A History of Women On Men Violence on Music Videos
Quote:
“Magnets” would seem to confirm the existence of a trend that Miley Cyrus called out earlier this year when talking about Taylor Swift’s clip for “Bad Blood,” in which a team of women engage in explosive, slicey-dicey warfare. “I don't get the violence-revenge thing,” Cyrus told Marie Claire. “That’s supposed to be a good example?” To the pile of recent instances you can add Swift’s “Blank Space,” in which she bashes a boyfriend’s things and—it’s suggested, though not shown—his body to the point of unconsciousness; Lana Del Rey’s “High by the Beach,” in which the singer uses an enormous gun to blast a paparazzi dude out of the sky; and possibly the biggest bloodbath in mainstream pop history, Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money,” which depicts the gruesome dismemberment of a crooked accountant and the torture of his wife. The politics of the genre are, on one level at least, clear: These videos are meant to blow up social expectations that women remain passive.
The recent boomlet of murderess music videos doesn’t represent a totally new phenomenon, though. The stars of Dixie Chicks’s “Goodbye Earl” offed an abusive husband in 1999, Ashanti grimly pondered stabbing an adulterer in 2008’s “The Way That I Love You”, and at least three Lady Gaga shorts—“Paparazzi,” “Bad Romance,” and “Telephone”—feature the poisoning or burning of men. But often, these videos fall into two categories: ones that take place in total fantasy worlds—think Kesha mounting James Van Der Beek’s head on her wall after he hunted one too many unicorns, or Britney Spears as a sci-fi assassin/flight attendant—or ones where the killer’s desperation is so abject that it feels like a Very Special Episode.
The change in venue has enabled greater levels of explicitness; just three years ago, Christina Aguilera’s “Your Body” video featured male victims who spewed cartoonish blue paint, while today Rihanna lounges in a box of lifelike banker blood. The Internet has shifted the nature of backlash, too. Instead of “what about the children?” protests to the FCC and networks, people write think pieces about whether a given clip is feminist or not. One school of thought says that the violence is an empowerment move that might even help warn off would-be attackers of women; another says it all plays into attitudes about right-through-might that, in the end, can favor male dominance in society.
A nice article by The Atlantic (I looked it up and I surprisingly couldn't find a thread for it here). I remembered seeing it after I saw Demi Lovato's video for Confident which follows the trend. Thoughts?
I kinda agree. I was watching the Magnets video and it just felt so off (what did any of it have to do with the song, anyways?).
I don't think Blank Space is relevant to the conversation, though. The entire point of the song and video is to mock this "crazy girl" character, and I think could be situated in the "fantasy world" the author would put Telephone or Toxic into.
I also think that violence is meant to be seen as empowering, but I don't think that it should be seen that way.
I find the change of attitudes in such a short span to be nothing short of fascinating though. Rihanna releasing the BBHMM MV in 2005 would've made great damage to her career but in 2015 scholars are fascinated by a woman taking control over a man in visual media.
I see the concern for shock value though, people will run out of ideas to shock. Nudity and gore can only go so far, what will artists do next? The author poses some insightful questions
Lily Allen's Smile video. She paid people to jump her ex, put laxatives in his drink, and paid people to trash his apartment and cut up all of his vinyl records since he worked as a DJ. Then he was crying in her arms with her laughing. I don't want to think about if the genders were reversed.
When I'm famous I'm gonna make a video where I kill a bunch of women. Gaga-ooh-la-la to YOU, society!
Edit: And I don't mean that literally ( ), I'm just asking what would the reaction be if the tables turned and it was men doing that to women? Not pretty I reckon.
), I'm just asking what would the reaction be if the tables turned and it was men doing that to women? Not pretty I reckon.