Nicki Minaj’s new album cover for Anaconda really does put the ‘bum’ into ‘album’. Squatting low, her back to the camera, her head tilting over her shoulder and looking backwards, wearing only some shiny trainers (Jordans, obvs) and a pink bra and thong combo set, you can see each perfect sphere of her bottom in full view.
Well, apart from a hand dangling down over it.
She put the image up on Instagram and though a lot of the response has been overwhelmingly lecherous and supportive, with 300,000 likes and counting, there have been some haters.
Like user linelisaroz85, who said: ‘Why can’t you for once in your lifetime act like a lady?’; itz.melanie who simply ommented: ‘Slut’; kaen.haidar who chirped up: ‘What on earth? Can the toilet seat carry the weight of your ass?’; wp_fanboy66, who piped up: ‘Really classy. You’re really a great example for young black females in America and the rest of the world’ and amy_heckman who said: ‘You’re really gross’.
The gist is, there’s something disgusting and base about Nicki having her own bum out – Photoshopped or not Photoshopped, though that’s another argument – on her own album cover.
Nicki isn’t having it, though, and decided to use Instagram to make a point about the acceptability of nudity and how it ties up with race. She posted four photos of white women in similar poses along with the captions ‘Acceptable’.
One photo features Kate Upton on the Sports Illustrated app, the other features three women on the cover of Sports Illustrated, all smiles as they pat each others’ bums. Nicki captioned this one ‘Angelic. Acceptable. Lol’. She then put up a photo of her own album again, with the caption ‘UNACCEPTABLE’.
Granted, none of the pictures of the white women that Nicki uploaded were album covers that would be repeated over and over again, so they might not have the same cultural currency as something so permanent as a cover.
But the point is still made – when white women get their bums out, it’s OK, it’s sanitary, it’s almost painted up to look faux-innocent. But when women of colour get their bums out? It’s altogether something more sinister, and all of a sudden, Nicki has to be a role model for all young black women.
And that’s not right, is it?
Maybe if people want to take on Nicki’s cover, they should add to it instead of taking it apart. Or those haters should take notes from whichever genius decided to Photoshop Nicki and her bottom into the ‘o’s of the Google logo. New Google Doodle, please?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.