I've always been honest about my love for pop music. Despite its crystal-clear origins (the corporate record industry's americanization/homogenization of what the entire world listens to via mass marketing and endless auto tuning), I can't help but get up and dance to my girls (Gaga, Ri-Ri and Ke$ha, to name a few).
But even if my guiltiest pleasure takes shape in the form of recycled style and painfully simple lyrics, one of my most crucial concerns regarding the entire culture itself is the women who become involved.
Let's take a look at Rihanna's latest video for her smash-hit "S&M" as a particularly fascinating example. In the music video itself -- a video about a song that is already implying sexual themes in its title -- Rihanna is wrapped behind a giant sheet of plastic in a white dress sprinkled with labels applied and emphasized by the mainstream media ("Barbados" and "slut" are two of many). Rihanna breaks through this elastic barrier and whips the reporters into shape, literally; she parades around in sexual clothing and plays with the press as her own S & M objects of pleasure.
This, on one hand, seems empowering. And perhaps it is. Rihanna is exposing the world to the series of unavoidable identities she receives from the paparazzi in their endless pursuit to destroy the border between private and public life, and decides to not only fight back, but to so without cultural limitations under the name of "purity." She has fun in her sexy costumes and with her provocative toys. For Rihanna and female viewers, it might seem rewarding to watch another women express and articulate these kinds of desires.
At the same time, we have to keep in mind an important question: is Rihanna being sexy or sexualized? We tend to mistake the patent objectification of women as a branch of liberation. Women aren't necessarily being sexually empowered if the male gaze dictates her actions. So, then, whose eyes are being targeted in this video?
While I can't be certain on whether the video was directly conceived by men wanting to stimulate male thoughts, I can point out that Rihanna's consumption of bananas is suggestively phallic, and her infantilizing moment as a makeup-caked, doll-like girl tied-up near the end renders the entire experience alarmingly sexualized. It's hard to claim Rihanna is declaring herself sexy when an entire cast of agents, directors, fashion/makeup artists and the pressures of fame itself all have a say in how she should pursue this video. Is that the same thing as assigning oneself the ability to be and feel sexy? I don't think so.
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