Kanye has had his fair share of trouble with the videos from his latest platinum album. First his “All Of The Lights” video was accused of stealing themes, then it was temporarily taken off the air for apparently causing seizures. Now it turns out that MTV banned his controversial video for his posse cut “Monster.”
The video hit the Internet a couple months ago and never made it onto television. The leak was an unfinished version, so the assumption was the video would be on TV when it was finished and officially released. Due to the depiction of women in the video, that will not be happening. A petition to ban the video from Change.org was circulated and eventually signed by MTV.
“The mainstreaming of videos like this increases desensitized and callous attitudes toward violence against women,” said Melinda Tankard Reist, one of the campaign originators. “Young people are seeing images and absorbing harmful messages which glamorise misogyny and brutalise women. Women are reduced to sex-doll like playthings. So great is the level of desensitization that the barbaric treatment of women and girls is seen as normal and to be expected. We decided to run this campaign because we wanted to challenge the status quo.”
UPDATE: A spokesperson for MTV released the following statement: “MTV has not banned Kaye West’s ‘Monster’ video. We have been in constant communication with the label regarding this matter. However, we are still awaiting the edits we requested in order for the video to be suitable for broadcast.”
