{"id":197,"date":"2016-04-22T22:50:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T02:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/?p=197"},"modified":"2016-04-22T22:50:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T02:50:11","slug":"rihanna-defying-cultural-norms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/uncategorized\/rihanna-defying-cultural-norms\/","title":{"rendered":"Rihanna: Defying Cultural Norms?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rihanna - S&amp;M\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KdS6HFQ_LUc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 2011 Rihanna released a music video for her song \u201cS&amp;M\u201d that was subsequently banned in eleven countries and restricted on YouTube, and some radio stations listed the song under the alternate title \u201cCome On.\u201d The video provoked general shock and outrage for its suggestive content about sexual sadomasochism. This reaction is understandable, at first. People are shocked by Rihanna\u2019s vulgarity, and our society is uncomfortable with the concept of nonstandard sex existing in the mainstream. However, we should look past the shock novelty of her \u201cchains and whips,\u201d and consider her message, which isn\u2019t bad. It might even be liberating.<\/p>\n<p>Popular culture has often been a kind of carnival, like the medieval romps Bakhtin describes in <em>Rabelais and His World<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Carnival celebrated temporary liberation from the prevailing truth and from the established order; it marked the suspension of all hierarchical rank, privileges, norms, and prohibitions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ordinary people set aside the usual rules and hierarchies and, in fits of liberating bad taste, rebel against (or temporarily take the place of) their kings and bosses and masters. There is no distinction between performers and audience members. Semi-lawlessness and debauchery rein. Social norms\u2014beauty standards, etc.\u2014are disposed of. In two words, Mardi Gras.<\/p>\n<p>Oftentimes, popular culture is <em>not<\/em> a depiction of carnival. Sometimes it is a depiction of an <em>anti<\/em>-carnival where even in 2016 artists can make millions perpetuating social hierarchies through racism, homophobia, and misogyny. Just take Selena Gomez\u2019 \u201cGood For You.\u201d Gomez sings \u201cI just wanna look good for you, good for you\u201d and A$AP Rocky then raps \u201cYou look good, girl, you know you did good, don&#8217;t you?,\u201d unabashedly marginalizing women as objects men can show off by suggesting a woman\u2019s purpose is to look good for her man.<\/p>\n<p>Or take \u201cWork From Home\u201d by Fifth Harmony. Each of the five girls is singing to persuade a guy to stay home from work to have sex with her. \u201cI know you gotta\/Put in them hours, I&#8217;mma make it harder\/I&#8217;m sending pic after picture, I&#8217;mma get you fired.\u201d In addition to enforcing the stereotypes of men working and women staying home, the song dives further into the traditional gender roles, saying, \u201cbaby you\u2019re the boss at home,\u201d indicating that men are the heads of households. And if that isn\u2019t enough, watch the video. It goes so far it\u2019s a parody of itself. Both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s outfits would not be out of place in a costume shop under the label \u201csexy construction worker.\u201d It\u2019s actually funny. Men work a construction scene, with plenty of slow-motion shots that show off their oiled-up abs. The women of Fifth Harmony sing the melody, moving their hips provocatively, presumably there to distract the men. Innuendos abound: one of the girls unwinds a tape measure several inches and looks suggestively at one of the workers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fifth Harmony - Work from Home (Official Video) ft. Ty Dolla $ign\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5GL9JoH4Sws?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Back to Rihanna\u2014specifically, her new single \u201cWork\u201d (which, as I write this, is sitting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100). Almost nothing she sings is discernible but Drake, her feature, auto-tunes these gems: \u201cYou need to get done, done, done, done at work, come over\/\u2026\/Now you need to forward and give me all the\/work.