Recently Asstodon Mastodon released a music video for their song "The Motherload," which had a pretty heavy focus on female butts. A lot of people were unhappy about said focus and called the video "sexist." One particular outlet that put the 'don on blast was The Guardian. Here's the gist:
But no, Dom, I hear you cry, it’s not sexist. It’s funny! Look at those vibrating butt-cheeks! Brilliant. It’s probably ironic or something. Well, no. It’s still sexist. I don’t care how much irony you throw at this. It was sexist when it happened in past videos and it’s still sexist now. The fact that Mastodon are an ostensibly bright bunch and very much not from the heavy metal old school – where, back in the hallowed day, sexism was widely tolerated – is not a sufficient get-out clause by any stretch. Neither is this video excused from being tarred with the sexist brush because a proportion of women immersed in alternative culture have decided that it’s OK.
Here's what drummer Brann Dailor told Pitchfork about that accusation.
“I know! I’m really upset. I don’t know. The last thing that I wanted to do was come on and be defensive, because I don’t feel like I should have to defend it. It’s a music video and it’s really not supposed to be something that gets people this upset because this was really a fun thing that doesn’t really mean too much. It’s not to be taken so seriously.
I don’t know, I just don’t see the sexism in it. I know there’s half-naked women that are shaking their butts. For some people it’s titillating, but for me it just looked amazing. I thought the girls were awesome and talented, and I thought it was amazing to watch. I love when it turns into that kaleidoscope effect thing; it brings the video to a whole new level.
But it’s gotten people talking obviously, you know. I figured that would happen, you know what I mean. I knew there was going to be some negativity. But we do that; we’re that kind of band. It hadn’t been done before, and we were kind of looking for something that hadn’t been done before because it’s hard to come by these days.”
What do you think? Is the video sexist? Chime in below with your comments. As for me? Here's my opinion:
So a video with some girls shaking their butts can draw enough fire to elicit a response from a band, but things like Cannibal Corpse's new video is cool? You're allowed to literally kill people in a video or even graphically mutilate their genitals, ala Cattle Decapitation, but shaking butts is absolutely where we draw the line? Ice T literally drove around in a van and just indiscriminately shot people in a Body Count video and nobody seemed to give a damn, but the butts man… that's just wrong as all hell! Let's get really mad at Mastodon! Come on. Either everything is okay or nothing is okay.
Also, lets keep in mind here the women in the video volunteered to be in the video. It's not like Mastodon enslaved some women and forced them to shake their ass on a music video here. This is just another example of "band does thing because thing is funny to them." I've heard that's what art is all about- doing whatever you feel like can be deemed art.
