"They’re basically doing all the sexy things that girls usually do in videos [...] I've turned it around! [...] I started thinking about all the guys that I’ve worked with or met over my years in the industry [...] I just want to flip the male gaze on its head and have you guys do the sexy stuff".
Charli XCX, BBC Radio 1
Charli XCX recently served up the eye and ear candy with "Boys": a minimalist and breezy synthpop track that features video game bleeps which sound off after every repetition of the word 'boys'. The song is fun, catchy and playful in a way that contrasts with the bombast of the British singer-songwriter's energetic and maximalist past hits. She's not doing very much in the song's lyrics this time, besides apologizing for blowing her girlfriends off as she spends her time alone, lost in her own lust-filled daydreams: 'I was busy thinkin' 'bout boys, boys, boys/ Always busy dreamin' 'bout boys, boys, boys/ Head is spinnin' thinkin' 'bout boys'.
The song's music video, a product of XCX co-directing a staggering number (60!) of contemporary male music and entertainment personalities to 'act cute and sexy' against a whimsical color palette that privileges millennial pink, adds some symbolic weight and feminist prestige to the song. After branding it a 'Best New Track', Pitchfork has praised the music video for presenting a diverse representation of modern masculinity, while praising it for advancing the legitimacy of female fandom. XCX has also spoken openly about the challenges of being a feminist female performer before, and is noted for touring and performing with an all-female backing band.
It is worth noting that XCX's music video, as intriguing as it is, does not subvert the objectification of women in music videos in the same way that Elastica's 1995 music video for its post-punk single 'Connection" did (where the band performed nonchalantly in the company of numerous conventionally attractive, passive and nude male models). XCX does flip the script by getting in the director's seat and recruiting men to act out her sexual fantasies instead, but what she has in mind is not particularly objectifying, demeaning or dehumanizing (save for the topless torso of the Ken doll on the song's artwork). The female gaze is really more the female imagination (she was not merely lusting after the visuals, after all) - and personality, individuality and agency appear to be an integral part of the script. All the 'boys' are presented as sexual subjects, instead of mere objects.
