S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West's "Monster" music video has caused enough controversy to become banned by television network MTV.
Women activists Sharon Haywood and Melinda Tankard put together a petition requesting MTV to pull the controversial video.
“The mainstreaming of videos like this increases desensitized and callous attitudes toward violence against women,” said Reist, one of the campaign originators. “Young people are seeing images and absorbing harmful messages which glamorise misogyny and brutalise women. Women are reduced to sex-doll like playthings. So great is the level of desensitization that the barbaric treatment of women and girls is seen as normal and to be expected. We decided to run this campaign because we wanted to challenge the status quo.” (Statement)
The video’s controversy stems from “Monster” scenes showing the mistreatment of females.
“Monster” is not the usual scantily-clad, hyper-sexualized women washing expensive cars with even more expensive champagne. The video features West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj surrounded by the “sexy” corpses of women in lingerie. Other women dangle from the ceiling by chains. Behind Jay-Z, a dead, naked woman lies with her mouth wide open, bluntly indicating her last act was a sexual one. Ross erotically eats a plate of raw meat from between a female corpse’s legs. And West practically rapes the dead bodies of two women in bed. The message of the video is pretty clear: women are sex objects and it can be erotic when they are killed in violent, sexual ways. (Change)
Additional reports claim thousands of signatures were sent to MTV.
A few months ago, a petition was started asking the CEO of Universal Music Group (Lucian Grainge) and CEO of MTV (Judy McGrath) to respond to the leaked video teaser for Kanye West’s hit song “Monster.” Only 30 seconds of the video were leaked, but that was enough time to expose disturbing images eroticizing violence towards women. Though the full music video had not been released, it was obvious this over-sexualized, violent video should not be made public. 5,000 signatures from outraged Care2 members delivered about a month ago grabbed MTV’s attention and they reacted by saying they will not air the “current version” of the music video. We will soon deliver another 10,000 to MTV to reinforce our stance that the original video would need to be completely disregarded and a new video shot before it is television appropriate. (Care2)
Last December, an unfinished version of the video leaked online.
Hackers have targeted Kanye West once again — the unfinished music video for his new track “Monsters” has leaked online. A gory five-minute video, which features Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, hit the Internet on Thursday, shocking viewers with graphic images of zombies feasting on flesh, as West raps about being “the best living or dead, hands down.” (Seattle PI)
