Rhetorical Analysis On Rihanna

Sydney Watson
Writing 105
Daniel Brown
Rhetorical Analysis Due: 11/15/16

Rihanna: S&M

With the release of Rihanna’s new album, Anti, I reflect on the first time I heard the Barbadian artist. Sitting in the passenger seat gazing off into the trees whipping past me I heard the faint “Na na na come on.” Having never heard the song I turned up the once soft mumbling. Recognizing Rihanna’s raspy voice I immediately started jamming to it. Just after the first chorus was done my father angrily changed the radio station. I hadn’t been listening that closely to the lyrics and at thirteen all I knew was that I liked it, so I started to contest the alternative. My father responded with his usual unapologetic tone, “That is way too inappropriate to

Seven months before S&M hit the radio, Eminem released a single named “Love the way you lie” featuring Rihanna. The song’s chorus sung by Rihanna repeats the phrase, “Just going to stand here and watch me burn, that’s all right because I like the way it hurts…that’s alright because I love the way you lie.” The song is about a tumultuous relationship that leads to an abusive one. At the end of the song, Eminem raps “I’m going to tie her to the bed and set this house on fire.” The way this song was perceived with the general public was very different then the reaction towards S&M. It is very unsettling that society uses “Love the Way You Lie” as a way to talk about domestic abuse when it features a violent, abusive ending. People cheered for her when she broke the silence of abuse and instead of continually supporting her people go as far to say that, “She is a terrible role model who had no business pressing charges against Chris Brown when he physically beat her because she sings ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me.’”(Niemiec, 2011) Those types of quotes promote rap culture. It is like saying to a rape victim “what were you wearing when you were assaulted?” It doesn’t matter what he/she was wearing or what their sexual preferences are, consensual sex is an agreement between two partners and nothing less. There is a huge difference between wanting a spanking in the bedroom and getting your face bashed in when your boyfriend is mad. Permission and consent are just the beginning of what makes it different for her to want something in a sexual context, never mind what Chris Brown did to her was inexcusable and wrong, not consensual, and not pleasurable. It wasn’t what she wanted — especially especially from her boyfriend. But yet, we are comparing it like it’s apples to