You might have concluded that Grimes had run out of her music video-making budget after she released the DIY The Ac!d Reign Chronicleslast October. But TIDAL has stepped in with some financial assistance, allowing Claire Boucher and Janelle Monáe to wield flaming swords and violins while decked out in cybergoth warrior attire in a seven minute visual orgy. Boucher directed and edited the video herself, and thanked TIDAL and Route Eleven (the production team) for bringing her vision to life:
"i put my whole heart and soul into this project; conceptualized, directed, edited, coloured and post-prod, nearly destroying my computer in the process lol. I hope y'all can feel the love and i hope this video takes u to a trippy alternate dimension where giant humanoid eva's play w bubbles made of what i imagine the christofilos effect looks like ( trapped charged particles along magnetic lines of force ). it is most assuredly not a realistic depiction, it's just a vision i've had in my mind for a while since i began studying the cold war earlier this year".
Grimes, Instagram
Art Angels (2015) contained many tracks with a feminist bent, and "Venus Fly" is very probably the very song that Boucher described as being inspired by the intention to be "too scary to be objectified" (Emilie Friedlander, The FADER). Against a maximalist art-pop sonicscape, Grimes and Monáe spell out the antithesis to The Pussycat Dolls' "Beep" in its attempt to intimidate voyeurs, sexual harassers and those who carelessly objectify women:
'Why you looking at me now?Why you looking at me again?What if I pulled my teeth?Cut my hair underneath my chinWrap my curls all around the worldThrow my pearls all across the floorFeeling my beat like a sniper girl(Cause I want it more)Hey, what about me?Oh, why you looking at me?Oh, why you looking at me?(Against the music)Hey, what about me?Oh, why you looking at me?Oh, why you looking at me? (Baby I can use it)'
Lyrics: Genius
Radio-friendly and almost playful, it runs in the same vein as M.I.A.'s "XXXO", without going as far as Channy Leaneagh' excavation of male-female relations in "Raw Exit". It works halfway between a direct threat to the privileged male gaze and a call to arms for female solidarity, while showcasing Grimes' freedom and agency to ecstatically experiment with genres, fashion, theatrical visuals and sonic influences as she sees fit.
