So a bunch of middle-aged white guys do it and the song and video both win awards (Aerosmith, “Janie’s Got a Gun”), but a young black woman does it and scandal erupts? I wish I could say I was surprised.

dammitjean:thegirlwithbluehair:

So, I’m not usually particularly aware of most pop music and its happenings until like, three months after the fact (partially because I never listen to the radio, partially because I rarely watch TV), but I saw this lovely article calling Rihanna’s new video for “Man Down” an “an inexcusable, shock-only, shoot-and-kill theme song.”  I decided to watch the video (posted above) and see what they were referring to.

If you don’t feel like watching the video, the premise is a girl is generally carefree and walking around, enjoying herself until later that night, she goes to a club or party where a guy tries to dance with her, she turns him down, and he follows her home and it is implied that she is sexually assaulted.  She runs home, gets a gun, and shoots him.

Now, while this does indeed seem like a violent music video, I’m half-shocked and half-not-remotely-surprised that “family” groups and the media would choose this one to pick on.  Some of the most popular and widely circulated music videos on television advocate violence—and seldom are criticized half this badly—but that is not why they’re choosing this video to criticize.  In so many videos of the past fifteen years (and longer), there is a distinctively misogynistic tone—anybody who has seen Sut Jhally’s “Dream Worlds” would undoubtedly agree—where the females are continuously undermined, degraded, and turned into sex objects.  Dozens of women flocking around one or two men, dancing while scantily clad while allowing men to touch them, grab them, yell at them, control them, etc.. all while lyrics describing them as “hoes,” “bitches,” and “sluts” are spat out.  Think I’m exaggerating?  Watch MTV for one hour and count how many occurrences of this there are; sure, there are videos that don’t fall into this category, but there are hundreds that do.  And how odd is it that—despite these videos often not requiring an ounce of creativity—they’re still popular and being made frequently?  If misogyny isn’t still an issue in music videos, why is it that there are still audiences who enjoy watching degradation?

Anyways, my point: While these desperately uncreative videos are being spewed out by the music industry, a video like Rihanna’s stands out and is therefore attacked.  Why?  Not because it has a gun—because tons of videos have guns and/or discuss them, not because it has violence—loads of videos have that, as well, but because it’s a woman fighting back.  Deny it, call me an asshole feminist, whatever—but it’s true.  Take any video where there’s violence and sex involving men getting what they want and it’ll be (1)popular (2)not particularly criticized, but add a female and a motivation?  Suddenly, it’s mental warfare on children.

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t advocate violence.  I also really don’t advocate the glorification of sexual assault or sexual violence on anybody (men and woman alike).  However, I saw the video, and from what I saw, it was definitely not glamorized, nor was it beautiful, nor was it made to look like it was remotely acceptable behavior on his part.  I think if they had made it some long, drawn-out scene where it looked more like a dance or something “pretty,” I would’ve been extremely upset, but that was not the case.  As a survivor, I do not advocate for violence used as a revenge method, but given what trauma and PTSD do to the brain?  I’d be lying if I said it’s never crossed my mind, and I doubt I’m alone in that.

It’s similar to the way that music videos frequently show oiled-up women rubbing on one another while dancing for men and nobody bats an eye, but if somebody makes a video involving two men kissing or two women genuinely enjoying one another without performing for men, it’s suddenly oh-my-god-the-worst-thing-ever-what-are-we-doing-to-our-kids?!  These double standards exist all over the industry and if you’re the sort of person who sort of shrugs and accepts them because these don’t directly affect you, so be it, but they’ll continue to exist until people stop accepting them as fact.

Regardless of whether or not violence and sexual violence are “okay” to show on television, it still stands that this particular video is being attacked for reasons way beyond that.  Considering Law & Order: SVU, CSI, dozens of music videos, and so many other programs that utilize and exploit extreme sexual abuse and violence as plot devices and rating boosters are still on the air, the guided conclusion of these particular claims on this particular video is that this needs to be taken off the air because it shows fighting back.

Fabulous commentary. I second completely.

(via soemily)