Janelle Monáe is a Visionary.

Janelle Monáe has gained much critical acclaim for her album, Dirty Computer. She is very open about discussing issues women face and the idea of sexuality for women. She’s an artist I really like. Her three singles, PYNK, Make Me Feel, and Django Jane are some of her best work in my opinion and all have unique music videos.

When listening to and watching the video for PYNK, is is immediately obvious what Janelle is trying to get across. The color pink is generally a very big stereotype for women, from before you’re even born. From the second the video begins you can see she’s taken the color pink and spun the stereotype on its head not by rejecting it, but by claiming it. When listening to he lyrics you can tell that she’s talking about sex and female anatomy. The pants that she’s wearing are very clearly supposed to be an image of a vagina. She is not shying away from using this to empower women. She’s encouraging women to not feel ashamed of their bodies and to take control of them. You can get this message just by looking at what is written on their underwear in one scene, “I grab back”. This song is a power anthem for women.

Make Me Feel is a fun and upbeat song matched with an equally glamorous video. In this video I feel as though she is approaching the idea of bisexuality. You can see her in seemingly romantic or intimate scenes with both men and women. I feel that this stems from many people saying that you can’t be bisexual that you’re either gay or you’re not. She wants to take this and show people that it’s okay to embrace your sexuality. Also, from seeing the costuming in this video, I feel that Janelle is blurring gender norms a little bit. You can see women dressed in more masculine attire and men dressed in traditionally feminine things. This video is, in my eyes, a love letter to the LGBTQ community.

Finally, Django Jane, this was the most interesting to me of the three. Throughout the whole video Janelle is wearing various suits, already embracing the blurred gender norms. This song and video is a clear and direct jab to toxic masculinity. She is talking about her own femininity and saying how people used to say she “looked too manish”. Janelle is openly talking about how men try to “mansplain” to women all the time everyday. She’s empowering women to not let men control them while asking men why they feel they can. She’s pointing out how men automatically think they’re superior to women in the lyric, “We gave you life, we gave you birth, We gave you God, we gave you Earth,We fem the future, don't make it worse”. This song and video is breaking down barriers between the genders and trying to level the playing field for men and women.

I think that Janelle should’ve won the Grammy for her work on this album. What do you think? Leave a comment below

PYNK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaYvlVR_BEc

Make Me Feel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGRzz0oqgUE

Django Jane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjQq5rMlEY