Week 4: Are You Smart Or Sexy? - Music Video

Below is a music video from British girl group the Sugababes, "About A Girl", released in 2009. In it, three women are on their way to meet a group of male criminals for some kind of exchange, in which the men plan to dupe the women. Things don't go according to plan, and the girls end up beating up the criminals and drive off into the sunset victoriously. As all of this occurs, the Sugababes are shown posing and dancing provocatively in tight leather outfits.

"You don't know about a girl / I'll take over the world"; "You think I'm sassy, huh? / I'm international / Think you can make me fall? / What do you know?". The song is clearly meant to be some kind of woman's anthem, but I find the duality in the portrayal of women astonishing. The three women in the car are dressed relatively modestly, and their narrative shows them overcoming the criminals' perception that they are "just girls" and will be easily defeated, while the Sugababes themselves cater to sexualized male fantasies: they spread their legs, squat, slap each other on the bum. And strangely enough, the original concept would have had the group members themselves playing the three women in the car (this was only canceled because there were about 7 line-up changes during the filming of the video... gotta love girl groups).

The differences between this and another "girl anthem" they did a few years ago are astonishing (although even that one has its issues).

Sugababes - About a Girl [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO] by ChaOko_01