Sexual violence in Rihanna video

I saw this video (in part) prior to hearing about it. I think the video is longer than I thought - I couldn't watch till the end because I thought it was grim - but I certainly didn't see the accountant being tortured. Maybe I missed it - shame not!! - and also I can't see how any scene going in at the end could excuse what happened to the woman.

I don't watch Game of Thrones or anything and thought it was just vile. Obviously the female nudity is just there for men to wank to. Revolting. I don't know that much could have redeemed this video - and what a shite song, she sounds like she's drunk and just wailing repeatedly about what has happened to her - but I would have been less repulsed if everyone involved had managed to keep their clothes on. This way it's like "ooh isn't violence sexy".

Thanks Galaxy I was puzzled I'd missed the part where the husband is tortured.

holo really honestly the woman is tortured and it's shown and gratuitous with lots of nudity and the man nothing was shown and he was fully dressed and then TADA it's the end.

It's funny how different people can take away such massively different things from what is quite straightforward I'd have thought!

Apart from you didn't see anything she did to him at all, that's left to the imagination. She might have shown him the stuff, he said oh shit here's the money, and then she killed him quickly. The idea that it was "ritualistic" is entirely from your imagination.

While lots of what they do to the woman is shown + of course they may have done things not shown.

So you are kind of, in your imagination, minimising the violence against the woman and maximising the violence against the man, with no real reason for doing that. Apart from there is lots of blood for him, but still could've been quick. I mean if you attack someone with a chainsaw they aren't going to last long at all are they. The sheer scale of the wounds and blood loss would make it horrific but quick. And the whole woman in the box at the end thing was silly, really like the A-team. She was dead, obviously, that was put in to soften (not sure why) and seems to have worked on at least some - Oh they took her home at the end - seriously?!!

I'm not going to watch it again as I assume every cluck generates cash for Rihanna but I don't remember the man being tortured. Possibly because what happened to him must have been shoehorned into the last seconds.

I guess I saw the husbands treatment as worse as he got knives, chainsaws, baseball bat etc in a more ritualistic torturing session.

I think it's because I read this thread before I saw the video I was expecting something a whole lot worse and that the woman was the main antagonist.

The way they treated the woman was bad she was kidnapped, experienced military torture tactics (swinging upside down etc) and was gagged and blindfolded for many of the scenes. I guess I watched this video and thought this isn't any worse (if not far better) than numerous T.V shows and movies. And then the true antagonist is made apparent and he is made to pay.

If this video wasn't so sexualised then it wouldn't be so bad. However like I said Rihanna has form for this and being a victim of domestic violence does not make her a spokeperson for VAW.

No what I am saying is that the woman wasn't the real target and wasn't intentionally tortured

Are you watching the same video as the rest of us? Whirling has listed all the things done. Was being hung naked upside down just an unfortunate accident on a swing?

You don't see that all what they do to her is torture? That what they do to her isn't intentional?

Are we watching the same video??!!

When you read about things like this being done in real life, the victim is often described as having been tortured in the judgement. There was a case recently actually which this video made me think of.

oh as in it didn't bother me more than lots of other stuff I see.

Not that I am AOK with sexualised images of VAW all over the place quite the opposite.

No what I am saying is that the woman wasn't the real target and wasn't intentionally tortured accept for the upside down scene. When I read this thread I thought that the woman's husband had been left unharmed when in fact he gets it the worst and the woman was brought home.

My real problem with this video is the nudity as it really wasn't needed. But this isn't a new thing for Rihanna to do so I am not surprised really.

Also the "look she's alive after all" bit was thrown in wasn't it, it was like in the A-Team where they blow up a van of baddies and then they had to show them all crawling out afterwards! It was thrown in as an after-thought I felt to say "look it's all OK she's alive!!!" but actually she's dead isn't she, she's been held underwater for some time, she's unconscious, not moving, it's quite obvious at that point in the video that she is stone dead.

