The videos coming out of Janelle Monáe's recent singles have been visually stunning and increasingly queer. Back when the video for "Make Me Feel" dropped in February, Twitter was losing it over the bisexual themes that were woven throughout song. In the video for "PYNK," which dropped today, the themes aren't so much woven as they are shouted, with Monáe both singing heavily suggestive lyrics and parading suggestive imagery throughout the video. This is a fancy way of saying the video is filled with vaginas.
Let's just start with the lyrics, which come in hot with "Pink like the inside of your..." Your what? Vagina. It's vagina. Then there's "Pink like the folds of your brain," but also vagina. And also "Cause boy it's cool if you got blue / We got the pink." Vaginas. We have vaginas.
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For instance, these are vaginas:
This is a vagina:
This clam is a vagina:
This cat is a pussy. Which is a vagina.
This is an actual vagina:
This donut is a vagina:
This grapefruit is a vagina:
This video functions both as an ownership of the female anatomy, but also an embrace of sexual fluidity. It's a love letter but doesn't directly label or define the relationship or the gender of the subject. That being said, it does suggest a lot of things, which seems half on purpose, half Monáe having fun with just how many vaginal references she can get into the video.
Overall, however, it's about so much more. The video features a lot of familiar faces, like Tessa Thompson, and is set to an extremely catchy song. Check out the full video below: