RIHANNA'S FEMINIST CHALLENGE: The Madgestic RiRi

"I want to be the black Madonna."

It's obvious why. Not only does Rihanna have every potential to be as successful as Madonna (commercially, at least), she's taking part in an industry Madonna defined: that of female pop culture. A rainmaking single plus a tour on the run, Rihanna already covered a quarter of her idol's success after the release of her third album "Good Girl Gone Bad". The title of the album is a departure itself from the last two RiRi albums, especially the second one, "A Girl Like Me". It let her shift from image to another and focus more on the celebrity rather than the music - that's exactly how Ms. Ciccone liked it.


Her blond ambition was clear with "Take a Bow". From the criminal-to-good girl of "Unfaithful", she now claims the position of the cheated girlfriend. The quality of the song was mixed as it followed the trend set by Beyonce's "Irreplaceable", itself an empowerment anthem devoted to bash cheating boyfriends. But despite its musical limitations, "Take a Bow" makes up for style. It is heavily Madonna-influenced from the title alone (the song is not a cover), and the promotional video is notable for her shift in fashion sense.


As Douglas Kellner researched, fashion is a capitalist industry aimed at defining classes in terms of dress code. It aimed a separation classes ("rich" from "poor", men from women) that mostly oppressed and limited. It dictated while it provided. And through the years, the fashion industry was challenged by some who chose to wear something else.  Judging from Kellner's research and her Madonna connection, Rihanna takes the gender-bending role reminiscent of Madge's own "I'll Remember". In the video of the song, Madonna wore men's formal clothes and a short black wig. In short, she looked like a typical businessman. Cultural critics found the style of the video as feminist, continuing Madonna's early 90s provocation of sexual stereotypes.


With the "Take a Bow" video, Rihanna donned a pixie cut and a Michael Jackson jacket which made her look entirely different from her previous fashion statements."You're so ugly when you cry" she sings in the second verse, looking down at masculinity while inhibiting a macho female persona evident in the NeYo-esque gestures. It's obvious that once again, Rihanna exhibits empowerment within the video. Like Madonna's early 90s efforts, Rihanna challenged norms of style for women, though it wasn't pretty much of a stretch now as it was then. It's no surprise that this new image became one of her most popular. Around 2008 til 2009, the short black pixie cut became the new fashion phenomenon for teenage to twentysomething girls and gay men alike.


I must say Rihanna chose the right role model to follow. "Take a Bow" may not be as shocking as "Unfaithful", but it made Rihanna a trend-setter, at least within fashion. Based on what she did there, that's not a bad thing for a pseudo-feminist. - Gio Potes, March 2012

RIHANNA'S FEMINIST CHALLENGE: An Unfaithful Girl Like Me

In the midst of a series of disco-infused pop singles within two years, the Barbadian r&b/pop singer Rihanna released a rather odd ballad called "Unfaithful". In the MTV's review of the 2000s, it ranked as one of the best singles of the decade. But pop observers found it incredibly strange at the time. The song is unusual in many ways. First of all, it's a cold haunting song guided by piano chords reminiscent of the band Evanescence. It is about a girl who's becoming a "murderer" - perhaps figuratively, a killer of affection. This concept was much talked about within circles of music scholars because it unconventionally featured a girl in the position of the emotional abuser, and it produced a music video that ignited the flame even more. Yet they dismissed this moment as a talent show-off, that slowburn within pop albums intended to expose the vocal range of the artist. Following her own preservation of dance music in the charts, critics like Sal Cinquemani found the ballad "fucking weird". For me, it's a milestone in Rihanna's career.


Reading the lyrics, one would agree with Cinquemani's observation. In the first verse, she speaks of "searching for the 'Right'" but she assumes that "''Wrong' really loves her company". Then enters the subject of the song: a certain "He". Towards the refrain, it becomes obvious that she is indeed cheating "him". Yet the chorus suggests that she does not want to continue because she considers cheating the honest man as a form of murder. This is a young lady exposing her guilty pleasure, and you can see her confusion in her play of words: "Our love/His trust/I might as well take a gun and put it to his head/Get it over with/I don't wanna do this anymore".


Yet the real departure from the usual Rihanna image comes in the music video where the already dark theme of the song is given a much deeper visualization. It must be noted that she was only 18 when the video was shot, which is another reason why the whole thing about "Unfaithful" became immensely awkward. The video starts with the girl dressing up. Clad in a black fit sleeveless dress, she's vain and titillating. Then on a close-up of the visage, you can see cold beauty. She almost looks like Beyonce, older and maturer than her age yet maintaining a certain Lolita sexiness. Rihanna follows the song's narrative in not going all the way to violence (unlike what happened to the Adrian Lyne film of the same title, obviously an influence). We find the girl tiptoeing around with a white pianist but in the end, she goes back to her faithful man. She embraces him with a facial expression suggesting the guilt aforementioned, but it changes into a sincere smile - this time, she'll be more loyal.


