The following music video is a favorite of mine due to how the provocative and unsettling images throughout the video challenge the viewer's notion of gender, while challenging the listener's perception of the song itself. When the single was first released feminists and censors were horrified by the title "Smack My Bitch Up". Of course, these strong words had the public assuming that British band The Prodigy was promoting violence toward women. However, when the music video was aired on MTV (in the days when MTV actually did that) its story gave the song a different meaning all together. As we follow the lead character's life through their own eyes we experience the mayhem of sex, drugs, and violence, instigated by this faceless "monster". All the while, we believe the person is male, and it is not until the last second of the video that we are shocked to find out who this person really is.
Deb Eskie
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2 comments:
hi..
actually, although the person was revealed to be a woman at the end, or at least femme, the last scene was pretty much seemed like than one of many soft porn straight male fantasies about two women getting together. hmmm..how could this video have shaken up gender a little more? i think it needed more than a punch line. check this video out
-sam smiley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFJnS_KXOVc&feature=PlayList&p=E39CE30655733E90&index=8
Point. However, it is not meant to revolutionize gender, but challenge gender perspective. Narrative perspective, for that matter. The lead character is assumed to be male, and we are not meant to sympathize with him. However, what happens to your idea of the story if you know that a woman can be this violent and horrendous? I would not view it as a sex fantasy only because to me it is not sexy. But yes, it can appeal to "horny" straight men who don't see beneath the surface.
-Deb Eskie
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