A survivor of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub terrorist attack in Orlando spoke out Wednesday against Madonna’s new video “God Control,” saying the singer’s graphic depiction of a nightclub mass shooting was “really insensitive” to real survivors.
“As a survivor of gun violence, it was really hard to watch,” Patience Carter told TMZ. “I understood what she was trying to do with bringing awareness to the topic of gun control, but I don’t think that was the right way to go about doing it.
“For someone like me who actually saw these images, who actually lived these images, to see them again dramatized for views, dramatized for YouTube, I feel like it was really insensitive,” she said.
Madonna’s video for “God Control,” a song off her new album “Madame X,” starts with a disclaimer that reads, “The story you’re about to see is very disturbing. It shows graphic scenes of gun violence. But it’s happening everyday [sic] and it has to stop.”
The music video flashes to dramatized scenes of club-goers being gunned down by a mass shooter and bloody, lifeless bodies strewn across the dance floor.
The 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which claimed 49 lives, was the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Ms. Carter said she and two friends hid inside a handicapped bathroom stall while the shooter carried out his heinous attack. She said Madonna’s video was “grossly accurate” of what really occurred that night.
“You could not think about the person that was actually in these incidents, that actually lost someone, that actually had to experience that bloodshed firsthand,” Ms. Carter said. “Think about how they would feel reliving, because that’s what it is, we’re reliving this all over again. And it’s bringing up that pain, all that healing, all that growth can crumble with one video.”
Ms. Carter said Madonna should apologize for re-traumatizing victims and work on a more pronounced disclaimer for the video.
Madonna told People magazine that she hopes the “brutality” of the video will be a wake-up call for Americans.
“This is really happening. This is what it looks like. Does it make you feel bad? Good, cause then maybe you will do something about it,” she said. “Understand that this is what happens. Guns kill. A bullet rips through your body, knocks you to the floor and takes your life, and you bleed to death.
“I mean, this is reality,” she added. “People can watch it in action films, and they are OK with it, but when it is about the truth, the reality of what’s happening in our country, why is it too graphic?”
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