A few days ago I wrote a post about using murder for character development, so I was surprised to see some posts relating to a similar topic last night. Yesterday one of my fellow radio managers at Radio UTD posted a review of Tyler, The Creator's newest album, Goblin. You can check out the review here.
Haven't heard all the buzz about the album? Chelsea, the reviewer, tells of Tyler's popularity - "P. Diddy called them “the future of rap”. Kanye referred to Tyler, the Creator’s video for “Yonkers” as “the video of 2011.”
Currently there is a lot of controversy surrounding some of the lyrics in Goblin. Normally news like this would go through one ear and out the other for me. Music is always stirring up some kind of debate, and my response is usually, "get over it." I feel a little differently about Tyler's lyrics.
In songs like "Splatter," Tyler raps about raping a woman in a retirement home. Misogyny, homophobia, and rape fantasies haunt the album. These topics aren't foreign to music, but in Goblin, they are glorified. And not only are they glorified in the album, critics everywhere are praising the album for its success in addressing taboo topics.
This is the part I have a problem with. I'm not saying that topics like sexual assault should always be censored from music. What I'm trying to say, is that I doubt the effectiveness in making listeners feel uncomfortable by glorifying an obviously evil act to "help the cause" and "destroy social taboos."
Gail Simone was first discovered on her website Women in Refrigerators . The website makes a short, but effective, list of female superheroes and how they have been treated in comics. The site lists when a female character has been "killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies befall her." The list shows that murder and rape are not foreign to comics, and are anything but "taboo." Although the writers did not necessarily always put their female characters through such acts for the same reason that Tyler, The Creator addresses the topics, parallels can be drawn.
In my previous post, I explained that murder shouldn't be the primary tool for a writer to develop a character. On the same note, sexual assault isn't a plot device. When I read a panel about a woman getting sexually assaulted in a comic, my first thought isn't "Wow rape is evil, kudos to these goes for proving it." Most often the intention behind using such acts towards women in comics is to create a "dark" tone or tragedy. Yes, sexual assault is tragedy, but it's very possible to make the same point in a more appropriate manner.
Let's look back at Tyler, the Creator. When reading reviews of Golbin, the explanation most often used to explain the lyrics content is that Tyler is creating a villain. He is supposedly creating an evil persona to make some sort of grand statement about society. I honestly think this is a really creative and interesting approach. The problem is that Tyler glorified homophobia and sexual assault to create this persona. There are more creative ways for the rapper to do this, and from listening to some of his wordplay, I have no doubt that he is capable of doing so. Comic writers use the exact some methods to make a character seem more evil, and it's getting annoying.
Some say that by glorifying such topics, Tyler is breaking down boundaries so that society will be more open to think about the,m. I did consider this an explanation, until I looked at some of Tyler's responses to his critics. Musicians Tegan and Sara wrote a piece expressing their disappointment in music critics who were praising Tyler, The Creator while ignoring his homophobic behavior. In response, Tyler posted this on his Twitter:
Here's another tweet in response to some of his critics:
If he's trying to make a statement about sexual assault to help prevent it, why would he tell listeners to ignore the lyrics?
About 13% of rape victims will attempt suicide."
It's my honest opinion that showing sexual assault in a positive light to cause discomfort, or using sexual assault as an easy means to create a certain tone does more harm than good, but I would like to know what other's think. Comment below, but please be mature and courteous.
2 comments:
There are definitely more creative approaches to proving the villainy and evil that Tyler is trying to portray. I barely got through the whole album and couldn't really listen anymore because: 1) The tracks were too long and 2) I didn't feel like this was "good."
Also, his response to Tegan & Sara also prove that maybe his "raising awareness" is a false belief of critics. I don't think depicting rape is a good tool, especially shining them in a good light. Though these are artistic approaches towards a certain character that he is trying to portray, in the end, I didn't really enjoy this album nor do I understand why people did.
In Anita Sarkeesian's video about Women in Refrigerators she draws a parallel to other mediums, like television, film and video games. Comic books are definitely not the only perpetrator of using women as a plot device, so it's definitely comparable to Tyler's music.
Since there is a lack of female presence in most mediums (Even music writing! Ha!), it becomes all the more evident when they are cast off as plot devices.
Here's Anita's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DInYaHVSLr8
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