Red Dress Day & Avatar's “Death and Glitz”
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Media narratives about violence against women
A Tune for Today
After more than a month of book reviews and discussion, today I wanted to give a nod to a song that's been stuck in my head for a long time – for both its unique riff and evocative message.
Today (May 5th) is also Red Dress Day, which honors the lives and memories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited People in Canada, The United States, and beyond. To quote from https://amnesty.ca/red-dress-day/:
Indigenous women and girls make up less than 5% of the Canadian population but represent approximately 24% of all homicide victims. They are 12x more likely to be murdered. Over 60% of Indigenous women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
A statistics Canada report showed that 56% of Indigenous women experience intimate partner violence, more than double the rate for non-Indigenous people.
Indigenous women constitute 41.4% of the federally incarcerated female population, despite representing just over 4% of the Canadian female population.
That site is an incredible resource for learning more about this issue, both historically and how it continues to threaten lives and communities today. I've previously written about Cherie Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves, which follows Indigenous characters in a dystopian setting, and about Postcolonial Narratives & Empathy Burnout, where I discuss my own struggles with raising the flag for every single issue I'd ideally like to support.
I'll also admit here that I didn't plan to mesh these two topics until about two hours ago, but I think the connection is real and worth exploring. So, let's give it a shot.
Death and Glitz
If you want a little background on (or more of) Avatar, I've previously written about their song "Hail the Apocalypse", which features the immortal line 'all flesh is equal when burnt'. A grim and shocking way to convey ideas about equality, but in my mind a truthful and effective one!
"Death and Glitz" isn't much subtler. Johannes Eckerström, Avatar's front man and songwriter, described the song as being about the perversion and detachment with which true crime – and the media in general – is wont to treat (particularly young and attractive) female victims.
They like you more like this A tragedy with tits Keep racking up the hits They love your death and glitz No-one more obedient than you No pulse // Just a doll-like face and figure Pose // For the crime investigators Pictures of your face // Every front page Homeless runaway Hey, hey!
The subject, whoever she may have been, becomes defined by her gender/body and her victimhood. Any and all agency is torn away, her story a blank canvas to be twisted into any gruesome shape for the storyteller's purposes. Her death and beauty make her so much more malleable and engaging than she ever could have been in life, with humanity and personhood.
Every single line is vicious. An earlier one – "Foam from her mouth // Finger on her wrist // Girl what did you do?" – combined with "Homeless runaway" suggests that the media is also more than willing to throw blame at her if that's what will get them more clicks. That feels particularly relevant with regard to Red Dress Day, since so often racialized victims are assigned greater blame by the media.
(And I think the song's meaning can be a little broader as well, possibly extending to ideas of celebrity and how – again, particularly young women's – public images can grow beyond individual control, be shaped to fit different narratives.)
Awareness & Hope
What I deeply love about Avatar is that, while their songs are going for some of that heavy metal shock value, they are often also pointing at a real issue or idea. The band certainly doesn't share the song's perspective, but by assuming this gritty disco party tone to revel in this woman's death and glitz, they're exposing the real people and industries who are profiting off these victims.
Less than ten years ago, I was walking around the University of Toronto campus and saw red dresses hanging from a number of trees, and had no idea what it was about. Today I do, and I think there are significantly more Canadians aware of the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited People – whether because of Red Dress Day, the National Inquiry, or the Calls for Justice which continue to demand attention almost seven years after publication.
The image of the red dress symbolizes the absence of a loved one – a person who should be present if not for systemic violence. It grants a personhood to the victim and forces the viewer to acknowledge them, in sharp contrast to the way "Death and Glitz" shows the media stripping women of their agency and identity.
As with every piece of media I cover, I wanted to write about "Death and Glitz" because it moved me in a novel way and articulated an true aspect of our world I hadn't quite understood beforehand. Before I go, a quote from Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House:
“But would it have mattered if she’d been someone else? If she’d been a social butterfly, they would have said she liked to drink away her pain. If she’d been a straight-A student, they would have said she’d been eaten alive by her perfectionism. There were always excuses for why girls died.”
Thanks for reading and until next time <3
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