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'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.

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?!!

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!

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

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".

"This way it's like "ooh isn't violence sexy"

But this is a big part of mainstream american (and maybe lots of other) cultures isn't it. I know it is in the US because I consume a lot of their output (like lots of other British people I suspect).

I actually found this way less gratuitous than a lot of bog standard TV I have seen. At least it was supposed to be shocking, IYSWIM. Not just "ooh we can get a mainly naked dead raped teen in here that's be cool to look at while we move on to the next part of the plot" or whatever.

Don't know why I sound like I'm defending it TBH but it's just a natural progression out of everything and doesn't feel very "different" really I don't think.

I also take it as a personal story rather than a wider comment on race but that's just me, my read of it.

I watch a lot of US TV but not stuff like this. I have seen some CSI but never anything that was handled this way. I watch Body of Proof, the Good Wife, that type of thing. I saw one episode of Dexter and didn't like the characters but I gather that was quite grim.

The only thing that has made the "sexy violence" thing a genre, that I know of - of course there will be tons of stuff I don't know of - is Game of Thrones.

I must admit I watched the video expecting the outrage to be a bit Daily Fail but it is quite repulsive. Maybe I just think that because it's not my normal view, but thank goodness it isn't. The only Tarantino I've seen is Pulp Fiction.

I don't think there should be a rule about what video Rihanna can make - if she wants to make this, I wouldn't "ban it" from ever being seen. I just find it depressing if society is now finding violence so much fun. The mind boggles.

I abhor the video, but the wife isn't dead, if you watch carefully when the open the trunk her eyes move and she's shivering.

I wouldn't "ban it" from ever being seen

Nor me. This has been an interesting discussion.

even if the wife is still alive, it doesn't make me feel any better about the video. In fact, I'd quite like to be dead rather than try and get over being tortured like that!!

The Black Girl Dangerous blog makes a useful point about white women frequently crapping on black women, one that is not expressed sufficiently often. But unfortunately, although Mia can be brilliant, she also has a tendency to ignore large elephants in the room sometimes. This is one such occasion. This video is part of the phenomenon a pp mentioned, of portraying sexual violence against women as titillating. Which does none of us any good. And things that are bad for women generally are almost always the worst for black women. I presume that's an uncontroversial point to make. They get the shittiest end of the stick. We know that black women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, to be seen as easy prey, and not be believed when they report it. Eroticisation of sexual violence within popular culture contributes to attitudes like this.

Sure, in this case, the person making money from the video and therefore benefitting in the short term is a black woman. But it's contributing to a process that, whilst certainly hurting white women, hurts black women even more. Something that the BGD article has entirely failed to address.

I've just read the blog and other article linked here

the blog mentions standard stuff of revenge movies - I'm thinking what the heck is everyone watching?!

For me, the most disturbing thing is that men will enjoy watching the naked women being violently abused. This is something which used to be a more niche type of porn, but is now becoming acceptable and mainstream, and therefore reinforcing to men that it is ok now to enjoy watching naked women being abused.

It reminds me of Seth Macfarlane at the Oscars a few years ago, who sang a song "we saw your boobs", about all the women's breasts he has seen in films, even though some of the women whose boobs he saw were being abused or raped!!

While I know there are men who enjoy more violent sex/abuse/ porn, is it really a big thing? ( I do understand the stats on violent crime, so maybe it is)

There have been a number of comments on this thread about men getting off to this video. I've watched the video now, and speaking as a man, I didn't find it titilating. I found it weird, the violence is one thing and the woman being topless is another but together it just seems strange to me. Pointless I suppose.

If someone was aroused by videos of sexual violence there are much better (worse) videos on the net that are just as easy to find.

Mide7 - yes, but you are probably not an average man as you are posting in the Feminism section of Mumsnet!

Yes innocent I understand the stats, as I said in the above post. As you pointed out a lot of porn on the net is abusive so why would men be knocking one out over a music video. I find those comments strange.

Also I might get ripped apart here but it doesn't strike me as sexual abuse, at least in the same way as se porn is at least, it strikes me as toture with a sexual element. As in the women's topless. Unless I missed some.

Thanks cheese I'll take that as a compliment.

I totally agree that white women (as a group) are opressors of black people. And men as a group oppress women of all backgrounds.

But none of that makes torture ok. Torture is not ok. It is not forgiveable nor understandable in some circumstances. It is just wrong.

Seeing men being tortured or opressed or raped or beaten or suffering DA would not make me feel any better about women being oppressed and abused.

I would much prefer if no one was oppressed, tortured, raped or abused.

I don't want revenge I want equality.

"No what I am saying is that the woman wasn't the real target"

FGS, the majority of the torture that you see is directed at her yet you decide to minimize it, justify and excuse it.

Look the video is about torturing, humilating and laughing at another human being. In what kind of fucked up world can you um and ah and pretend like it's not a problem? It doesn't matter whether it's a man or woman being tortured it's still grim, but when depictions of one are far more common than the other you have to ask why? Why is it seen as acceptable? Why is it in demand?

If Rihanna wants to make a comment about racial privilege there are far more intelligent ways to do it.

"No what I am saying is that the woman wasn't the real target"

To me that makes it worse. Woman kidnapped and tortured for shits and giggles by other women because they want THE MAN to cough up the money. If felt like the woman was being treated as a possession by both parties in the video, something that the accountant could be deprived of, and something not valued by the accountant.

The Accountant only got whatever happened to him off camera because he refused to pay up.If he had paid up, the woman would have still been tortured but he'd have been unhurt apart from his bank balance.