SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper reads the lyrics and accompanying visuals to 'Please Me' (2019) by Cardi B and Bruno Mars through a Black feminist framework of pleasure politics. Its central thesis argues that a nuanced politics of pleasure, as exercised by Cardi B in ‘Please Me’, effects a radical response to the historical trauma and oppression inflicted upon Black women, particularly within the realm of sex and sexuality. The paper works through some of the contradictions of (re)claiming sexuality as Black women’s right, whilst foregrounding other vectors of pleasure in order to speak back to fetishist colonial tropes which situate Black women in close proximity to sexuality, as hypersexual objects of passivity. This study thus emphasises and argues for the importance of Black hip-hop artists as rescripting narratives about Black women and women of colour by imaging the nuances of practising agential, diverse forms of pleasure.