A couple of weeks ago I saw this rumor about the video for Marilyn Manson’s
new song "Heart Shaped Glasses." If you didn’t hear the rumor,
here’s the jist of it– last year, Marilyn left his wife (burlesque dancer Dita
von Teese, in case you’re interested) for a 19 year old actress named Evan
Rachel Wood. He’s crazy for her, she’s under his spell, same old saw–
only this time, she’s inspired his new album (or at least this song), and she’s
starring in the video, in which she may or may not be having real sex.
Um, yeah– I said real sex. With Marilyn Manson. You know, the
guy who’s supposed to be an amorphous, asexual, postmodern symbol of everything
that’s so very….VERY about society today? Yeah, that Marilyn
Manson. Antichrist Superstar Marilyn Manson. Apparently the video was so, shall we say, RACY, that it could only be premiered on a German video site called SevenLoad. What the….?
I don’t hate this guy’s music– nothing I would really buy in a store (I’m
probably just a little too old for his demographic), but I must say I admire
the guy’s ability to brand himself and to really create a stir, so occasionally
I will pay attention to what he’s doing. The whole "mashing up of
two cultural icons" in the form of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson is
sort of intriguing in a sociological/postmodern way, so maybe that’s what interests me.
Anyhow, let me just say that while I will provide a link to this
video at the end of this post (just so you have the opportunity to view it and
judge for yourself), it’s not like I’m endorsing this behavior or like I love
this guy’s music. I’m really more interested in this from a philosophical
perspective.
What I’m saying is this– this guy spends over ten years branding himself as
a SYMBOL, like he’s the distillation of everything that’s wrong with society, everything that’s going to make your kids go all Columbine and
shoot up the schools, blah blah blah, and he’s HAPPY about this. He’s so
SHOCKING. He wears makeup and freaky boots. He dyes his hair black and wears one blue contact lens. He stays up
all night howling at the moon, and paints with absinthe. He’s a
GOTH. Fine, whatever. I think it’s all just a marketing angle he invented to
make his music stand out. That said, I just don’t get this
video, or this rumor. Since when is Marilyn Manson supposed to be SEXY?
Goth is not sexy, man. I find this video less "oh my God"
shocking and more "what the hell?", confusing, like the first time I
saw a Pina Colada flavored sports drink at the gym. Like– you’re at the
GYM. Why would you want a protein drink that’s alcohol flavored?
That’s just out of context, and it’s wrong. WRONG. The
former grad student in me wants to say that the real problem is that he’s been
building himself up as a symbol this whole time, and that for the symbol to actually
engage in real (or fake) intercourse seems oddly out of context and too immediate, like if we
were to see Mickey Mouse picking his nose or something. Not that I’m comparing the Antichrist Superstar guy to a pina colada flavored protein drink, or even to Mickey Mouse, but you see my point.
Now that I’ve addressed the issue of context and symbolic immediacy, let me move on to his
paramour, Evan Rachel Wood. You might have seen her in indie-type films
like Thirteen and Down in the Valley, and I think she is actually pretty
good. But– let me say this for the record. If you’re 19, and
you fall in love with a crazy shock-rocker/ symbol guy who wants to have sex (or
"sex") with you in his new video, chances are if you say yes, you’re
going to regret it later. I’m not saying that as an "old
person" who "doesn’t understand." I’m saying that as a
person who once had a much-older boyfriend, and who is glad that today there is
no tangible evidence of that guy in my life. I am 99% sure that in
five years (or…possible in one year), she is going to look back at this video
and be absolutely MORTIFIED at the sight of herself, shall we say, involved with her shock-rocker boyfriend (or, maybe I should call him her
"manfriend," since he’s almost 40 YEARS OLD). My point
is: maybe she’s not old enough to know better yet, but is there really no
one around her who can say "Hey– Evan? Simulating (or maybe really)
having sex with your 40 year old manfriend in a video is not going to put
you in the best position (no pun intended) at this point in your
career. All those roles you’re turning down right now because
they’re not edgy enough for you? Not a problem anymore, because no studio
wants their $10 million summer romance being lead by the girl who was once covered in
fake blood and having fake (or real) sex with Marilyn Manson.
So, this is why I’m confused. This is not necessarily great for his brand
(symbol out of context), and is definitely bad for hers (young impressionable girl
who doesn’t know any better). I know, they’re people too, and in all
honestly, have probably gotten carried away by their feelings and acted on
that. Still, I’m just really surprised from a marketing perspective that
no one in either of their camps thought to point this out, since
everything else in the business is so totally calculated. I’ll be very interested to see how this video
is edited down for tv in
All of this said, here’s the original version. Goes
without saying—not safe for work, not safe for kids, not safe for grandmothers, safe only for people with a very high tolerance for Marilyn Manson. Interesting – that’s all I’m saying.