Why MC Eso's Misogynistic Photos Are Inexcusable

Yesterday, MC Eso (aka Max Mackinnon) of Bliss N Eso went to a wax museum and had a great time posing crudely with the wax figures of Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Raquel Welch.

Bliss N Eso Rapper Removes Vulgar Images Regarding Rihanna

On his personal Instagram account, he posted a photo of himself standing threateningly beside the figure of Rihanna, holding his fist up to her face, with the caption, “Where did ya throw those fucking car keys woman !?!” plus the hashtags #smackmybitchup and #shelovesthewayithurts and the cry-laughing emoji for good measure.

In case any of you have forgotten, in 2009, Chris Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna, punching her face repeatedly until it was swollen, bruised and bloody (some of you may remember the horrific images that circulated afterwards), and also attempted to strangle her and push her out of his moving car. He received no jail time. (Don’t even get started on blaming her for getting back with him afterwards – read about the cycle of abusive relationships and educate yourself like an adult.)

Eso followed that charming display with a photo of him crouching underneath a figure of Raquel Welch with the caption: “If ya liked the Rihanna one, your gonna love this !! #cavebitch #boxbasher #oneeyeonthesnatch”.

Prior to those two, he posted this one with the figure of Lady Gaga.

This casual objectification of women is just one way men exert their opinion that they have a right to do with women’s bodies whatever they please – to treat women like they’re only valuable as objects for men to use. It’s disrespectful and de-humanising at best, and harmful at worst – it is the seed from which larger issues like VAW grow.

All of the images have since been deleted, and this has been posted by way of ‘apology’:

When you make light of violence against women, you are complicit in reinforcing the idea that it’s okay to treat women this way – and using the excuse that ‘it’s just a joke’ means that you find violence against women funny. That’s the point of jokes, right? Sure, Eso’s not actually committing violence against real women, but the fact is that in Australia a staggering third of all women have or will experience physical violence in their lifetime, and a fifth will experience sexual violence.

Women dying at the hands of men is a devastatingly, infuriatingly common occurrence – on average, in Australia a woman dies every week as a result of domestic violence. Chris Brown causing serious bodily harm toward Rihanna was a real thing that actually happened. So no, you don’t get to write a piss-weak ‘apology’ and think that everything’s all #peace #love and #unity again, Eso.

You have 40k+ followers on Instagram and just as large a following on other social media; you don’t send out such a thoughtless and damaging message to your fans (what kind of person uses such violent hashtags in such a blasé manner?) and then think you can retract it all with a stock-standard ‘sorry if you were offended by my jokes’ statement that sounds like something a mum made his kid write because he got in trouble. It solves nothing.

It’s called fucking damage control, mate. Anyone who can post those kinds of pics in the first place doesn’t just ‘get it’ the next day. He’s only sorry for the uproar it caused.  

Perhaps even more disheartening than Eso’s photos were the numerous fans who quickly jumped up to defend him. Luckily, a few people with common sense attempted to call him out. The following are some comments made on Eso’s Rihanna photo – thomas_rock gets it right:

The staggering ignorance continues underneath Eso’s apology post:

Here’s a triple-whammy for you: blatant misogyny followed by slut-shaming and victim-blaming followed by ‘u guiiiise it was only a joke get a sense of humour about beatin’ up women lolol!’.

People rising up to criticise Eso’s actions on his Instagram posts were few and far between, but those who would consider Eso’s ‘humour’ to be in bad taste probably wouldn’t be following him in the first place. On that note, when a large part of your fanbase is young men and boys who look up to you, are influenced by you and will stand up for you against ‘haters’, that’s when you should think about the effect of potentially damaging actions the most.

Not to say that artists et al should aim to be role models if they don’t want to be put in that category (Eso has worked with disadvantaged youth, however, so it seems like he’s got some idea that kids might hold him in high regard and has some desire to impart his wisdom on them), but at least have some self-awareness and realise how your words and pictures will come across to impressionable young minds (and fully-grown but inherently sexist ones).

Elsewhere, people had much stronger negative reactions. Daily Life writer Clementine Ford posted about it on her Facebook page and received comments such as the following: 

We all need to speak up against violence against women – even ‘jokes’ about it – when we see it happening or being condoned. We need to stop supporting artists and other public figures who ignorantly or otherwise act like this towards women – the intention doesn’t matter when the result is grossly offensive and dangerous, and violence against women in any shape or form is inexcusable.

This blokey attitude that says, ‘Look at me pretending to beat up a woman (but not really doing it) – aren’t I hilarious’ teaches boys and young men – and women – that it’s not a big deal and that it’s acceptable to joke about, which only dilutes the seriousness of VAW when it really does happen. Don’t preach about peace, love and unity when you’re not even capable of using your brain for one second to stop yourself from being a misogynist dickhead.