And that underscores the "fun" bit - the kidnap was mainly to do with having a good time, hurting the woman, killing her, if it was just for the money they wouldn't have done all that stuff to her. Juxtaposed with when she goes for the man it's not "fun" it's serious, she doesn't muck around and that's when she gets the money.

To me it was clear that what they did to the woman was because they enjoyed it, I mean they're having a right laugh, that's not ambiguous.

Like I say, didn't really bother me though. I didn't find the way the violence was sexualised any worse than a standard episode of criminal minds or CSI TBH and in fact rather better. Now they are grim (but I still watch them).

So I finally got to watching the video!

I watch way too much US gloss crime drama obviously Because I didn't think that was nearly as bad as I expected and it didn't really offend me at all.

The bitch she is singing about is the bloke, for sure, although that's not clear until 3/4 of the way through and the lyrics are ambiguous when watched with the video.

To me it seems that the woman isn't kidnapped as leverage, or at least not purely as leverage, they want to have fun humiliating her and hurting her in a lot of different ways. They are enjoying themselves doing that stuff to her. When she goes for the man it looks more "serious" rather than the "having a laugh" that they are doing when they kidnap, drug, tie up, drug etc the woman and WTF is that metal thing in her mouth some kind of gag? That made me flinch, in the whole video, that metal thing they put in her mouth.

Anyway to say they aren't torturing her is ludicrous, sorry. They kidnap her, strip her, humiliate her, knock her out, drug her and make her perform for them, make fun of her while she is vulnerable, tie her up, hang her upside-down, gag her in multiple ways, have her blindfolded so she doesn't know what's going on and drown (and resuscitate?) her. To say that's not torture but the stuff with the knives is shows a very narrow definition of torture! Sounds like the sort of definition of torture the people in organisations like the CIA and MI5 wish they could get agreed!

The dunking underwater wasn't because Rihanna was trying to torture her she was trying to hide her from the police officer. It is made pretty clear by the end of the video who the true 'villain' is and he was tortured with knives and potentially a chainsaw.

So just watched the video yes there is gratuitous nudity in the music video both from the blond woman and Rihanna herself. However the white woman isn't actually tortured the accountant is. Near the end of the video Rihanna and her henchwomen bring the woman back to her apartment (alive) and the next scene is Rihanna with an assortment of weapons and the accountant tied up. She is later seen covered in his blood. The 'bitch' in this song is the accountant not the wife.

The story becomes clear that she kidnapped the wife so that he would give her back her money. But he basically says fuck you and there are scenes of him having a great time with her money even though his wife has been kidnapped.

Where I think Rihanna went a bit far is with the unnecessary nudity but then to be honest if she wants to be naked in her videos that is up to her.

Ultimately I don't think this is a case of kidnapping women because she will be easier than the man but that she made the mistake of thinking the man actually cares about his wife.

Rihanna sorry spelling there

guardian says it was Rhianna's concept and she had major input into how it played out, hanging the woman upside-down was her idea etc.

Maybe she is saying something serious about racism and privilege.

I have no idea, I don't know her, I don't know whether the idea for the video came from her, or from someone she asked because she wanted to make a certain political statement, or whether the record company organised it and the maker had a statement to make or whether no-one was trying to make any statement and just thought this would be sexy and controversial.

I'm not going to hazard guesses about the intent of the people involved. Because I just don't know.

Unless the artist has made any statements about any political meaning behind the video? Maybe I should look. Although now people have given political intent, even if it wasn't there in the first place she can certainly say that was the intent all along!

from a sex perspective it's hot naked woman gets tortured WAHEY and by several other hot women. Even better.

Whirling I don't think you are giving her sufficient credit but not for her raising serious points. The credit is for being able to find a way of using gratuitous sexual violence but make some / many viewers think it has anything serious to say.

I am finding this very interesting BTW although somewhat out of my depth! So apologies if what I say makes no sense I'm just putting stuff out there really.