In the music industry it seems as though as soon as a naked woman is present in a music video, they’re definitely on the route for a ‘Blurred Lines’ case. Mini Mansions released their latest track ‘Vertigo’ and received this Robin Thicke like treatment. The track’s video shows women parading the screen topless, with little clothing, or with see-through garments. So evidently, this must mean that their intentions were the same of Thicke’s.
Although, let’s face it, they’re probably not. The video seems to be portraying the women as art, but arguably still objectifies them as there’s most likely not many male bands who would have men walking around naked being photographed by, in Mini Mansions’ case, their lead singer. Another worrying fact that points the band into the Thicke direction is way all the males in the video are fully clothed- with the band and their featuring member who needs no introduction, Alex Turner, sporting full suits throughout the track.
However it’s clear to see that the video is still rather “artsy”, which is the least bit unsurprising for another indie band. I guess, to make it balanced, the women aren’t always parading around naked. At the beginning of the video you’re immediately greeted by a woman, fully dressed, answering the phone. But then the lyrics suggest an altar-motive. “Oh, you know me from all my videos, isn’t it time we hit the road?” opens the track and immediately puts the woman in question in a vulnerable light. Oh! That’s great, you already know of me so, in all honesty, you’re probably already infatuated with me. When in fact, unless it was videos she saw on PornHub, I don’t understand why she’d want to immediately “hit the road” with you, and even if it was why does this equate to her wanting to hit anything with you.
This video’s a hard one if I’m honest, you can’t put a pin-point on the sexist nature of the track. It’s an ‘Elastic Heart’ problem all over again, posing with no clear motive. Whereas ‘Blurred Lines’ simply has “misogynistic” stamped all over it, the women weren’t even questionably used as art, they were simply used as objects for Robin Thicke to, probably, have his way with when the camera was off, and even on.
Referring to ‘Vertigo’ as another ‘Blurred Lines’ or, even worse, the “indie” ‘Blurred Lines’ is pretty much just a feminist rampage. If the band had cut out the use of the women as possessions, like when they’re nakedly used for the purpose of photography, then it would just seem pretty “artsy” and like the women are being appreciated in their true form, which they should be. So maybe next time they should put the women in clothing and photograph them then and suffer from the lack of males who are no longer interested, and so long to them.
