Man Down by Rihanna
Oh the controversy! Mostly, I’m just impressed Rihanna is able to pick off one dude out of a crowd with that tiny little hand gun. Surely you need a sniper rifle for that kind of shot?
Look, I really don’t like Rihanna. Does anyone remember when she was a teenager who had just hit the scene? So young and innocent. And then the marketing guys got their hands on her and (next to Nelly Furtado) she’s become the most disgusting example of how sex sells in a pop music marketplace. And I believe her songs have gotten steadily worse as she bares more skin (don’t get me started on S&M), and this tune is no exception.
The clip however, I do like. I think the point could have been made in a stronger way, and Rihanna herself could have been a lot more eloquent while she attempted to defend it, but I like the controversy it caused and I like the idea that it was made anyway, despite what Rihanna’s crack marketing team knew would happen.
The video itself gets a little boring. It takes a long time to start, to get into the swing of things, and for the most part it just looks like a fun club dance video. That time could have been used so much better to build the relationship between Rihanna and her attacker. Because while I think they dealt with the actual act of rape in a very decent manner - not showing too much on screen though the audience still understands the emotions involved - it could have been so much more, and opened the door to other issues surrounding rape, if the guy had been a close friend and not just some guy in a club.
The setting is probably the smartest thing about this video. The controversy would have been a thousand times more if it had been set in America, with all the debates surrounding gun laws as well as rape and female sexuality. Setting the clip in her native homeland though is genius because it means no one else has the authority to comment on how life works in Barbados.
OK, so the waterfall scenes I can kind of forgive. I get it. She’s cleansing herself of the rape. Or of the murder. Whatever - water, it’s cleansing, right? Meaningful. However the weird military/bra outfit that Rihanna dances in just randomly spliced into shots? The clip could have done without that, and could probably have been more powerful if the producers had taken a more serious approach to the tone.
Geeze, who’d have thought I’d have so much to say about a Rihanna clip? Look, don’t shoot anyone ok? No matter what they did to you. Tell someone and take the appropriate actions. In my mind, something as heinous as rape deserves revenge and they’ve portrayed this at level that is easily understood - but don’t take it literally, ok.