\u201d It\u2019s possible different listeners will have different interpretations of the word <em>work<\/em> here, but I think it\u2019s reasonable to assume it\u2019s not work like <em>work it<\/em>, and there\u2019s no escaping the fact that a man telling a woman to give him all the work is currently at Billboard #1. And how about \u201cTake a Bow\u201d? At first listen it\u2019s a female empowerment anthem; she\u2019s asserting herself and standing up to a guy who cheated on her. In the meantime, though, she manages to further drill into our heads traditional male stereotypes, this time about how men should not express emotion: \u201cYou look so dumb right now\/Standin&#8217; outside my house\/Tryin&#8217; to apologize\/You&#8217;re so ugly when you cry\/(Please)\/Just cut it out.\u201d We hear a strong, independent woman, but we hear her telling us men look dumb when they cry and apologize.<\/p>\n<p>Rihanna is baffling because many of her numbers are indeed carnivalesque, and some of the songs even contradict themselves! I\u2019ll take a step back. What counts as carnivalesque? If the central qualification is the concept of the \u2018king fool,\u2019 of the dissolution of the usual hierarchical boundaries and social norms, then who are the kings who become fools and the fools who become kings? In Rihanna\u2019s case, it\u2019s usually a matter of race and gender. So white people, and men, and white men, are her oppressors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHard\u201d is one of these contradictory songs. The carnivalesque messages are more involved: the hook, \u201cI\u2019m so hard,\u201d is unique in itself because a woman wouldn\u2019t normally sing that line. The video (set at a military base) portrays Rihanna as a drill sergeant with the infantrymen snapping to attention, doing her bidding. She sings, \u201cThey can say whatever, I&#8217;ma do whatever\u201d as men submit and snap to attention. The rest of the video includes scenes of Rihanna participating in activities stereotypically masculine, like playing poker with the guys in the barracks. She also sings about being at an \u201call white party wearing all black,\u201d a metaphor for race. The song\/video combo is not perfect\u2014Rihanna\u2019s expected sexualization, and the possibility exists that a sexy woman taking control could be viewed as a fantasy\u2014but it\u2019s a step forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBitch Better Have My Money\u201d takes another step toward blurring social boundaries. Margaret Corvid of <em>New Statesman<\/em> writes, \u201cRihanna\u2019s BBHMM video has horrified many feminists\u2014but I saw an empowering BDSM fantasy.\u201d<sup>1<\/sup> Before Corvid gets into the sexual aspects of the video, she describes how this song intimately depicts Rihanna\u2019s anger, set off by the accountancy firm that cheated her out of millions, at the patriarchy\u2019s \u201cfinancial violation\u201d of women, and the fact that critics were disgusted because society does not take well to female revenge. The video is based around the kidnapping and submission of an elite white woman by a diverse trio. There\u2019s Rihanna, there\u2019s another white woman, and there\u2019s another who could possibly be described as a biker chick, but she isn\u2019t sexualized, she\u2019s overweight, and her outfit includes many piercings, tight black clothes under a trench coat, and a spiked choker. All three look like thugs. They tie up the elite white woman, strip her, and take her to a barn, a yacht, and then a house and force her to binge drink, smoke marijuana, and participate in a variety of degrading acts. But Corvid\u2019s (and my) point is that she seems to like it. She never fights back. She hides from the police when they show up. So in \u201cBBHMM\u201d Rihanna advocates lawless deviant sex between four women, and the placement of that high-class white woman below (the case could be made for <em>equal to<\/em>) the thugs. The king (queen?) is willingly made a fool.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money (Explicit)\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B3eAMGXFw1o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The best example of Rihanna\u2019s carnival side is S&amp;M. If \u201cBBHMM\u201d is an implicit BDSM fantasy, \u201cS&amp;M\u201d is an explicit one. The first lines of the song are:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Feels so good being bad<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no way I&#8217;m turning back<\/p>\n<p>Now the pain is for pleasure<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Cause nothing can measure&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And if the lyrics aren\u2019t overtly carnivalesque (BDSM is not inherently so), the video sure is. There are three alternate settings, the first being <em>Press v. Rihanna<\/em>: men in suits drag her through a door into a pressroom. The journalists are ball-gagged and Rihanna is wrapped in latex, and it\u2019s not too far of a stretch to see the separation between them (she\u2019s standing on a stage, they\u2019re sitting facing her) as that