Man down makes makes video go down

Rihannna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty) seems to have a way of taking extremely sensitive issues and portraying them with a touchy accuracy. It started with "Unfaithful," a song that portrays the viewpoint of an unfaithful person in a relationship, to "Love the Way You Lie," a song about the addiction of an abusive relationship.

And now, her music video "Man Down," has caused a stir. The music video has come under fire from the Parents Television Council, the Enough is Enough campaign and entertainment think tank Industry Ears.

There are many who are angry by this portrayal of 23-year-old singer Rihanna who, in the beginning of her music video, shoots a man. A man that we later find had raped her the night before in the video.

What's the controversy? There are those that support the song and video. A columnist for CNN, Leslie Steiner, said, "Instead of criticizing the pop singer, I'd like to say thank you, Rihanna."

Steiner said she was shocked by the negative stir the video caused. Instead, Steiner thinks that Rihanna has portrayed the feelings that many women feel, "the rage and vengeance fantasies that often constitute a normal, healthy reaction to rape and domestic violence."

Rihanna claims the song is about a woman who struggles with guilt for accidentally murdering a man and is meant to encourage female empowerment.

Rolling Stone said the music video is one in which she is "depicted gunning down a man in cold blood as payback for an implied sexual assault.

And those not in favor of the video say, "there’s very little about the song and video that suggest guilt. There’s a lyric here and there about not being able to sleep at night, etc. and so forth, but that’s kind of overpowered by the happy smiling faces and the song’s fun Caribbean-like beat," according to a column on Psychcentral.com.

According to Free Press, BET said it will continue to play the video and MTV is in the process of reviewing it.

In 2009 Rihanna was brutally beat by her boyfriend, Chris Brown. Since then Rihanna has turned out a number of different songs that seem to be in response to that relationship.

"Love the Way You Life," stirred up the masses with its portrayal of an abusive relationship, The Huffington Post writer, Randy Susan Meyers said last year that "we see one long rationalization about how two people caught up in alcohol and sex flame out to a passion soaked burn. That's the song your kids will be humming and dancing to while they watch a glamour-drama of domestic abuse amidst love gone wrong."

But a column in Yahoo said "Love the Way You Lie" is "yet another opportunity to explore the darker side of relationships and question the values we see reflected in the entertainment industry -- that violence is at times justifiable or even sympathetic."