Sunday, November 24, 2013
Rihanna's "Pour It Up" video: demeaning or empowering?
I came across this article in The Feminist Wire a few weeks ago, and I thought it was very relevant to several topics that we've covered in class. In this article, Muna Mire defends Rihanna's "Pour It Up" video, which received a lot of negative backlash when it was first released. Critics of the video argued that it was demeaning to women, and that it set a bad example for Rihanna's young fans. This critique is similar to what Myrlie Evers pointed out during our Q&A session. However, Mire presents a different take on the video, by asserting that the video is actually a show of power, of "raw female sexual agency." Mire points out that the video does not feature any men, and that Rihanna's position as both a consumer and performer at the strip club makes the video very queer. One of the sentences that stood out to me most when Mire writes, " ...it seems that it’s only female artists who are asked to serve, over and over again, as role models for young people. There is a clear double standard, and it almost always comes back to policing women’s sexuality in the public spotlight." I thought this was an interesting point because it brought me back to our discussions of Sophia Vergara and Lupe Vélez, and whether they have any responsibility for portraying Latinas in a non-stereoptypical way. As one of the few well-known female artists in hip hop, I felt that this article on Rihanna was worth discussing, because it brought up a lot of good points regarding the ways in which race and gender influence the perception of hip hop artists, and of celebrities more generally.
Do you agree with Muna Mire, that Rihanna's video does not demean women, but rather showcases their power and sexual agency? Should celebrities be expected to serve as role models for their fans?
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3 comments:
I definitely understand the point that Muna Mire brings up in terms of Rihanna’s sexual agency as a powerful woman in the industry; however, I just can’t buy into that logic. Don’t get me wrong, I love Rihanna’s music and to an extent appreciate her “no fucks given” attitude, but after a certain point her image and persona sometimes speak more than the music itself. I do recognize she doesn’t have to be a role model for younger girls (something I agree with Mire about), which she has publicly stated many times, but I’m not sure to what extent Rihanna is fully aware of her image beyond what her publicist is paid to tell her. Yet, I still feel it’s a responsibility in terms of popular culture, to the likings of what Myrlie Evers-Williams said, why do we spend millions of dollars creating insignificant videos and degrading music, when we could be changing the way our country and policies work.
Rihanna specifically chose to do a video in this way as a reaction to Miley Cyrus and her “twerking.” In a behind the scenes video, it is revealed that not only was the video shot spontaneously, as in certain scenes were being added last minute, but I believe this was Rihanna’s specific reaction to Miley Cyrus’ “twerking” when Rihanna says “My bitches twerk. No basic zone, no basics” short for the term no “basic bitches” which is, at least according to Urban Dictionary, a “a girl who thinks she is awesome when she really isn't.” I can appreciate the question and answer aspect of Rihanna’s video because the women she chooses to help her portray this fantastical artsy strip-club environment are women of strength and all different types of (athletic) women’s bodies unlike Miley and her long checklist of cultural appropriations and immaturity.
I also have an issue with the statement the “music video was made under the direct creative control of a woman and there are actually, literally, no men in it. The male gaze is nonexistent here, or exists as an afterthought.” I do not believe this is true, mainly because Rihanna knows very well what the outcome of her music and corresponding music videos will do because using Mire to explain she is “using what [she’s got] to get what [she] want[s].”
Ultimately, I’m not sure what my stance is on this video. I love the pop culture response to Miley, but still find it problematic, but better than most music videos out there that represent women in a similar light.
Whoa reading this along with Dominique's blog post was really helpful. Lupe Fiasco in 'Bitch Bad' isn't just criticizing women performers' portrayal but it is a part of what he's criticizing.
I find it hard to agree with Mire's points about Rihanna's video. While she does make a valid point that women's sexuality is policed by society too much, I think she fails to put Rihanna's video in context of previous rap videos and their exploitation of african american women. Rihanna's video gains nothing artistically by using strippers or showing them shake their asses while submerged in water, she is instead referencing a plethora of rap videos that take women and use their bodies masculinize the singers. Rihanna is not showing us anything new, nothing we haven't seen before. If she was offering something new, something different from the norm I might be interested in Mire's point, but instead it just appears to be a sad echo of the past with women being treated as objects and decoration to rappers
music. Rihanna doesn't have to break any stereotypes if she doesn't want to, but at the same time she can't say she is helping anything just because she is a female singer. She has to choose one side or the other.
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