Nicki Minaj Starships

This common denominator Nicki Minaj Starships  set my mind whirring. What Nicki Minaj Starships  is it about Nicki Minaj Starships  Barbie–as a name, image, and persona–that appeals Nicki Minaj Starships  to these rappers? And what, exactly, does claiming Nicki Minaj Starships  a black Barbie identity mean in the context of hip-hop culture? For Nicki Minaj Starships the purposes of this post, I’ll limit myself to talking about how Nicki Minaj Starships  and Lil’ Kim–who also happen to be two of my favorite rappers–use Barbie to represent and challenge mainstream standards of beauty and femininity.Nicki Minaj Starships 

For decades, Nicki Minaj Starships  Barbie’s blond hair, blue eyes, wasp-thin waist and improbable curves have embodied American culture’s ludicrous yet Nicki Minaj Starships  deeply harmful beauty standards. Nicki Minaj Starships 

These beauty standards Nicki Minaj Starships  are grounded in racist notions that associate whiteness with virtue and loveliness. When Mattel debuted black Barbies Nicki Minaj Starships  in the late 1960s, the dolls were essentially replicas of the original white Barbie with darker skin.Nicki Minaj Starships 

Barbie’s idealized Nicki Minaj Starships  Anglo-Saxon facial features remained the Nicki Minaj Starships  same: a barely-there nose and rosebud mouth. The company would not up Nicki Minaj Starships date the doll’s features Nicki Minaj Starships  for another forty years. When they did, the Europeanized look of the new black Barbies remained problematic to some.Nicki Minaj Starships 

Given this history, the lure of Barbie for black female rappers might seem to reflect Nicki Minaj Starships an internalization of white beauty standards Nicki Minaj Starships 

Barbie embodies the Nicki Minaj Starships  European appearance that Nicki Minaj Starships  dominant American culture tells women they should want; black Barbie, as a doll and a concept, symbolizes many of those same ideals Nicki Minaj Starships 

By claiming the label of Nicki Minaj Starships  Barbie or black Barbie, rappers like Lil’ Kim and Nicki Minaj Starships Nicki Minaj Starships can signal that they have a mainstream (read: “white-people-approved”) beauty.Nicki Minaj Starships