So, Nicki Minaj has upped the ante on black female sexuality by shooting a pretty explicit Paper Magazine cover with herself in a menage a trois.
Suggested Reading
In Paper magazine’s Winter 2017 #BreaktheInternet cover, the rapper appears to be eating her own p*ssy on the mag cover in three different looks.
But what for some is provocative and liberating to some is just not appealing and gratuitous at that—and the divide seems to be down generational lines (i.e., Gen X vs. Millennials).
Some, like 39-year-old rapper Eve, spoke out against the cover, saying it’s not good in terms of being a “role model”:
“I think in this climate, it’s not good. I think every artist has a right to express themselves however they want to express themselves and I respect that as well. For me personally, as I started coming up in the business, I started realizing that young girls were looking up to me and younger people were looking up to me, and that, not that you want to be a role model, but it becomes what you become, it is what you are.”
She continues, “As I’ve gotten older … I’d just rather be a voice that’s uplifting… I can be a voice for those girls that might not have a voice, in a different way without showing myself off … For the Nicki fans, I love her, respect her. Go women in hip hop. It’s not my thing. I just don’t think it’s right. Personally. Period. That’s it.”
But many took umbrage that the self-proclaimed pitbull in a skirt, who used to be a stripper had anything to say about it:
But there were some defenders also:
And even more on Facebook (where the oldies be), saying the Nicki Minaj cover is “desperate” “crude” and “trashy.”
My two cents: Porn. I blame it on this generation’s access to porn and all these mannequin bodies 24-7. Yes, porn can be great, but it also can make everything too accessible. There’s nothing left to the imagination, which is where I think sensuality lie.
But maybe Nicki wants to fuck. Herself. Three ways. She’s a black woman with a body that is built to order and she’s explicitly doing what “good girls” don’t – touching herself, eating pussy and being brazen by going for hers.
Have we just been brainwashed into thinking this is “bad” because it’s out in the open? Respectability politics got us again?
I admit as a proud feminist, womanist, and free-the-girls advocate, I still bump heads with my daughter. I’m the same mom who had to hear that I was “body shaming” my then 19-year-old when she left out the house without a bra, so what do I know?
Maybe the new feminists have it right – maybe it’s fine for Nicki to be as nasty as she wanna be, and push the envelope (I remember when Lil’ Kim’s “Hardcore” photo and lyrics were heatedly discussed, now the most bourgie girl in the club will scream, “I used to be scared of the dick...”)
This may be the next step in the evolution of the reclamation and representation of black female sexuality.
Maybe I’m getting old.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.