Dallas Morning News, "It’s human nature for a person to be afraid to express his or her self in fear of being ostracized by the group or general consensus. A lot of times people are judged unfairly because of that." Basically, she's going against the "norm," by baring it all.

The part of the video getting the most attention is one of Badu's body parts--her butt. Badu caught us off guard. We didn't know the slim soul singer was carrying all of that junk in her trunk. But I'm looking at the whole picture. As a woman with a bubble bum, I appreciated Badu's curves because black women's derrieres don't always get love. Black women's buttocks have been objectified since before the days of the Hottentot Venus. Our curvaceous rumps were considered "odd" and associated with sexual easiness back then. Outside of communities of color, big booties were deemed as unattractive or a body part that made people look fat. Sir Mix-A-Lot expressed admiration to the black boo-tay in "Baby Got Back." Since Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez have come along, bootyliciousness is "in"--for now. Women are padding their jeans and spending thousands on butt enhancement surgery. In music videos, the black woman's booty has become a exploited and disposable thing. A thing that shakes for anyone. Even the rugged dude at the club with the gold tooth gets a free rump shake on camera. With "Window Seat," here we have a black behind in a music video that isn't jiggling for men's pleasure. Badu is walking through a Dallas park like a woman on a mission (when she recorded this, Badu went without a crew nor permission from the city). You can see the strength and fearlessness in her stride. Also you get this sense of liberation. And yes her bum is round and full and beautiful. It sits high just like her head. No gyrating on mens' laps or credit cards sliding down strippers' behinds in this video. Badu, in her naked and true self, strides with pride and commands respect. She's defining her body, her art and her self. I've written about women, black women in particular, reasserting their identity and bodies. Badu tells the Dallas Morning News she was petrified about this project because she says of, "Not being in love with my body, not being secure about being vulnerable, the police coming to take me to jail." She challenges groupthink by breaking the law, being nude, displaying her body that's not glamorized, nor embraced by the mainstream.

Badu is an artist and artists push us. Nudity doesn't always equate to something being demeaning. I'm more concerned about mess like this where the women are scantily clothed. She stepped out of the pop box to express herself and that's what true artists do. I respect Badu's project and see a bit of myself in her. She's shaped like me, brown like me and like the bold word on her back, I'm "evolving" too. But, I'm not skipping through the Santa Monica Promenade butt-naked anytime soon.



P.S.--Badu got the video idea from punk duo Matt and Kim. Watch their video here.




Photo Credit:
PicApp