This is probably the most aesthetically and politically interesting music video I have ever seen. Window Seat was the first single from Erykah Badu’s latest album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). The video draws inspiration from Matt and Kim’s Lessons Learned, and depicts Erykah Badu walking in the streets of downtown Dallas and disrobing herself. Window Seat is a politicised video first and foremost because it provides a subversive interpretation of the black female body, in sharp contrast to the sexually exploitative and objectifying images of women prevailing in many R&B and hip hop videos, as well as in most other areas of popular culture.
As Laura Mulvey argued in a classic essay, “[t]he determining male gaze projects its fantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Oxford University Press, 1975/1999, 837). The Window Seat video consists of a single shot of Erykah Badu, who provides an unstylised representation of herself, while explicitly refusing to have any interplay with the camera; her realistic and natural facial expression and body movement suggest a confident black female individual in control of her sexuality. As Alyx Vesey put it in Feminist Music Geek, this is “a mother and working professional who is imperfect, proud of her imperfections, and unconcerned with returning or engaging with the cinephilic gaze.”
The location displayed in the video, as well as the fact that the naked woman portrayed by Erykah Badu is eventually shot, make reference to the JFK assassination. The political content of the video, however, is considerably more complex. The representation of disrobing brings up questions of conformism and compliance with the established social norms and values, and signifies the shooting of the naked character as a form of social control. The narrative of the video thus revisits the problem of the exercise of power by the majority of a social group on individuals and minorities who are labelled, stereotyped, and stigmatised as deviant. As labelling theory has held, deviance is not inherent to an act, but is a result of an act’s perception by a social group; it is characteristic that at the end of the video blue letters coming out of the fallen body form the word ‘Groupthink’ on the pavement, accompanied by a voice-over. As Erykah Badu put it in her Speakeasy interview with the Wall Street Journal editor Christopher John Farley:
As Laura Mulvey argued in a classic essay, “[t]he determining male gaze projects its fantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Oxford University Press, 1975/1999, 837). The Window Seat video consists of a single shot of Erykah Badu, who provides an unstylised representation of herself, while explicitly refusing to have any interplay with the camera; her realistic and natural facial expression and body movement suggest a confident black female individual in control of her sexuality. As Alyx Vesey put it in Feminist Music Geek, this is “a mother and working professional who is imperfect, proud of her imperfections, and unconcerned with returning or engaging with the cinephilic gaze.”
The location displayed in the video, as well as the fact that the naked woman portrayed by Erykah Badu is eventually shot, make reference to the JFK assassination. The political content of the video, however, is considerably more complex. The representation of disrobing brings up questions of conformism and compliance with the established social norms and values, and signifies the shooting of the naked character as a form of social control. The narrative of the video thus revisits the problem of the exercise of power by the majority of a social group on individuals and minorities who are labelled, stereotyped, and stigmatised as deviant. As labelling theory has held, deviance is not inherent to an act, but is a result of an act’s perception by a social group; it is characteristic that at the end of the video blue letters coming out of the fallen body form the word ‘Groupthink’ on the pavement, accompanied by a voice-over. As Erykah Badu put it in her Speakeasy interview with the Wall Street Journal editor Christopher John Farley:
I guess people would say that in the video I shed a lot of emotion and a lot of baggage, by way of shedding clothing. And I do this in the middle of a busy street, which is totally, probably, something that is not accepted in society. Thus, definitely not conforming to what society would expect you to do, and because the world is, I guess 85% of the world is a part of what we would call Groupthink, that’s like a form of thinking that causes you to bury what you really feel inside to please the group so that you won’t be ostracized by the group. It’s a comfort zone we create for ourselves and I go outside of that comfort zone and the video says everything.
They play it safe, are quick to assassinate what they do not understand.
They move in packs, ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another.
They feel most comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow.
They are us.
This is what we have become.
Afraid to respect the individual.
A single person within a circumstance can move one to change.
To love our self.
To evolve.