divide between the performers and audience that\u2019s so anti-carnival, and the subsequent participation of the press in Rihanna\u2019s fantasy as the wiping away of that divide. The journalists aren\u2019t attractive, either. There\u2019s a fat balding white guy, a fat black woman, and less overweight people of all flavors. The second scene includes as good of a \u2018king fool\u2019 representation as I\u2019ve seen: Rihanna dressed as an aristocrat walking a dog, except the dog isn\u2019t a dog, he\u2019s a tied up white guy (Perez Hilton, a celebrity), and he likes it. The third scene is a costume room, and again, there are people of all shapes, sizes, and colors dressing up in weird clothes doing sexual things. In a particularly illuminating split-second, Rihanna is dancing on the lap of a fat white man with tape all over his body, and he has an excited grin on his face. All three scenes present fantasies of bridged divides and blurred lines.<\/p>\n<p>Are society\u2019s values carnivalesque, though? Sure, culture sometimes portrays that scenario, but why, then, are so many of the best-selling, top-rated, and most listened-to songs out there so abhorrently misogynistic or racist? S&amp;M was restricted and even banned in some areas.<sup>2<\/sup> Also, so many of these songs are so catchy that catchiness alone isn\u2019t a good enough excuse for liking one. If someone is offended by lyrics, they have hundreds of other catchy songs to choose from. We listen to the marginalizing stuff, so in some sense we must hold those values, but we also listen to songs like S&amp;M\u2014it\u2019s one of Rihanna\u2019s top hits of all time. We as a society are undecided as to whether we support the concept of the carnival.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t think for a second that this stuff doesn\u2019t matter. Music is central to society and culture. The average teenager listens to music for almost four hours per day. 84% of American adults use the internet. Running through poor, rural Vermont, I passed two guys sitting on the porch of their trailer listening to Flo Rida. Song lyrics and YouTube views matter: the small amount of research that\u2019s been done on the effects of these media has suggested that the media do affect behavior,<sup>3<\/sup> and we are being desensitized to concepts like white male supremacy.<\/p>\n<p>Rihanna is in a position of wide influence, and she\u2019s giving us the hint of a message that destroying hierarchical boundaries is the way to go. If she really believed and cared about our supposed deep-down desires to break those boundaries, I doubt she\u2019d let Drake tell her to give him all the work. She\u2019s giving us both sides of the coin, and she represents our society\u2019s indecision about whether to break down our hierarchies. Yes, much of her output is decidedly anti-carnival, but so is everyone else\u2019s. As morally questionable it is, anti-carnival messages are the norm, the baseline, just as marginalization has been central to society for as long as it has existed. Rihanna\u2019s attempts to go against that trend are breaths of fresh air. Bluntly, they\u2019re worth the other garbage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> Corvid, Margaret, 2015. Rihanna\u2019s BBHMM video has horrified many feminists\u2014but I saw an empowering BDSM fantasy. <em>New Statesman.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/culture\/2015\/07\/rihannas-bbhmm-has-horrified-many-feminists-i-saw-empowering-bdsm-fantasy\">http:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/culture\/2015\/07\/rihannas-bbhmm-has-horrified-many-feminists-i-saw-empowering-bdsm-fantasy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> Niemiec, Charlsie, 2011 for CollegeCandy.com. What\u2019s the Big Deal About Rihanna\u2019s S&amp;M? <em>Huffington Post.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/college-candy\/whats-the-big-deal-about-_b_819878.html\">http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/college-candy\/whats-the-big-deal-about-_b_819878.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><sup>3<\/sup> Inappropriate Content in Music. <em>Media Smarts.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mediasmarts.ca\/music\/inappropriate-content-music\">http:\/\/mediasmarts.ca\/music\/inappropriate-content-music<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2011 Rihanna released a music video for her song \u201cS&amp;M\u201d that was subsequently banned in eleven countries and restricted on YouTube, and some radio stations listed the song under the alternate title \u201cCome On.\u201d The video provoked general shock &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/uncategorized\/rihanna-defying-cultural-norms\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}