Some thoughts on this music video and the surrounding hubbub. First, to my surprise, I actually quite enjoyed both the music and the video. What I did not like were the lyrics. I found them to be asinine, juvenile, annoying, and having essentially nothing whatever to do with the video. (Speaking personally I found the lyrics far more offensive than anything in the video, but I know many others wouldnt agree with that). Second, I think it is pretty clear that there is deliberate usage of Nazi-esque imagery in this video. The red armbands on the soldiers are a bit of a give away. I dont think there really can be much doubt about that point. The question, then, is whether such imagery is problematic, or is something that ought not be done, or is deserving of an apology. I personally do not think so. People would not complain if the imagery had been of hammer and sickle bearing soldiers in Red Square, or parodies of other dictatorial or militaristic regimes. People react so strongly because Nazis are culturally seen as the embodiment of all evil, and therefore they seem to think that this means that Nazi-esque imagery is not an appropriate means of cultural or artistic expression in a context like this. I dont think thats a very sensible attitude to take. Some have even said that the video is anti-Semitic. This I find to be an utterly ridiculous charge. If I watch Triumph of the Will and enjoy it for its cinematic achievement and its aesthetic qualities, that is not anti-Semitic. Nor is it anti-Semitic for Minaj to use Riefenstahl-like imagery for artistic effect in her video. If she had used imagery from The Eternal Jew, or included racial slurs in the lyrics, then THAT would be anti-Semitic. But there is a big difference between those two things. Using Nazi-esque imagery in an artistic work hardly constitutes an endorsement of Nazi ideology. I would have thought that point would be fairly obvious. Note that I am not saying that no one ought be offended by this video. Some surviving victims of Nazi persecution, in particular, may perhaps find such imagery too confronting. I am not saying that we should just ignore such people and tell them to just get over it. What I am saying is that we should say to them you ought not watch this video then. We should not say Minaj ought to apologise for making this video. https://youtube/watch?v=BU769XX_dIQ#t=25
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 10:48:09 +0000
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