The overt misogyny in Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ movie
While Prince is rightly heralded as one of the most talented musicians of all time, one particular facet of his work is sometimes overlooked. Prince was a purveyor of all things sexualised, and his sonic explorations are some of the most erotic pieces ever conceived.
However, in the 1984 film Purple Rain, Prince explored eroticism and sexuality with a complete disregard for the respect of women. Perhaps the film is trapped in the socio-political times of the 1980s, a particularly bad period for the equality and status of women.
The film was Prince’s acting debut and was written and directed by Albert Magnoli – who would later become Prince’s manager. The plot is somewhat biographical and details The Kid – played by Prince – and his quest to succeed in the burgeoning Minneapolis music scene.
The Kid and his mother are verbally and physically abused by The Kid’s father, though The Kid tries to ignore this abuse and spends his time rehearsing with his band, The Revolution, and playing at the First Avenue nightclub as one of three house bands. The Kid also competes with another house band, The Time, led by Morris Day.
The shocking misogyny of the film is first revealed when The Kid discovers that Day has planned to have The Kid’s girlfriend, Apollonia, front a new all-female band. Rather than ask Apollonia why she had prepared to accept the offer, he instead decides the best course of action is to hit her, replicating the abuse he had experienced from his father.
Eventually, Apollonia is disgusted by Day’s advancements and continues to go with The Kid, partly because she believes this will advance her career. This only goes to show the status of 1980s women in the music industry; they were only able to climb the ladder to success on the coattails of men.
When Apollonia asks The Kid for help, he says he will only aid her if she purifies herself by swimming in Lake Minnetonka. When The Kid drives Apollonia to the suspected lake, she removes her clothes and takes a dip. However, The Kid cruelly reveals “that ain’t Lake Minnetonka” and drives off without her.
While much of the ill-treatment of women is directed toward Apollonia, there is also the fact that Day catches wind of a rift in The Revolution because the Kid refuses to listen to any of the compositions that the female members of his band write, dismissing them out of hand, perhaps because they have been penned by women.
So The Kid persistently toys with the female characters in the films, playing mind games with them to get his own way. Another musician character is seen literally throwing a woman into a rubbish tip as a means to end an argument between her and Day. At the same time, Day treats women with no respect whatsoever, voyeuristically having them audition for him as dancers while he showers them with misogynistic verbal abuse.
While much of the script and its action and dialogue is a result of the work of Magnoli, Prince must have had at least some hand in it. And even though the film attempts to explain that much of the misogyny occurs due to childhood abuse and trauma, little redemption occurs. As such, the film ought to be removed from the United States National Film Registry, where it has been preserved for its “cultural, historical and aesthetic significance.”
