A green-screened background, plastered with horrible Windows 95-esque background images, a motorbike, a wind machine combined with a naked Kim Kardashian. This may sound like an odd mixture, but Kanye West was sure to wrap them all up together in the music video for his newly released ‘Bound 2’.
Kanye debuted his video on the 19th of November on the ‘Ellen’ show, where he went on to discuss his relationship with his fiancé. But is the video and expression of their love, or is it simply another example of women being objectified and another way to lower the boundaries of sexual promiscuity? West’s video is one of many recent music videos to feature nearly naked women such as Miley Cyrus’s ‘We can’t stop’ and Rihanna’s ‘Pour it up’, with each seemingly trying to out-do the other in how controversial and provocative they can be, with these examples highlighting how this argument can be extended to women arguably objectifying other women.
But what is the implication of plastering these exposed women over our television and computer screens? The figures of some of these women portrayed in music videos can undoubtedly be seen as unattainable and alien to the average woman, Kanye’s video being no exception. The video raises questions over how authentic Kardashian’s figure actually is, with those who disapprove arguing that her body has in fact been Photoshopped. Moreover, the director Nick Knight favoured angles that expose the entirety of Kardashian’s breasts, which led to her nipple being removed from sight, making her overall appearance even more outlandish to the viewer.
The extent of her nudity can also be seen to echo Kardashian’s initial rise to fame in her participation of the infamous sex-tape between her and Ray Jay, which also raises the point of how this is not the first time Kardashian has represented in music, both lyrically and visually. Both Ray Jay’s and West’s videos can be seen as reducing the same woman into a purely sexualised being, with all the emphasis being place
So overall, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s collaboration in the music video for ‘Bound 2’ can be seen from a variety of perspectives and depending on the opinion of the viewer can either be seen to celebrate or a cheapen the female body. Personally, the biggest piece of advice I would give to Kim would be to make sure that the wind machine is in fact blowing her hair in the right direction if she ever has the opportunity to pretend to ride a motorbike on a set again.
Maddy Langford
