Sexual violence in Rihanna video

[Cheeseandhamtoast]

I've just posted about this in AIBU, but the general consensus was that IABU to be bothered about this. So I thought I would give it a go here.

I'm not going to link, but I am absolutely disgusted at the new Rihanna video. Especially coming from Rihanna who has been a victim of domestic violence herself. Who would make a video like this?

I just despair at what is becoming mainstream. For example, Sam Smith has just tweeted a link to it to his 3 million followers, many of which will be young teenagers.

I have not seen the video and I never want to see it as I know it'll make me furious. Never liked the woman since she sang that S&M song about whips and chains exciting her etc. Why that was allowed on the airwaves I do not know.

It's moments like this that put people in an uncomfortable position of realising what privilege they have in life. Often some men would say I haven't experienced the benefits of being male and women will just think wow he simply can't see it. Just like how some white women can't see the same thing as this time it's race.

I don't think the accountants wife is innocent as she benefited from Rihanna's exploitation and I can see why Rihanna would kidnap the wife not the accountant after all you can't kidnap the person who has your money (how would you expect to get it back?) also one of the most effective ways of hurting someone is hurting their loved ones so Rihanna hit 2 birds with 1 stone.

So a resounding yes well done from you Holowiwi?

Personally I don't want to see videos of people being tortured to represent the "baddies" in the things I feel strongly about, maybe others feel the same way? So eg I'm a feminist, I wouldn't make a video showing women torturing a man, I would think that was grim (plus it would give all the MRAs loads of ammo LOOK they hate us see women are just as violent as men there's the proof and they want to hurt us).

Additionally while the viewpoint from a race perspective is that it's subversive which I get, from a sex perspective it's hot naked woman gets tortured WAHEY which is all over our TVs already.

I'm not sure that the comment about racism will chime for the men who get to see yet images of attractive women with their clothes off being brutalised?

The comments about what is deemed attractive in western patriarchy as well - the point being that the black woman wants to violently destroy the image of the white blonde woman - I get that too. But the white blonde woman is a subject of the same sex based oppression, should the ultimate target of this stuff not be the man? Squishing white women is well and good but is there nothing to be said for the white men? Is it because white women are an easier target than white men or is it because it's sexy to sexually brutalise women? Because if it was a white man naked and being tortured that would without a doubt be way way more shocking - too shocking really.

I mean if what we need is more white women being sexually brutalised by all sorts of people then given that this is already a mainstay in mainstream TV, how much do we need before the message gets across? And why are white men not subject to any of this?

Holowiwi would you have been comfortable if the person who she kidnapped and brutalised in this way was the same looks but age 10 say?

Because the privilege point is the same, and the benefiting from the accountant is the same.

Unless we know that the woman in the video was complicit in the theft?

I still think that having her naked and strung up and making it "sexy" is more to do with the fact that this imagery is generally popular than to do with any more complex points? Or am I giving her too little credit? Or whoever had the idea for the video?

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.

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.

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!

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.

Rihanna sorry spelling there

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.

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 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!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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