Rant-ish? On Kanye’s ‘Monster’
TRIGGER WARNING: Video NSFW, includes imagery of violence toward women
By Guest Contributor Naima Ramos-Chapman, cross-posted from PostBourgie
Decided to throw this up here before the label undoubtedly takes it down: Kanye West’s leaked video “Monster.”
Soon there will be a host of blogs that pick a part every scene to explain what Kanye is trying to tell us, but here is the short version: there are a lot of dead, eroticized women- dead model-esque women hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers, dead women lying in bed made to pose in “sexy” positions, dead women body parts lying around a mansion…there just seems to be dead women everywhere.
But to be fair, there were also women who are seemingly alive and kicking, depicted as man-eating zombies, screaming banshees and werewolves.
The dichotimization of women as it pertains to race; in the video, white women are predominantly locked into roles of subordination to the point of gruesome lifelessness while black women are cast as aggressive, angry and threatening sexual beasts.
Nicki Minaj’s scenes are mild compared to rest because A) they have no corpses of any kind and B) the self-interrogation part can be seen as “edgy” and “different.” But, that would be too kind. What sort of internal conflict can be that deep if the two versions of yourself that are having issues with one another — dominatrix Nicki versus barbie Nickie — are also ones that readily appeal to male-fantasies?
The imagery is all there and deep down we know it’s all wrong and sounds awfully similar to the modern patriarchal views of women today. Upon watching it my sister and I got to talking about how surely controversial it was but also about how unsurprisingly typical the video is — considering the source, but more importantly considering the culture we’re living in.
Here’s EW.com’s Simon Vozick-Levinson:
These are intentionally ghastly images, meant to disturb. In addition to being a fantastic posse cut, “Monster” is all about ugliness. West’s chorus proclaims that “Everybody knows I’m a motherf—ing monster.” Now you can see that metaphor played out quite literally. But to what end? Images of models who look like they’ve been murdered are nothing new in the fashion world. America’s Next Top Model centered a whole episode around this morbid theme in 2007, drawing deserved criticism from feminist commentators. Jezebel.com elaborated on “The Problem With Fashion’s Obsession With Death” (link contains NSFW images) over a year ago. Glamorizing violence against women this way as we enter 2011 isn’t just potentially pretty offensive to a lot of people — it’s played out and boring. I expect better from an artist as boundlessly creative as Kanye West.
I agree for the most part except for the part about expecting better. Better? Really? From Mr. West? And this is when I get upset. Why every time upon watching a new Yeezy video do we get pissed but then go back to rap-syncing My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy from start to finish-until of course another single gets video treatment, and women are yet again reduced to props on a set.
Why is it that we wait for graphic visuals to accompany graphic lyrics that project women in a less-than-favorable light? Why be shocked when we already heard the song before? The lyrics in “Monster” seemed just as offensive toward women before they were translated on to film:
Kanye
so mommy best advice is to get on top of this
have you ever had sex with a pharoah
I put the p-ssy in a sarcophagus
now she claiming I bruise her esophagus
head of the class and she just want a swallowship
(snip)
Jay-Z
none of you n-ggas have seen the carnage that I’ve seen
I still here fiends scream in my dream
murder murder in black convertibles
I kill a block I murder avenues
rape and pillage a village, women and children
everybody wanna know what my achilles heel is
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