TASK 6: Boys by Charli XCX

Boys by Charli XCX

This next video, I think is a stroke of genius. When I first watched it through it did take me a second to work out exactly what was going on but I think it's so clever and compilation of clips make this video relatively simple yet so effective.

The whole idea was to turn the male gaze on it's head and poke a little bit of fun at the way women are objectified in film, tv and music videos. The video is full of influential male celebrities; Stormzy, Tom Daley and more. I think the fact that she's chosen particularly influential males really helps portray the message she's trying to get across and helps emphasise the play on direction.

There are references to other media texts like in this screenshot of Brendon Urie channeling his inner 'American Beauty', a film partially about a girl who is obsessed with having boys, men and actually just everyone, obsessed with her. 

I think this one is quite an interesting shot that goes well with the repeated lyrics, "I was busy thinking 'bout boys". To me, I think this is an image of the "psycho girlfriend" who's constantly chasing up their boyfriend's whereabouts and who their with etc. It presents girls in a light that makes us seem as if we 're male obsessed and that we have nothing better to do with our time than think about boys. 

I like that most of the video is in pink, has a pink backdrop or includes men wearing pink because it plays with the idea that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. Girls stay in and look after the children and do the washing up, whilst boys go out to work and play. 

In a lot of both music videos and films, there is a pretty stereotypical type of girl you see and it is kind of ignored that there are all different kinds of 'sexy'. It doesn't just begin and end at the girl with an hourglass body, with big boobs and a bum but still a tiny waist and a thigh gap and also has long blond hair and wears pink, etc. There are all different kinds and shape of women who deserve to be represented for something other than what they look like.

As much as this video can be looked at and the representation of women come to mind I do think it's also important to just look at what's been shot and think about the representation of men in this. I do think this is a really great video and one reason for this is because it's just 3 minutes of men taking the mick out of themselves, "doing all the sexy things women usually do in music videos". A lot of the time men are shown to be these tough and macho beings that aren't to show any kind of emotion but here I think the men in this video are showing that it's ok to not take yourself so seriously the whole time, that it's ok to show some emotion or as some might call it, their 'feminine side'.

I think the target audience for this video should start at a younger age of maybe around 11 and I think it should be aimed at everyone, boys, girls, all genders and sexualities. Even though the video itself isn't serious, it's portraying an important message. Charli XCX has been a huge part of the LGBT community and says she's using her fame to create a platform advances LGBT rights. She's currently signed to Warner Music Group who have worked with other artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue who are also huge icons within the LGBT community.