MTV Networks, which owns both MTV and VH1, has announced that it has no plans to air Kanye West’s video for “Monster,” which features Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, and imagery that offended a lot of people when it first leaked in December. Several groups objected to shots of eroticized female corpses and a woman’s severed head, although for my money the most disturbing image was a lingerie-clad she-werewolf with long white sideburns and chest hair. (In case you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it here).
Of course, this isn’t exactly news, because MTV and VH1 don’t play ANY music videos, but the women’s blog Adios Barbie, which spearheaded a campaign against the video this winter, is calling this non-event “A Monster Success!”
We want to publicly acknowledge and applaud MTV Networks for choosing not to air “Monster.” We congratulate MTV for reinforcing the fact that violence against women, even if couched in a horror-film format, should never be used as a way to engage and entertain viewers, many of who are under the age of 18. We need you to let others know that MTV is acting as a leader by recognizing that eroticized violence in no way, shape, or form, is entertainment… Thanks to MTV, there aren’t many distribution options left for the video.
“Thank you, MTV, for not playing this music video, even though you haven’t played complete music videos in over a decade. This is a huge success for us. Now that this music video won’t be shown on a channel that doesn’t air music videos, there’s no way for people to watch the video. Except online, which is where most people watch videos.”
Break out the “Mission Accomplished” banner, ladies. You really knocked it out of the park with that one.
