Saturday, May 11, 2013
In Response to 'So Awful'
I think that Violence against men is a huge problem too. There most likely isn't a "ex-boyfriend" target, but there are tons of examples of music where violence against men is made to look 'humorous' or even justified. I'm going to post a few examples.
The first is from Pink. Although the video is supposed to pay homage to Steven Kings "Misery" the way that it is done is supposed to be comical. If the roles of Pink and her boyfriend were reversed how would this hold up? Wouldn't there be a public out cry against it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eocCPDxKq1o
The next is from Martina McBride. This song is about a women who burns down her house after being abused by her husband. It also alludes to the husband dying in the fire. Is killing someone justifiable because they hit you? The song mentions that people in the town knew that the husband was evil, so it would have been possible for the wife and daughter to get help without killing someone and without sending the daughter to a county home because the mother is in jail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPpAZ9_qAw
The next song is from the Dixie Chicks. This song is about a women who is abused by her husband to the extent where she does get a divorce, but again he beats her. The victims bestfriend comes back and they decide to kill the husband. They are successful but they way that is portrayed again is comical, when is killing someone funny? In any instance? I don't know about you but I'm starting to see a double standard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7gNf_9njs
This song is from Carrie Underwood. It's about a women who finds her boyfriend is cheating on her, so she destroys his car. People watching the video probably think, "wow, she got him" where in reality she's probably going to get a law suit. This is suggesting that it's okay for women to do this to men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8
Miranda Lambert sings this song about killing a spouse after he beat her. He's getting out of jail and she is going to greet him by shooting him dead. Lambert's family growing up would often take in women who had been abused by men. Often times in her songs if she covers a song about a women being abused she will switch the lyrics so men are actually the ones being abused.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajoI8X8Ys94
Again, we are killing men because they have cheated on a women.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vyZeF_DLq4
This song is from Lily Allen. Although it is funny and catchy, the video shows how she had her cheating boyfriend beaten up, his apartment sacked, how she fed him laxatives and then ruined his job by destroying the records that he DJ's with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxDrVUrSvI
This next pair of videos are from Lady GaGa, the first is Paparazzi where she kills her boyfriend after he subsequently attempted to kill her. She poisons him. The video does show her leaving the mansion and heading to jail, but the newspaper headlines say, "she's innocent" and "we love her again" both of which give her crime a positive reinforcement. The next part, Telephone Ft. Beyonce shows the two of them poisoning Beyonces boyfriend and most of the people in the restaurant. The video even gives the recipe for the poison. The police at the end of the video are looking for them, but they just keep running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2smz_1L2_0
I think I have supplied enough examples. I believe that songs and music videos like these have more influence over a target that someone can purchase from the NRA. These videos and songs play constantly on VH1, MTV and the Radio. They are far more accessible to all generations of men and women rather than just a target that someone chooses to purchase, sometimes you don't have an option to the radio station.
All violence is wrong it doesn't matter if its women against women, man against man, man against women, or women against men.
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I don't disagree with your post by any means. However, these are all songs and aren't necessarily real life. Violence against women is a world epidemic and there are many causes and advocacy for this issue. No one is trying to belittle violence against men or anyone else. But, it can't be denied that violence against women is affecting women worldwide and in a lot of places it isn't coming to an end. All of these examples are songs on the radio, pretty much all in the US. This doesn't affect all of the other areas in the world where violence against women is still one of the biggest issues in society (for example, many areas in the Middle East). Violence against men does exist, but it undeniable that violence against women is the real epidemic that needs to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteI used songs that were mostly popular in the US because I believe that we should focus on solving issues in the US. You also won't find much music about abuse in Muslim and Middle Eastern countries because their media is highly censored. And if I found a song from a different nation, you wouldn't be able to understand it, and would people really take the time to translate it? Different cultures also have different ideas of what violence is. Many people would consider the wearing of Hijabs or the Chadari is oppressive and considered abuse, when it is part of their religious doctrine. This point also reminds me of something my English teacher often talked about. He discussed "hate crimes" a lot. He thought that label as erroneous because he said, what crime is not done out of hate? All violence needs to stop. Violence against men is also under reported because men are afraid to say that they are being beaten and verbally abused by a women.
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