man down
Rihanna sure is an interesting one now isn't she? I find her collaboration with Eminem ("Love the Way You Lie") interesting but it doesn't seem to say what it's trying to say. At least the lyrics don't. Then she comes out with "Rude Boy" and I'm totally for it save for that line "I like it when you pull my hair." It's a song that's all about the woman telling the man how she likes it in bed, how long they are going to go for until she's finished, and how she will kick him to the curb if he's not "big enough." But the problem I have with that song is the same I have with a lot of songs she puts out that attempt female empowerment. The lyrics "Tonight I'mma let you be the captain...tonight I'mma let you be the rider" implies she's going to let HIM take control but then later on she goes, "tonight I'mma give it to you harder...hands up we can go a little longer" which takes the song back to HER being in control. It's as though even when she's using the man as a sex object she's allowing herself to be objectified.
WEIRD.
Here are the full lyrics for reference.
Of course this song isn't really HER song, being that she didn't write it. It was penned by a bunch of dudes, so that might explain the confusion. Which is another issue that needs to be brought up. Can we really trust MEN to write songs about FEMALE empowerment? Aren't they going to naturally give the words their own perspective which is distinctly MALE?
And then there's that song S&M where she talks about her love of S&M. Note the chorus: "Sticks and stones may break my bones/but whips and chains excite me."
WHAT?! It's not half as bad as the appalling lyrics in that Katy Perry song but it's still a bit shocking coming from a victim of domestic violence. Sure it's mostly just a song about sex and there's a HUGE difference with liking a bit of kinky bondage fun during sex and liking someone to BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU, but it just feels off listening to a song about liking to be whipped and chained being sung by a woman who was nearly gored by her own boyfriend. Of course we should also stop making Rihanna the steward for abused women everywhere. She's not some kind of ambassador. But as a public figure you'd hope she'd show a little more discretion. Or is that just too much to ask? Again, this song was written by men, the same men who wrote "Rude Boy."
Now she's out with the song Man Down. The article also offers some analysis along with the music video for the song. The song itself is about a woman killing a man and expression repentance for the act. It's a bit of a twist ONLY in the fact that it's a woman singing about killing instead of a man. The rest of it is pretty much your average fair. But the video is a completely different story. The video is about a woman who is raped by a man at a club after rejecting his advances and then shoots him the next morning as revenge. What do you make of something like that?
Well apparently the Parents Music Council thinks she's supporting acts of violence in response to acts of violence. I'm not sure if they listened to the lyrics of the song but they are obviously NOT supporting murder. Instead they're expressing remorse for what was done, that he could've been "somebody's son." But in putting those lyrics with the video there's this weird affect, at least for me, of making a victim into an aggressor and an aggressor into a victim. He raped her. Sure she was dancing sexy, but that doesn't mean she deserved it. She was at a club for Pete's sake. Right there Rihanna touches on a common rhetoric spewed at us from rapist defenders. A woman has it coming if she's dressed or moving a certain way. Rihanna though was obviously happy and full of life at the beginning of the video but after the events of it she's a changed woman. But then having her shoot him, express remorse for it, and talk about how he was probably someone's son we head into humanizing the rapist territory. That's fine. Rapists are people too.
But by doing that, are we taking something away from the woman who was raped? Are we taking away the power she could have gained by taking action against her rapist and giving it back to the offender? Or are we making a statement about how nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes?
I'm not clear on the message of this video yet. I think I need to think about it more. But I know for sure the Parents Music Council is very wrong. She's not supporting acts of violence at all in any way shape or form and by suggesting Chris Brown shooting a woman in a video is equivalent is both false and disgusting. Also, I don't think it was done purely for shock value, since the song was about freakin' SHOOTING SOMEONE. Pairing the act of Rihanna shooting a man with him raping her though is a carefully calculated piece of narrative meant to convey some sort of message, however convoluted or nebulous it may be.
