"Man Down" Video Causes an Uproar

So Rihanna shoots a dude and everyone gets all bajiggidy about it.

That's the crux of the current uproar around Rihanna's new music video "Man Down". 

To add some context, the video begins with Rihanna shooting a man point blank on the street. However, we come to realize as the story continues that he raped her the day before outside of a club.

Heavy stuff.

Now watchdog groups are in a tizzy over the video, saying that it condones violence and aggression. Some genius even went as far as saying that there's a double standard because a similar video from Chris Brown would never be tolerated.

Let's not get crazy, y'all. Would Chris Brown ever put out a video depicting his rape and subsequent revenge? Highly unlikely.

Of course, if Brown had a song about busting a cap in a girl's a$$ just because she didn't like his ill dance moves, there would be a public uproar. But that's not the case here.

Maybe it's because I was a Women & Gender Studies major in college, but I get what Rihanna is saying. This pop princess is taking a step away from her "Pon de Replay" and "Please Don't Stop The Music" days to sing about a real issue that happens to hundreds - perhaps thousands - of women worldwide every day.

Rihanna isn't condoning an eye for an eye here. She's expressing the need for women to take control of a horrific situation - gaining power back when you thought you had none. Yes, she chose to shoot her attacker but it's just a music video. It's a safe, artistic place where one can express themselves in ways that they couldn't, or wouldn't, in real life.

What happened to using art as a creative outlet? Did the Parents Television Council forget that when they were lambasting Rihanna for her soulful single? Apparently so.

Sometimes I think these groups make public statements just for the sake of doing so. The Council screamed like the world was ending when Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave" video was released. It was "too sexually suggestive for young audiences."

Yes, Britney was in a hot, orgy-like situation throughout the video but she was also balancing a snake and changing her costume several times between scenes. If anything, they should have been applauding her for her ability to multitask instead of focusing so much on the group sex aspect of the video.

George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" video caused quite a stir back in the day as well. But guess what, guys? He's gay. So in actuality, I highly doubt he wanted that girl's sex. Fantasy at its best.

In the end, the Parents Television Council and all other watchdog groups out there need to find another hobby. Just because you put out press releases about "naughty" music videos doesn't mean your kids will actually listen to you. They'll keep buying mp3s on iTunes and watching videos online after you go to bed.

What, you have parental controls on your home computer? Guess what - your kids disabled it before you even figured out how to use the feature.

All parents can do is take their kids on regular trips to Disneyland and hope they turn out alright. But make sure they don't cry while in line for the Dumbo ride because I will stick out my foot and trip them. That's a promise.

Rihanna's music video is empowering and very moving. I applaud her for creating it and, politely, suggest that these watchdog groups take a xanax and move on.