How to Girlwatch

It's relatively common to complain about the fetishization of video vixens, but I think those kinds of arguments often miss the point. It's entirely possible to have pretty girls in music videos, or really, in any kind of visual medium, and to have boys (or girls) watch them, and to be playful, clever, and not grossly sexist. I don't think every instance of approving male gaze on the female form has to be a form of oppression. And while it's old, I think the video for the Crookers remix of Kid Cudi's "Day 'n' Night" is a reasonable compromise on the form:



It's goofy, and the girls are definitely objects of slack-jawed admiration. But it's clear that these are the results of one man's bored imagination, that this is the way he sees them rather than precisely the way they are. It's a clever little balancing act, and I'm sure not all audiences get it, which is always a problem—you don't want to rely too much on your audience's comprehension level, but lecturing is dull as hell. But in any case, one video isn't going to tip the tide, and this is a fun little experiment.