The coming of this moment suggested a whole new different image from the Barbadian singer. It was probably an awkward presence in pop music at the time because it wasn't expected of the artist and it presented a new concept. "Unfaithful" placed Rihanna in the shoes of what seems to be a femme fatale inches away from dangerous crime. Succeeding the blissful "SOS" single, the image here bears the same sexual exposure but it's more confident. The maturely slick physique is perhaps a weapon, a magnet that attracted the likes of two men. And it's probably this sexuality that she is trying to avoid usage.


More notable is the fact that the video presents: that women can also take this side of the relationship. Rihanna's role in this is pretty much a gem - yes, the object of male gaze, but in power and never subverted. Not that I'm endorsing infidelity as a good thing but the way she presented this flipside to the conventional situation calls a much bigger and realistic picture of the nature of complex relationships. One that would call to mind the rise of "friends with benefits" where both male and female agree on the sex but not on the love, hence an issue that threatens the strength of heterosexual union.


The reason why I consider it a milestone in her art is because at the time when she was about to be labeled as just another pop dance flash-in-the-pan, she started off what would be a series of sexually-challenging work. In a ripe age of 18, a pop singer would follow the Lolita example most prominent with Britney Spears, but Rihanna (much like Beyonce) begged a more richer and political presentation of the female. It can also be read as a representation of the neo-colonialism of Barbados (she is smitten by a "white" pianist for a reason) but that's another thing. With "Unfaithful", she has launched a fierce statement against abuse. And as her discography moved along, it got richer and more profound.


- Gio Potes, March 2012

Rihanna’s Feminist Challenge

“I maybe bad, but I’m perfectly good at it.”


Despite all claims that Rihanna is just another pop tart in the music industry, I’d like to argue that she boasts a handful of brilliant songs and corresponding videos that distinguishes her from that list. Not only does she manage to conceive catchy hooks (or maybe Def Jam does that for her), she also captures an era of feminist struggle within her artifice.


In the middle of her young seven-year-old career, she has included in her art feminine modes of guilt, abuse and (finally) sexual liberation and dominance. Half of her popularity is due to the fact that she is a victim of abuse. The much-talked about domestic violence Chris Brown has committed towards the young pop star back in 2008 garnered so much media attention that it scarred the careers of both artists. But to her benefit, Rihanna used the music and visuals to escape the demons of the incident. The recorded songs and videos provided an in-depth approach to her condition. In return, the incident was followed by two dark and personal Rihanna albums. From ‘Rated R’ to ‘Loud’, the artist brought to the mainstream different forms of counterattack both allegedly to Chris Brown and the media, all the while exploring her own sexuality and challenging social norms, not to mention blossoming before the eyes of the audience and winning back loads of cash and undeniable fame.


Yet more significantly, these songs and videos present a good girl gone bad. Bad in a sense that she is not the normative kind of artist, one who sings for the excitement of consumers, (well that is still something to debate on) but a woman who has experienced one of the hardships brought about by a patriarchal system. In a way, the incident and the art that emerged out of it made way for personal statements that women can relate to. Rihanna’s flesh-flashing is not an empty consumerist strategy, too: it’s part of her messages. And whether it is the cause or the effect of her feminist challenge, I can say that it is necessary. And notably after years of these feminist modes, the Barbadian artist tops off her ventures with a solution: a gunshot - the sound of freedom from oppression and vengeful Fury against the oppressor.


Which all raise the question: is Rihanna a feminist?


This summer, I am going to study the feminism surrounding Rihanna’s aesthetics. Starting from the release of ‘Unfaithful’ as a single ‘til the music video of ‘Man Down’ gets banned from several TV stations in the US, the study aims to discover how Rihanna represents female struggles and the 2010s Girl through pop music (which is generated through MTV and the internet: YouTube, Twitter, etc.). Though it’s possible that this era of thought within Rihanna’s career would reach deeper trenches as she grows older and wiser, I believe the incidences surrounding ‘Man Down’ concludes an initial period of feminism that Rihanna herself seemed to emphasize in the first place. Thus, I will focus on the artist’s fruitful middle career right after ‘Music of the Sun’ and before ‘Talk that Talk’. Yet it is still a huge question what exactly Rihanna wants her audience to take from her musical and visual output. For me, she gives women a new understanding of their condition, and solutions for them to fight it.  - Gio Potes, March 2011.

2011: The Year of Intimacy Issues

"This is the second movie this year to ask whether it's possible to have sex with someone without falling in love, and the second to arrive at a mistaken conclusion — because of course it is."

"It’s essentially about marital infidelity, tackling the sordid turns in a married couple’s life when another girl enters frame"

"Still, one must do something about sex, lest the pipes run rusty."

"It is all cute at first. Sex has never been a serious proposition for Filipinos. Sex has been quite the favorite punchline for skits and jokes."

Critique from Roger Ebert and Oggs Cruz