Sometimes we save up submissions on a particular topic so we can show several examples at once. And today, ladies and gents, I thought I’d present a few items that, to greater or lesser extent, glamorize brutality toward women or use images of dead women as props. Yes, I know — happy day!
On the less graphic end of the scale, way back in June 2010, Rei sent in these two trailers for the A&E show The Glades, where women exist just as props who manage to remain sexy, despite the deadness:
And some time ago Stefan Mesch, who writes for Die Zeit, let us know about the promotional website for Bret Easton Ellis’s new novel, Imperial Bedrooms. The website includes an interactive game where you’re a casting director and interact with a young woman who wants a part. From the homepage:
So theoretically, you have a choice — you can “exploit your position” or “do the right thing,” which presumably means not degrading or using a woman just because you can. But as Stefan explains, the options in the game are actually quite limited:
The game gives you options to talk to (and “encourage”) her, but they all lead to abuse, sexual harassment…The game rewards you for harassing the girl, and you’re supposed to drive up your personal score of “evil” by making her submit as much as possible.
Here are your first set of options:
I selected “encourage her.” The game then plays out a few seconds of dialogue and then leads to a second decision point, where I have these choices:
At least the first time I had one option to be a decent human being, other than not hiring her at all. I suppose that, in theory, giving someone booze might be a nice thing to do, but I think in this situation, probably nothing good can come of it. I selected that option; the director encourages her to drink when she doesn’t want to, and to drink more than she wants to. And then…
The “make her strip” option isn’t quite as bad as it might seem; when I chose it, she takes off her cardigan, but nothing else. At that point I felt like I’d pretty much gotten the point of the game, and wasn’t particularly interested in exploring how much of an asshole I could theoretically be, so I quit.
But both of those pale in comparison to our finale, readers. Dmitriy T.M. and Hope H. told us to check out Kanye West’s video for “Monster,” in which, among other things, Kanye casually rearranges the lifeless bodies of two women in bed with him:
Images of dead-looking women’s bodies appear throughout the video (which also features Jay Z and Nicki Minaj). I’m putting the rest of the images after the jump, as they might be particularly upsetting to some readers:
Presumably this isn’t sexist because the video shows sexualized violence of women against men, as well, which totally makes it all ok:
The full video (the language is NSFW):
And as this post at the Feminist Fatale points out, there was even more graphic imagery that didn’t make it into the final video, such as Rick Ross eating from a plate of meat while a woman’s body in lingerie sprawls on the table in front of him, or lingerie-clad women swing from chains around their necks.
So, um…yeah. There’s that: it could have been even more graphic.
UPDATE: In regards to the Kanye video, reader Bagelsan commented,
I don’t think you can just skip the race aspect in Kanye’s video, though. White women were being targeted for violence, but not black/non-white women. That complicates the analysis; I think particular women were chosen to be dead and others were afforded much more power and a strong voice in the video, so I can’t just write it off as a straightforward example of dead ladies = pure titillation.
Comments 35
Bagelsan — January 14, 2011
I don't think you can just skip the race aspect in Kanye's video, though. White women were being targeted for violence, but not black/non-white women. That complicates the analysis; I think particular women were chosen to be dead and others were afforded much more power and a strong voice in the video, so I can't just write it off as a straightforward example of dead ladies = pure titillation. (The blog Racialicious has several posts discussing this, too.)
Keeley — January 14, 2011
Just my perspective, I guess, but I would place the interactive "game" as much worse than the Kanye video. At least the premise of "Monster" is that the narrator is, in fact a horrible a person (a monster). While I'll admit that choosing to portray this through misogyny is incredibly tired, but I would argue that the video is at least less approving/normalizing of the behaviour than the game, which actively encourages the players to participate in the mistreatment of a woman.
Gomi — January 14, 2011
I think the Glades promos are slightly different from the other materials too. They were playing off the established trope of "woman in bikini by the pool" that's been used in every tourism poster, TV or movie for decades, but with the added twist of "Oh, she's dead," because it's a forensic crime show.
Less a glamorizing of dead women or women as props, and more a manipulation of that theme used elsewhere.
Granted, that just pushes the issue back onto those prior representations.
Stephanie — January 14, 2011
I, for one, would be much more interested in The Glades if the woman's body was decomposing with maggots in it. Now THAT would be shocking! And not as sexy? At least that would be my presumption, decomposing body in a bikini=no longer sexy. When will these people learn gross sells? I'd be much more intrigued by an advertisement if it had zombies drinking beer or driving cars than if it had sexy women. You're just embarrassing yourselves by being totally predictable, ad people. Stop it. We're on to your game, and we're to the point that if we see you at a party, we're going to pretend we don't know you, and laugh with our friends about the stupid "guy who's obsessed with naked chicks." Graphic grossness is one of the main reasons I love Bones and fell in love with Fringe (though the latter has not been goring it up lately at all, which is a big disappointment).
Farf — January 14, 2011
How about the lyrics?
"Have you ever had sex with a pharoah
I put the pussy in a sarcophagus
Now she claiming I bruise her esophagus
Head of the class and she just want a swallowship"
"Murder murder in black convertibles
I kill a block I murder avenues
Rape and pillage a village, women and children"
Farf — January 14, 2011
A little better:
http://www.gotchamediablog.com/2011/01/kanye-west-sesame-street-monster-music.html
Jirka — January 14, 2011
I love Bret Easton Ellis (especially American Psycho) and the interactive game seems very clever to me - now I have to buy yet another book by him :) And yes, in Ellis's world, women tend to get abused, raped, tortured, and killed.
Noanodyne — January 15, 2011
Why is it that some posts on here bring out the trolls more than others? This one seems to have brought out the very disturbed trolls.
myles — January 15, 2011
Please put the first Kanye screencap under the cut. It's super triggering on its own.
Beth — January 16, 2011
I have little sociological to add to this discussion, but this seemingly growing trend of representing dead women is really beginning to make me feel uncomfortable.
Blix — April 2, 2012
Morality. Try it sometime.
dann — May 14, 2012
Whereas the last two examples really are disgusting and without a better context, simply plain disgusting (albeit one could yet concur that this is not "glamourizing brutality towards women"), the first example is one of those things that make me just "facepalm" from the exaggerations of some activists.
It's simply not like "women got to be sexy even when dead" or "look, how brutality against women is cool", it's just a matter of taking the viewer by surprise.
To me it seems so obvious that I have a hard time believing that some activists really believe what themselves say. My only two explanations for some types of exaggeration are that they're either unscrupulously exploiting a group of people who is particularly predisposed to feel victimized/persecuted (not necessarily without reason), or the activists have such distorted perspectives themselves; the interpretation that seems more likely is always the worst possible, perhaps not even need a conscious effort to come up with such interpretations, but they may come automatically by virtue of "training" in these circles and also biased exposition to a parcel of reality that provides confirming evidence, such as many/perhaps most "men's rights activists/whiners". And the same is very true of MRAs by the way. It's a vicious circle of over-reaction feeding self-victimization and overreaction.
I don't really care much for this behavior in MRAs or nazis, but for women and minority activists, who are more mainstream groups, this is saddening as it just perpetuates and even creates trauma, instead of healing and empowering.