Although controversy surrounded the release of Rihanna’s music video “S&M,” much of it functions euphemistically. Despite with her consistent but only vaguely sexual flailing, the references to bestiality, and her fellation of a banana, the video lacks any explicitly sexual content. In her nuanced response to the press’ accusations of a deviant or excessive sexuality, she both “administers silences,” as Michel Foucault says in “The History of Sexuality: An Introduction,” and in other ways refutes the repressive hypothesis. Rihanna's video neither fully supports nor refutes the it--rather, it reifies the multiplicity of discourses and sources of power that Foucault describes. She repeats the hypocrisy that she points out as she administers silences …show more content…
----awk intro ---- Rihanna divorces sex and sexual pleasure from reproduction. ---- It could also be said that she is playing not just with the concept of sexual pleasure, but also the pleasure in exercising power, even if in a sexual context. (?) She turns the stereotypical suburban scene on its head. With its polished lawns and preened hedges, clapboard sided homes and uniformity, the scene is reminiscent of the eerie perfection of 1950s Levittowns or Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands." Rihanna, in a wide-brimmed hat cocked to the side and long pleated skirt, stands cooly and puffs from her long cigarette holder. A leashed Perez Hilton raises his leg to a pink fire hydrant with a hedonistic grin. Suburbia functions here as a symbol of repressed sexuality, overdetermined by ideas of normative sex: sex that occurs in white, middle-class, monogamous, domestic, procreative and heterosexual relationships. Rihanna steps in and makes it weird. (??) Her otherwise elegant outfit is made of sheer latex, her thigh-high black boots, cleavage, and stomach show and on her hands are black gloves that hold a leather and metal leash attached to Hilton's harness. Presumably, Rihanna and Hilton, an out gay celebrity commentator, are not in a sexual relationship; their actions are not even suggestive of such a relationship. There are no toys scattered on the lawn, no husband calling, "Honey, I'm home!" ----- The singer uses traditional signs