Lana Del Rey and the Language of the Violent Image

This month has been a slew of sexual assault cases, with Eminem threatening Iggy Azalea and now a mysterious film project starring Lana Del Rey being brutally raped. The project was directed by notoriously nasty Eli Roth and stars both Lana Del Rey and clips of old videos from Marilyn Manson - who was originally accused of directing the film himself! The bizarre video shows these Manson videos mixed a disturbing scene of Roth physically attacking and sexually assaulting Del Rey. Manson's team has since confirmed that Manson wasn't involved and that it was "likely a fan tinkering with his music video scenes." Like anything taken out of context, it is hard to judge the message of Eli Roth's film based on these few clips (which have since been removed from the internet) but based on his previous work, this project will be inching towards the 'Hollywood torture porn' genre as Jessica Hopper of Pitchfork puts it. Lana Del Rey's entire persona is based off of playing on the traditional American idea of women - being glamorous, vulnerable, and meek. Her music and art so clearly ties back to and plays with all of these ideals (If you haven't seen her video for National Anthem, check it out now) so to have her be raped on film - evening if she was acting - is especially disturbing. Roth is just another man portraying the sexual abuse of women through a man's eyes. Why he chose to use a leading symbol of traditional femininity is something I think the entire music community is waiting for. So far, Roth and Del Rey haven't commented on the situation.