Here’s the latest example of BDSM expressions moving into the popular culture, Rihanna’s latest music video S & M.
The question now is whether it’s based on BDSM because BDSM is popular out there, or if some money grabbing producer believed it will make more people look at the video.
Extreme sex always sell, but it also leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth when it’s done as some sort of posing.
What do you think; Is Rihanna into BDSM, or is she just posing?
You’ll be the judge, but let us know what you think in the comments.
She could be into BDSM or she could be posing…it's hard to say. Either way she will be getting the media's attention and at the end of the day I hope BDSM is seen as more of an OK thing, and not just a way for Rihanna to make more $$$…
I totally agree with you, there is still some distance to go before BDSM is accepted. And we will always have people that will use for attention before that happens. The question then is: Will BDSM ever be considered to be ok if it is used as an attention grabber?
I bothly agree. The cultural industry tends to absorb any elements that could aggregate more value to their products. And due to human natural curiosity, anything that is no commonly shared ou known is a great way to make money. So, the clip could be artisticcaly beuatiful, but I don’t think the mere fatch that putting some images and insinuations give it a “real” BDSM charge.
It looked like "typical 'nilla assumptions about kink" to me. The real topic of the video appears not to be "BDSM/kink" but rather "abusive/codependent relationship between celebrity and media", which seems to be just using the current "cool image" to talk about it, and in the process actually erasing genuine kinky experience.
I think it's just pandering to the "sex sells" ethos.
I would rather not see the lifestyle so mainstream like this. I mean when I see it I blush and giggle because it's something I'm into and I live every day. At the same time, a lot of stars don't portray their personal lives so much like this.
I don't think society will ever fully accept what we do as far as the lifestyle even if stars with big names bring it to the foreground like this. I would love to see the lifestyle accepted more by society but I doubt it will be soon.
Rihanna in BDSM… not to sure. I mean she had a bit of bondage in Disturbia as well as in her music video Te Amo. It's hard to say if she's into it or if she's just using it to make a video.
Your comment is very interesting and it made me think. Why do you think that society will not ever accept BDSM as a part of the map that makes up human sexuality?
it's a cute video and will sell records. I think that snowdrops analysis of it is spot on. It seemed a bit like a kid who's discovered her parents' 'naughty' wardrobe and is playing dress-up. I liked the bits of her tied up and wriggling though.
The visuals in the video are very appealing to me as well. Your metaphore made me giggle, a really good one.
Artists have a responsibility for the work they produce if she wrote the lyrics maybe she is real. It is my understanding that she is being sued by a well known Fetish photog.
This is visually and auralistically pure meth at its finest getting her the attention she was looking for affording her the money to get more chains and whips……….its an expensive lifestyle.
Do I see her as the new poster girl for promoting the scene………hardly
Gave me some great ideas for some public humiliation scenes though.
MsR
This is the music business. BUSINESS. S/m imagery is incredibly hip and salable. *sigh*
Another video to look at – Adam Lambert’s “For Your Entertainment”. SImilarly, it is a bit hard to discern whether he is actually familiar with the BDSM lifestyle, or if he is only putting on a show? Either way, his performance is certainly bought by me.. He seems to pull of a very sensual image of sexy dominance. *trying to hide idol crush* Can’t stop watching.. Lyrics are amazing… You get the picture.
Simply the work of a music Vid producer imo anything with an edge and sex as we have seen will bring eyes and attention and a certain level of ‘grit’ to the featured item.
Sex sells, but why fetish and BDSM?
fetish and apparently bdm sell because in a hyper-sexualized consumer world we live in, it looks as a frontier, a limit, the things everybody talks about but few really are in. business loves to use the limits, push them intentionnally, because the more you dare the more you seem to compete. Competition is what the music mainstream business is all about. Not sex ! It uses sex: real sex scenes would be utterly unacceptable in a vid promoting a popular manstream singer. All the imagery is calculated. France has a lavy singer who is probably more into SM than any american singer, Mylène Farmer. To my knowledge this is the only persistent promoter of this kind of BDSM imagery. Still it is just that: images. But images of “alternative” sex practices are also more common, if not accepted, in France than in the US.
I agree with you and find your thoughts around this subject to be very plausible and highly interesting. I will check out the french singer you are referring to.
Why do you think there is a difference between France and the US when it comes to acceptance and public exposure of BDSM?
I want to believe the possibility of rianna’s living the lifestyle. It could explain the relationship with chris brown. If they were involved in bdsm, and perhaps it went a little too far, that may be why we saw images of her with facial bruising. While in the face of the media, the public, and family, who would truly come out with, “well you see I was tied up and he had a flogger, and I couldn’t remember my safe word. Then a neighbor heard us and called the police…”. Right. Just my two cents…
I agree with 'sexdropeexplodes'. She's making a cultural statement which is cool but it does nothing to bring understanding regarding the BDSM community. I cannot judge her – poseur or no – she's free to express herself like anyone else. I just get tires of the gratuitous BDSM imagery going around. It serves to belittle as opposed to uplift and educate. Yet, this has been our society's strategy from the gate when it comes to what is pegged as a controversial issue.
Well, I am posting my response outside of reading the ones before me. For me IT does not matter why or if it is real or fake. To expose the images tied to BDSM to the masses, elicits more than hate and contempt, it also allows others hope, and to OPEN their minds for more tolerances of others differences.
I think she’s using the literal imagery of BSDM to illustrate how she feels being a celebrity, mixed with some producer’s ‘vision’ of eye-catching BDSM images just to sell sex. Kinda cheapens the message, imo. Entertaining video, though I’m sure she’s only acting.
A great comment and an interesting analysis of how BDSM imagery can be percieved in mainstream culture.
Its Just Yet ” another” Jumping on the Proverbial BANDWAGON and I have to say that for me it does Nothing but Cheapen anyone who is not a “Wannabe” Or Faker, I am Pretty much sick and tired of every girl on Facebook saying they are Bi-Sexual and “INTO” BDSM..
I cannot remember the last time I looked on a profile of a Young Girl who is NOT Bi..it’s all very fashionable as is BDSM, it is NOT a Game but a way of life for some (Not All) but Most Real Players…
I feel that it makes a bit of a mokery of U/us A/all and the sooner it Diminishes the better, there will be a case sooner or later of Something going horribly Wrong with someone “Playing” at BDSM and maybe Killing another or Several and W/we will A/all be Monsters again!
Watch Out everyone…At the Moment the Publicity is all good but WE ALL Know that sooner or later Opinions Change…with everyone and thier Cat saying they are “Into” BDSM somethings bound to happen for the worse and I think that “These” people will soon Offload thier Profiles pretty quick and Dissmiss “Us” as Monsters all over again!
Judas was also a Preist!
Love & Lust to A/all
From my highly limited perspective, I would not take anything in a music video seriously. We know that an entire cadre of people are stage managing this performers life and image, and have been doing so since she was a minor. Beyond that, there’s a well known controversy attached to the women and this capitalizes on it same as some of the other stuff she’s been in (one where she was singing in a duet about how much she likes her domestic violence)
@slutboymartin Hey now. women have been consuming kink porn outside of the BDSM scene pretty much as long as we’ve been buying romance novels, and things like 50shades was an underground hit. Nothing is “making a mockery” of you if people are trying it and enjoying it. Furthermore mass consumption normalizes- it may be nice to feel ‘special’, but I’ll trade ‘special’ for being able to practice my kinks in peace.