From Salon:
The Parents Television Council was unsurprisingly swift to condemn the video, with its “implied rape scene with a man whom she later guns down in an act of premeditated murder.” And co-founder of Industry Ears and a former BET music programmer Paul Porter lambasted the video, calling it “an inexcusable, shock-only, shoot-and-kill theme song.” He continued, “In my 30 years of viewing BET, I have never witnessed such a cold, calculated execution of murder in primetime. Viacom’s standards and practices department has reached another new low…. If Chris Brown shot a woman in his new video and BET premiered it, the world would stop. Rihanna should not get a pass and BET should know better. The video is far from broadcast-worthy.” BET has, in the recent past, deemed other controversial videos unsuitable for airing, including Kanye West’s creepy horror opus “Monster.” So why does Rihanna get a pass?
“Man Down” isn’t necessarily the sort of thing you’d want your first grader rocking out to. It’s not, for that matter, a brilliant song. But it’s entirely possible for content to be intended for mature audiences without it being “inexcusable.” Creatively expressing the theme of violence is not the same as promoting it. Music isn’t always about dancing till the break of day; if it were, we’d have no “Stan,” no “Rape Me.” And if you think those songs condone killing your girlfriend or begging for sexual assault, think a little harder. “Man Down” doesn’t, like the Dixie Chicks’s “Goodbye Earl,” take a celebratory view of icing an abuser. Nor does it even depict a warped crime of passion, like Guns n’ Roses’s classic “I Used to Love Her” or Eminem’s notorious “Kim.” Instead, it’s far more in the tradition of “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Janie Got a Gun” or “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” — songs that explore the strange horror of one’s own capacity for violence when pushed to the limit. Rihanna sings with both deep remorse and a self-preserving fear of punishment, “I know it wasn’t right … Coulda been somebody’s son, and I took his heart when I pulled out that gun.”
…and Rihanna responds:
Are you kidding? I have seen MUCH more violent videos, without the socially redeeming reasons behind the stories. I think BET just wants the publicity for THEMSELVES. Also, it is composed of so many followers who call themselves conservative Christians; i.e., verbal loudmouths touting the sinful nature of street music & other media.
"Don't rape people, or something bad might happen to you." works for me as well. Whether it's prison, being murdered by the woman (or man) you raped, or being beaten to a pulp by witnesses – if you think that it's a likely outcome, perhaps you'll be less likely to rape.
Oh, and if Chris Brown made a video in which he gets raped, and later shoots and kills the man who did it – would BET's reaction be the same?
"Don't rape people."
Yeah, pretty much. But apparently it needs to be said again and again.
(My first encounter with "poor rapists" logic was back in the early eighties, and depressingly it's still around.)