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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: My anaconda don’t want your rude selfies

It’s almost a scene you would see in “House of Wax” instead of the real world.

Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas is especially busy addressing the issue of visitors taking inappropriate pictures with a new Nicki Minaj 
wax figure.

The female rapper was on the Pinkprint music tour when her wax figure debuted in Vegas.

Minaj’s replica depicts her on her hands and knees, an “iconic pose” from the controversial “Anaconda” music video.

And what do you know, people decided to act 
disgusting, per usual.

Shortly after the figure was revealed for public viewing, pictures of guests posing in sexual positions with the Minaj double surfaced on 
social media.

Images feature people replicating oral sex, licking, groping and other degrading poses with the figure.

Madame Tussauds released a statement saying they would increase staff in the area to solve the problem.

Let me say I’m ashamed this is something that even has to be addressed.

Though, according to HollywoodLife, Minaj has expressed “flatt(ery)” over the “wild” pictures from her fans, it’s nothing to laugh off — more importantly, she’s probably holding her tongue for the sake of these fans.

Did no one really think people weren’t going to take advantage of Minaj’s submissively posed figure? Have they never met high school boys?

Fellow female rapper Azealia Banks evidently saw this coming, tweeting, “As much as that woman has accomplished, they had to put her on all fours...Why not standing up with a mic in her hand?” and “Martha Stewart’s most iconic moment was when she went to jail, but they didn’t put her wax figure in a jail uniform...Come on y’all...”

There’s no argument that Minaj isn’t an iconic sex figure, but so are other women featured in the museum.

Madame Tussauds didn’t create a wax figure of Miley Cyrus grinding with Robin Thicke, though the act was a rather controversial and well-covered topic in the media.

Cyrus’ figure is of her swinging on a wrecking ball — fully clothed, I might add — from the music video “Wrecking Ball,” though the video also featured her naked and provocatively licking a sledgehammer.

Kim Kardashian, who became famous off a sex tape, isn’t in any sort of degrading pose. She’s posed taking a selfie in the London branch of 
the museum.

The decision to create a wax figure in this position wasn’t an oversight. It was a reflection of how many describe Minaj: ratchet instead of powerful and respected.

This wasn’t a celebration of a woman’s accomplishments as a rapper, an artist who broke a YouTube record or a female owning her sexuality.

It was an opportunity to defile a woman whom society has already devalued.

It doesn’t matter how many albums she has sold or that “Grand Piano” gives me shivers and “Feeling Myself” makes me feel invincible.

So, because she won’t say it, I will: “wax off,” creeps.

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