"I…felt kind of sorry for this curelessly horny guy."
January 30, 2019 7:33 PM   Subscribe

When she’s not touring as part of the backing bands for such artists as Beck and Lorde, [Alex] Lilly is busy crafting sparkly and smart pop gems that are as spiky as they are sweet. Case in point: the acerbic synth-wave anthem “Pornographic Mind” [NSFW]. It’s Lilly’s exasperated ode to workplace harassment, a darkly comic tale that’s far too relatable.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (4 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I liked the video a lot, thank you for posting.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:00 AM on January 31, 2019


Before I watch the video can I get some takes on how upsetting it is likely to be to watch if you have experienced sexual harassment and assault?
posted by medusa at 12:22 PM on January 31, 2019


I'm not well equipped to answer that directly, but a short summary if it helps:

Subject matter concerns a male coworker who takes every opportunity to twist something the singer said into a sexual reference or double entendre. Most of the video is an office setting, coworkers in conversation, the singer looking increasingly put off. Woven in are flashes of the inside of the pornographic mind - a woman dancing in various sexualized outfits in a dark setting. Towards the end, the singer enters his mind, through his ear. She is confronted with an increasing pile of sexually charged objects and other scenes where anonymous gloved hands paw at her from the dark corners of the screen.

This last part may be upsetting, depending on whether the fantasy setting distances the impact for you.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:59 PM on January 31, 2019 [3 favorites]


medusa, I have experienced both sexual harassment and assault but found the video cute and watchable. Of course, I hesitate to say if it’s triggering for anyone other than myself because it can be so varied.

If it helps, the end did not ping the “this is a woman being assaulted for laughs” alarm in my brain that goes off far too often. It was done in a way that made me roll my eyes at the man, not in a way that made me feel like she was in danger. There are dildos and other sexual paraphernalia but the video somehow avoids making the “inside a brain” scene feel feel pornographic or scary. At least for me — again, this is subjective.

The man himself doesn’t touch her during the video and you can’t hear what he is saying, you just see him talking to her and her grimacing but not looking scared or intimidated. Without the description beforehand, I’m not sure I would have understood this was a song about sexual harassment until near the end.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 3:26 PM on January 31, 2019


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