Two of my journals have looked at how fashion impacts the message of music videos such as Beyoncé’s “Formation” and Childish Gambino’s “This is America”; for this post, I want to look at the clothing – or lack of clothing – in Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat” music video; in light of reading “Sound Gestures” by Danielle Goldman, I have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a black female artist that I did not have when I wrote my original journals and I want to expand my thinking about this topic. I believe that Badu’s daring one take video in which she illegally strips in public and Danielle Goldman’s article both raise awareness about the sexualization of black women and show how they are reclaiming and redefining that narrative .
Walking through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas – the site of JFK’s assassination – Badu begins the video fully dressed in baggy clothing. Ignoring everyone around her, she removes her clothing piece by piece; she moves at her own pace, in a way that is not overly sexual. Both her face and her genitals are blurred, and the manner in which she removes her clothes seems to liberate her; this longing for escape is backed up by the “Window Seat” lyrics, which say, “So can I get a window seat/Don’t want nobody next to me/I just want a ticket outta town.” Badu clearly wants escape the world she is living in, and she is able to attain some sort of freedom as she walks confidently with her head held high despite the fact that she is fully naked in public and there are people staring at her.
After reading Danielle Goldman’s “Sound Gestures,” I have a new perspective of the objection of women in the arts. After discussing the gender divide within the art world between music (male) and dance (female), the article says – in regard to a performance by McIntyre and a male drummer who refused to cooperate – that “The musicians were heard and the dancers were seen” (Goldman 128). Being a musician, Badu already fights backs against the common stereotype of male musicians and female dancers. In the video, she consciously and overtly politicizes her body; she claims her right to take up space as an autonomous subject, and to control her body and how it is viewed. In this way, Badu effectively resists sexist and racist narratives that cast black female bodies as sexual objects; although she is naked, her body is not sexualized or objectified. The representation of her body is not shaped by male desire, but by her desire to assert her right to her own freedom of identity and self-expression. This political message may be centered around Erykah Badu’s body, but in “Window Seat” she is not just seen, she is heard.
Questions to consider:
- Could Erykah Badu have gotten her message across without nudity? Why or why not? And if she could, would the lyrics depicting freedom be as powerful?
- What is the symbolism of the video being shot in the same place as JFK’s assassination? What does this add to the video?
Sources:
• “Erykah Badu – ‘Window Seat’ (Official Video)” [5:37]. Uploaded by Erykah Badu. April 2, 2010. Youtube.com < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVp47f5YZg > Accessed 10/19/20.
• Goldman, Danielle. “Sound Gestures.” Women and Performance 17:2 (2007): 123-138.