Facebook
Twitter
Email Sign-Up
RSS FeedRape, Murder and Necrophilia–To the Beat.
Over on my facebook page, we’re talking about the new Rhianna video, “Man Down,” a catchy reggae-inspired tune about a young woman who kills her rapist then feels sort of bad about it.
I’m really torn about the video. Chris Sosa wrote a piece about it on Gather.com. On facebook he told me, “I thought it was a confusing video for a young audience. Disturbingly graphic, uncomfortable racial undertones, and most importantly, nothing for the young audience to take away from it. Jamaicans were posting on YouTube about the racial implications. And some posters were *blaming the victim* for the rape. If Rihanna wanted to address the issue, she could’ve done a much better job. Instead she went for “edgy.” And the song itself doesn’t even mention sexual assualt, it’s just a wanton murder tale.”
Another follower chimed in: “It strikes me that many popular videos involving male artists just show them being thugs who don’t have to be justified to be cool (even though I personally find them offensive). But girls have to be good, even when they are bad. Rhianna has to be justified, preferably by an assault to her lady parts, in order to make her violence cool. Not that I want her to just be a gangster and just have a video be about that. I’d rather see her invent a new form of clean energy or something else admirable. But it seems to be a double standard.”
But a third reader, Renee Randazzo brought up an intriguing post on the crunk feminist collective (“for hip hop generation feminists) that said, among other things: “In Hip Hop and pop culture where rape is glorified and celebrated, this is a welcome intervention. The video reinforces a very basic point: the choice to be sexual and sensual on the dance floor should not be read in any way as consent for future sexual activity. For once, the critique of rape is unambiguous. It is wrong; it is not the woman’s fault; and it should be punished.”
I find the issue confusing. I don’t like the message that the way to be a strong woman is to resort to violence any more than I like that as the message of how to be a strong man. At the same time, there is so much graphic violence against women in videos and it’s often how male artists signal that they are “rebellious” or counter-cultural. Treating women badly or dehumanizing them or even assaulting or murdering them is how male artists often get street cred and who complains?
A cbs news blog reported that a group called “Industry Ears” issued a statement that read, “If Chris Brown shot a woman in his new video and BET premiered it, the world would stop.” Really? Did the world stop when Kanye West released his “Monster” video which started with a woman in lingerie hanging dead from a meathook in a slaughterhouse and continued with the artist (ahem) in bed with two other apparently dead women in lingerie posing them like sex toys?
Honestly? I couldn’t get past the first 30 seconds or so. It made me sick. And I know that’s what he wanted–to gain points with kids, especially young men, by provoking attack from women like me who suddenly seem straight, uncool and anti-sex (as if fetishizing the rape and murder of women to sell records has anything really to do with sexual empowerment).
My nephew loves Kanye West. What effect does that video–even if it is ultimately banned–have on him (beyond the obligatory shrug and eye roll when I ask him about it?). Especially troublesome given the statistics on rape on college campuses. I’m not saying a+b=c, but it’s a culture, an environment, a dehumanization that is tagged as cool for guys.
So Rhianna made a shallow video about shooting a man, except in her case the shooting was not something she “wanted” to do–it didn’t make her tough or cool and she was agonizing over it (rather than glamorizing it?). And she challenged the idea that being sexy and flirtatious makes her rape “okay.”….So yeah, I get some of the objection. I get that it was confusing and provocative. I get that it was answering violence with violence (then again, have you heard “I Shot the Sheriff?” Not a great message either, but there was no video back then to bring it home). And ultimately, these days, it’s so hard to determine a performer’s sincerity because the music industry is so commodified and sales-driven that we’ll never know if she was trying to make a flawed but authentic statement or if she was just going for shock to boost sales….
Thoughts?
I commented on FB, too, and maybe I’m reading too much into it but I got, from Rhianna’s video, that she chose violence because she felt powerless to react any other way. She was also still in the heat of the aftermath. And I also got that she understood this was the wrong choice. She had to choose to be haunted by the rape (I only saw ONE rapist. You say “rapists” in the first paragraph.Maybe I missed something) or by her violent revenge. She did not seem to envision justice on any level other than her own vigilante-ism. Perhaps because she was overtly flirtatious and just assumed that was incriminating enough to vindicate her rapist?
I think it’s an incredibly complicated question…to what extent does/should the artist’s responsibility to his/her viewers impact the story they want (one could argue NEED) to tell? Particularly in such a visual and ever-present medium.
Yes, Christine, I loved your comments in both places as well. The “s” on rapist was a typo–i was writing quickly. I do think that’s the difference (and also the difference in “I Shot the Sheriff–I never got the impression Marley was HAPPY about it). The revenge killing is not portrayed as morally justifiable so much as a tragedy compounding a tragedy. She’s aware he has a mother. Not so much the men who repeatedly and continually abuse women for fun and reputation-enhancement in typical videos. Doesn’t make it right, as Rhianna is pointing out, but maybe that’s what happens when women are pushed and pushed and pushed.