I think we can all agree that rape is wrong and the video certainly doesn't make any efforts to make it look appealing. But by pairing that imagery with the song and then with Rihanna's actions of premeditated murder, we're told violence in response to violence doesn't work either. It only hurts more people ("Coulda been somebody's son") and brings you misfortune ("Oh Lord a mercy now I am a criminal...tell the judge to give me minimal"). So really nobody's right. But if that's what she was trying to so then the response from me is, "so what?" So what's the solution? Do you go tell someone? Do you keep silent and just take it? What Rihanna? I hope she also puts some action to this video and do something more substantial about rape because it's not enough to just bring up the issue. As such a public figure and even as an unwilling symbol of domestic violence survivors she needs to be prepared to provide an outlet.
WEIRD.
Here are the full lyrics for reference.
Of course this song isn't really HER song, being that she didn't write it. It was penned by a bunch of dudes, so that might explain the confusion. Which is another issue that needs to be brought up. Can we really trust MEN to write songs about FEMALE empowerment? Aren't they going to naturally give the words their own perspective which is distinctly MALE?
And then there's that song S&M where she talks about her love of S&M. Note the chorus: "Sticks and stones may break my bones/but whips and chains excite me."
WHAT?! It's not half as bad as the appalling lyrics in that Katy Perry song but it's still a bit shocking coming from a victim of domestic violence. Sure it's mostly just a song about sex and there's a HUGE difference with liking a bit of kinky bondage fun during sex and liking someone to BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU, but it just feels off listening to a song about liking to be whipped and chained being sung by a woman who was nearly gored by her own boyfriend. Of course we should also stop making Rihanna the steward for abused women everywhere. She's not some kind of ambassador. But as a public figure you'd hope she'd show a little more discretion. Or is that just too much to ask? Again, this song was written by men, the same men who wrote "Rude Boy."
Now she's out with the song Man Down. The article also offers some analysis along with the music video for the song. The song itself is about a woman killing a man and expression repentance for the act. It's a bit of a twist ONLY in the fact that it's a woman singing about killing instead of a man. The rest of it is pretty much your average fair. But the video is a completely different story. The video is about a woman who is raped by a man at a club after rejecting his advances and then shoots him the next morning as revenge. What do you make of something like that?
Well apparently the Parents Music Council thinks she's supporting acts of violence in response to acts of violence. I'm not sure if they listened to the lyrics of the song but they are obviously NOT supporting murder. Instead they're expressing remorse for what was done, that he could've been "somebody's son." But in putting those lyrics with the video there's this weird affect, at least for me, of making a victim into an aggressor and an aggressor into a victim. He raped her. Sure she was dancing sexy, but that doesn't mean she deserved it. She was at a club for Pete's sake. Right there Rihanna touches on a common rhetoric spewed at us from rapist defenders. A woman has it coming if she's dressed or moving a certain way. Rihanna though was obviously happy and full of life at the beginning of the video but after the events of it she's a changed woman. But then having her shoot him, express remorse for it, and talk about how he was probably someone's son we head into humanizing the rapist territory. That's fine. Rapists are people too.
But by doing that, are we taking something away from the woman who was raped? Are we taking away the power she could have gained by taking action against her rapist and giving it back to the offender? Or are we making a statement about how nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes?
I'm not clear on the message of this video yet. I think I need to think about it more. But I know for sure the Parents Music Council is very wrong. She's not supporting acts of violence at all in any way shape or form and by suggesting Chris Brown shooting a woman in a video is equivalent is both false and disgusting. Also, I don't think it was done purely for shock value, since the song was about freakin' SHOOTING SOMEONE. Pairing the act of Rihanna shooting a man with him raping her though is a carefully calculated piece of narrative meant to convey some sort of message, however convoluted or nebulous it may be.
I think we can all agree that rape is wrong and the video certainly doesn't make any efforts to make it look appealing. But by pairing that imagery with the song and then with Rihanna's actions of premeditated murder, we're told violence in response to violence doesn't work either. It only hurts more people ("Coulda been somebody's son") and brings you misfortune ("Oh Lord a mercy now I am a criminal...tell the judge to give me minimal"). So really nobody's right. But if that's what she was trying to so then the response from me is, "so what?" So what's the solution? Do you go tell someone? Do you keep silent and just take it? What Rihanna? I hope she also puts some action to this video and do something more substantial about rape because it's not enough to just bring up the issue. As such a public figure and even as an unwilling symbol of domestic violence survivors she needs to be prepared to provide an outlet.