SALON

Thursday, Jun 2, 2011 3:15 PM UTC

Should Rihanna’s dark revenge fantasy be banned?

The singer shoots a suggested rapist in her latest -- but that doesn't mean it's glorifying murder

By

Topics: MTV, Television,

Should Rihanna's dark revenge fantasy be banned?

What will Rihanna do to top herself after this one? After exploring domestic violence in the video for “Love the Way You Lie”  and kink in “S&M,”  the perpetually button-pushing singer finally went and killed a man. What’s that sound? Oh, it must be the inevitable outrage.

The video, “Man Down,” premiered on BET Tuesday night. It clearly takes inspiration from Gaspar Noe’s unnerving “Irreversible,” and begins with an act of violence. In an arresting, music-free prologue, Rihanna coolly waits in a bustling Kingston train station, raises her gun, and fires a fatal shot to the head of a man in the crowd. What unfolds next is the story of how she got there: carefree scenes of “yesterday morning,” a nightclub flirtation that leads to an apparent sexual assault, and an eventual staggering act of retribution.

The Parents Television Council was unsurprisingly swift to condemn the video, with its “implied rape scene with a man whom she later guns down in an act of premeditated murder.” And co-founder of Industry Ears and a former BET music programmer Paul Porter lambasted the video, calling it “an inexcusable, shock-only, shoot-and-kill theme song.” He continued, “In my 30 years of viewing BET, I have never witnessed such a cold, calculated execution of murder in primetime. Viacom’s standards and practices department has reached another new low…. If Chris Brown shot a woman in his new video and BET premiered it, the world would stop. Rihanna should not get a pass and BET should know better. The video is far from broadcast-worthy.” BET has, in the recent past, deemed other controversial videos unsuitable for airing, including Kanye West’s creepy horror opus “Monster.” So why does Rihanna get a pass?

“Man Down” isn’t necessarily the sort of thing you’d want your first grader rocking out to. It’s not, for that matter, a brilliant song. But it’s entirely possible for content to be intended for mature audiences without it being “inexcusable.” Creatively expressing the theme of violence is not the same as promoting it. Music isn’t always about dancing till the break of day; if it were, we’d have no “Stan,” no “Rape Me.” And if you think those songs condone killing your girlfriend or begging for sexual assault, think a little harder. “Man Down” doesn’t, like the Dixie Chicks’s “Goodbye Earl,” take a celebratory view of icing an abuser. Nor does it even depict a warped crime of passion, like Guns n’ Roses’s classic “I Used to Love Her” or Eminem’s notorious “Kim.” Instead, it’s far more in the tradition of “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Janie Got a Gun” or “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” — songs that explore the strange horror of one’s own capacity for violence when pushed to the limit. Rihanna sings with both deep remorse and a self-preserving fear of punishment, “I know it wasn’t right … Coulda been somebody’s son, and I took his heart when I pulled out that gun.”

Rihanna, one of the most famous domestic abuse victims in the world, has not gone quietly into survivorship. In the two and a half year since her assault by then-boyfriend Chris Brown, she has gone from pop kewpie to someone who is, at times, downright shocking in her depictions of sex and violence in her music and videos. She knows full well that the world views her through the prism of her past, and she knows how to work it. What unsettles her critics seems to be her refusal to play the fragile, broken butterfly. She doesn’t sing about making it through the rain. Instead, she climbs on a tank.

Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council, said this week that “Rihanna’s personal story and status as a celebrity superstar provided a golden opportunity for the singer to send an important message to female victims of rape and domestic violence. Instead of telling victims they should seek help, Rihanna released a music video that gives retaliation in the form of premeditated murder.” True, but seriously, does anybody think she looks happy about it? That she makes it seem like a good idea?

Rihanna, meanwhile, has her own views on the video. She wrote on Twitter, “Young girls/women all over the world … we are a lot of things! We’re strong innocent fun flirtatious vulnerable, and sometimes our innocence can cause us to be naïve! We always think it could NEVER be us, but in reality, it can happen to ANY of us! So ladies be careful and #listentoyomama! I love you and I care!” That’s not a message to would-be abusers. That’s a tale of caution to girls, and a warning to them about the consequences of revenge. Love it or hate it, “Man Down” isn’t a “shoot and kill theme song.” Look again. It’s a five-minute tragedy.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 27 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations