There
had been one video that always bothered me back in the day, and every now and
then it would come to mind.
I
speak of "Too Young to Fall in Love" by Motley Crue:
What
bothered me then was if they were thinking of themselves as a rescue force,
where were they when she was starving? They just looked at her like she was
trash at the end, but if they cared about her welfare at all, she should have
been there sooner. The spitting of the food at the end kind of bothered me too,
but in more of a rolling my eyes kind of way, whereas I found the overall story
arc really disturbing.
I
recently saw the video again, and it bothers me more, partly because I have
more context, but also because I noticed something new.
First
of all, one thing that I see better now than I did then is that the video is
really low on content. There's a lot of posing and posturing, but even the
fight scene is remarkably low on action. So, I think the running gag with the
rice, of Tommy (I think) wanting to taste it, and then not liking it, was
filler. It was a little gross, which can offend the sensibilities of a young
teenage girl, which is probably why I remembered it, but it also went with a
general air of disrespect.
It
is rice that is spit out, going along with a general Asian theme - I think it
is specifically supposed to be Chinatown, but mainly it is
supposed to denote exotic and vaguely criminal. The new thing I noticed is that
despite the presence of several Asian extras, the girl and the shady guy who
takes her in are not in fact played by Asians. Yes, the video is using
"yellowface". Granted, there was a lot less awareness then - this was
a single from 1984 - but it kind of just figures.
And
still, it remains that for the plot line of the video, her actual welfare was
not important. Yes, there is the assumption that she will now be sleeping with
the "bad" guy, but surely the band wasn't fighting for virginity. She
is contaminated now because she belongs to him. That she is now clean and fed,
and would have a bed to sleep in, just makes her a prostitute.
It
does, except again, I don't think the band is really arguing for chastity. It
would seem the issue is that she is tainted by this guy, but that takes her out
of the equation, making her an object in relation to the band and to the other
guy, but not a subject for herself. That's only a music video, and not even
well-done music video, but it taps into some things that have always been
there, and are still around.
I
have more things I could say about both the sexism and the racism, but I think
that's it for today. There is so much going on right now that knowing the
proper order to put things in just keeps getting harder. I may simply do some
stalling this week.
Related
posts:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment