A look at Tate McRae’s new music video about being your own housewife. Plus: ‘Wicker’ and objectifying men in the name of non-objectifying love, and a controversial ‘You Can See Everything’ take.
A look at Tate McRae’s new music video about being your own housewife. Plus: ‘Wicker’ and objectifying men in the name of non-objectifying love, and a controversial ‘You Can See Everything’ take.
Welcome to the link roundup! We’ve got my controversial take on You Can See Everything, Wicker and objectifying men in the name of non-objectifying love, Tate McRae’s “housewife” aspirations, and more.
Girl boss your way to the soft life
Tate McRae’s new video for her chart-topping single Housewife features frenetic dance moves, a glitzy yacht montage, and a baby carriage filled with money. All the while she sings, “I just wanna make a lot of money, be my own housewife.”
On a lyric level, it’s a song about financial independence and the pleasure of wanting, but not needing, a man (“I don't need you, I want you, and that's my favorite thing”). The music video, though, comes across more as a fantasy of independent wealth, which is quite a different vibe. Less “women’s liberation” and more “I want to win at capitalism.”
Still: Tate McRae’s ‘Housewife.’
Recently, we’ve seen conservatives try to reframe early marriage and motherhood as a reasonable middle ground between extremes. You don’t have to choose between “tradwife” and “girl boss,” they claim, as a way of trying to lure women into prioritizing the first (at the expense of the latter, of course). Housewife seems to be striking its own kind of faux balance: girl bossing your way to the soft life.
But conservatives are taking the single as a full-on attack. As Maya Georgi reports:
Some users even changed the lyrics to “Be my man’s housewife,” so that they reflect their own married-life realities. One video shows a woman dancing in the mirror to the song that used the song’s original lyrics as text on top but adds a pointed parenthetical. It reads, “I just wanna be a stay at home mom, raise godly kids & serve my husband.”
Objectifying men in the name of non-objectifying love
In the latest episode of Dire Straights, Amanda Montei and I are talking about monster dick, which is to say: the appeal of monsters over monstrous men. This episode is tied to Halloween, of course, but also Wicker, which seems to be the cinematic event of the year, according to most women I know.
The film’s central figure—a perfect husband made of wicker—isn’t a monster, exactly, but he also isn’t human. As some have put it, he’s “a sexy basket man.” I saw the movie over the weekend with a group of middle-aged women much like myself. The entire theater was filled with the same.
Still: Wicker
I thought it was a delightful fable about the perils of objectification and ownership within relationships. Of course, most of that critique focuses on the human men in the film—and the way objectification of women is institutionalized via marriage within their town.
There’s a point, though, where Olivia Coleman’s character becomes jealous and possessive of her hot wicker husband, because rumors are circulating that hot wicker husband is sleeping with all the unhappy wives in town (I really wanted this to be true, but alas). After the rumors are cleared up, the couple makes up, and she promises to never treat him like an object again.
I appreciate the critique of monogamy culture that could be read between the lines. It also made me think of the commercial phenomenon around the movie, which has focused on the giddy objectification of this sexy basket man. There’s the popcorn bucket shaped after wicker man’s torso and the woven nipple pasties given out at select theaters.
Is that in conflict with the moral message of the movie? I dunno, man. I think the film and the cultural phenomenon around it are doing two very different things. ...
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Our website services, content, and products are for informational purposes only. Healthline does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should not be used as a substitute for medical advice from a healthcare professional. Healthline encourages you to make any treatment decisions with your healthcare professional.
Every product we recommend has gone through either Healthline’s or Optum Now’s vetting processes. If you buy through links on this page, we may receive a small commission or other tangible benefit. Healthline has sole editorial control over this newsletter. Potential uses for the products listed here are not health claims made by the manufacturers. Healthline and Optum Now are owned by RVO Health.
