In the world of music video, Chicago’s own Kanye West has caused quite the stir. West’s new music video “Monster” has been received with equal amounts of disgust and praise. Though many fans and critics have passed this video off as simply a creative and artful expression, I personally detest this video because its objectification of women hits the extreme. In this video, West declares himself a “monster” (hence the title) and proceeds to explain his monster-like habits by depicting rape-and-murder incidents. The video opens with dead women hanging, wearing only heels, and then continues to show West in bed with two dead women (, who he assumingly just had sex with,) re-positioning their bodies as if it were a game. Though feminism has come a long way in the past century, this source of media shows that progress can easily take a step backwards. In addition, despite the fact that laws have been made to equalize women to men, film and television still holds tight to gender stereotypes to create a story or make a statement. What is the purpose of this song? Does Kanye want to display his power through depictions of rape and murder?
West’s shallow rhymes and disgusting scenes, as awful as they may be, have received an extreme amount of publicity, once again putting him on the map to success and re-iterating the fact that America loves gore and sex – or even better, America loves gore and sex combined. When a friend told me about this video, I was absolutely appalled, but I of course ran to my laptop to watch it myself. In this sense, I am a hypocrite to my own complaints. As much as I despise West’s video, I have now joined the masses of audience watching this video and spreading news about it.
video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLnS-2h_nog
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