I think i also read somewhere that she was the victim of sexual abuse, possibly as a girl. Maybe she is playing out her own fantasy, changing the ending of a story so she has some sense of power? Who knows. But anyway, I’m liking this discussion!
I had the same thought, Peggy. That for her, as a woman who is an artist, she was using her resources and her medium to play out something very personal. Which I would consider to be a pretty healthy thing.
I am also liking the conversation!
I don’t know about childhood sexual abuse, but she was involved w/ Chris Brown, and he beat the cr*p out of her. I’m not sure you can discuss this song/video w/o bringing that experience into the equation.
Ohhh. Thanks Erika. That must be it. And I wondered why they had singled out Chris Brown in that Industry Ears thing–i.e., if Chris Brown shot a woman in a video hell would rain down. Well DUH, it would have a completely different meaning if he did that. Not that killing your abuser is something I condone, obviously, but the connotation in a video is completely different than an abuser killing a woman…..
I’m always happy when pop art portrays characters that act like most real people (trying their best to do the right thing and growing because of it) when faced with universal situations, whether it is sit-coms, music videos or novels about vampires.
Your final description of the video – “shooting a man, except in her case the shooting was not something she “wanted” to do–it didn’t make her tough or cool and she was agonizing over it … And she challenged the idea that being sexy and flirtatious makes her rape ‘okay,’” – feels like an authentic portrayal of the human condition for many women.
I’ll take that over exaggerated images of sexually objectified female companions and cool violence any day.
Thank you for that response, Rebecca. I get it.
I am very troubled by messages such as these. My 13-year old son wants to listen to songs that are overtly sexual (Akon’s “I Want to F*** You”) or just filled with swear words. I have drawn the line and told him many songs, such as Rihanna’s that glorifies S & M, are against my values and the values of my late wife. He says no one listens to the lyrics, but I think parents have the responsibility to intervene while we can.
That’s such a common comeback, Steven. “No one listens to the lyrics.” maybe not. I mean, did you ever really listen to the lyrics of “Under My Thumb?” But then again, you also just can’t give it a pass. Did you ever read “Packaging Boyhood?” There are some interesting tips on how to talk to boys about misogynist lyrics (and interesting tips for parents of girls in “Packaging Girlhood”). Also, check out the work of Michael Thompson
She had some statements come out today about her video. Seems her intention was to give victims of rape a voice. Who am I to question the voice of a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence? apparently that was her responsive artistic expression. With a sexy, edgy twist of course.
I have to wonder if there really needs to be a clear “message” in the video? I read an interview she gave recently about it, and it sounded like she was partially just making a “mini-movie” in the video about something that a staggering number of women go through (I don’t know how many rape victims shoot their attackers, but the stats on rape and sexual abuse are mind-boggling). It’s a complicated topic and one that’s hard to make any black-and-white “statements” about (other than, obviously, “rape is wrong” which somehow we still don’t quite understand in our society).
Eminem had a video years ago that depicted him putting his ex-wife in the trunk of a car and driving it off the edge of a cliff. I don’t understand why we give a pass to all the violence towards women that’s allowed and unquestioned in rap and other popular music, yet when a woman puts out a video about rape– a very real situation — it’s questioned, analyzed, put down. (Perhaps it hits “too close to home” and we don’t like talking about “these things” in public).
I kind of saw this video as Rihanna working out her demons about Chris Brown. Honestly though, I think this new trend of seeing artists as role models for children is bad. The rock stars of the 70s and 80s, the blues and jazz greats of earlier decades, heck, even Mozart himself, would never have passed your moral scrutiny. Talented people are not necessarily wise people. Would you want your child to be like Oscar Wilde, Picasso, or van Gogh? I would hope not, but it doesn’t make them any less good at what they did. Songs, pictures and stories about sex and violence have been around as long as humans. They aren’t intended for children, and it is the parent’s responsibil.ity, not the artist or society’s, to shield their child from what they deem inappropriate. If you don’t want your kid listening to something, don’t shell out for the cd, change the channel or station when it comes on. I don’t have television in my house. We have a tv and we buy dvds, and my kids don’t see anything I don’t want them to see. If you disapprove of something, mom up and tell your kid no. Explain why, of course. But say no.
I was with you up until the “mom up” part. Though that is a funny line. Of course this wasn’t intended for small children. But what age child WAS it intended for? And just saying “no” to your 16-year-old isn’t very practical. Talking to her about media images–hopefully beginning long before she is 16–and helping her effectively decode them and understand them is probably a better idea. And part of talking about them is talking about our own reactions to them…..