I Miss My MTV: Women Gone Wild (I Get Weak)
Music videos of the MTV era are about sexual desire. Putting it on display, assuring the audience about who is sexually desirable, who deserves to be desired and lessons on how to be sexually desired. There’s the blatant sexism that bordered on parody [Sir Mix a Lot] and writing models [Here I Go Again] to the downright disgusting [2 Live Crew.] A friend of mine growing up used to obsess over Guns N Roses Videos, deciding which of the girls in the videos were us. We had a methodological way of choosing which one was which. And we got to be more than one; it was more about getting equitable identities within each video. If there was an uneven number, we did some bargaining; we got the one extra one if we gave up a really good one: a prime choice was the woman in bed with Slash in “Patience” or one of the wedding dates of the band in “November Rain.”
Were we post puberty horniness for feminized looking men? Sure. But this make believe scenario was always about power; who held the sexual desirability as power (of course, I didn’t actually use those words back then.) And the super sexual ones were not always the popular picks; the classy ones who got the gaze of the band but wasn’t so obvious.
But what of us who were totally pining for the guys in the videos? Is there an opposite but equal opportunity? What about women who were horny as hell for a guy? These were seen as monsters ad mentally ill women who needed to be stopped. Except a select few videos, which truly give the story over to sexual desire: getting it, not getting it, not ashamed of it, even fighting for it.
There are a few standouts that celebrate the horny woman, and I am here to celebrate them.
Nothing captures this more than Belinda Carlyle's "I Get Weak." (1988)
First, you need to know this was directed by Diane Keaton, Annie Hall herself, the first manic pixie dream girl. The black and white with select color elements was a feat, as well as the practical effects of women free-falling and walking around blind and binding at the feet all representing the physical implications of being in total lust.
Women sit in a theater watching a screen showing l’ojet de desire , is merely a repository of idea beauty, the camera circles him, trapping him in a theater of desire. And rightly so- the model is Tony Ward, former boyfriend of Madonna and with the profile of a Greek God. (He later became a somewhat successful photographer, now a bridal gown designer, and muse of artist Bruce La Bruce, he women are practically going out of their minds. Their desire is literally driving them out of their minds. Surprisingly, they are not competing over the man. Lusting is a community sport.
Belinda, our hero, marches right past the swooning women to claim her prize. The rest of the woman are sucked into the vortex of smoke (hello dry ice), dragged to a hell made of their own unfulfilled libidos.
Belinda dissolves into the screen, overtaking the man and covering his mouth, with a devious smile, implies that she will have her way with him, the ultimate prize. We know nothing about him, except he is hot. Consent issues aside, the prize is not the man, but a satisfaction of her sexual desire. Could this all be a metaphor for masturbation? Maybe. A feminist switcher-oo? Now that she is in the movie, she too now is gazed upon with desire by the other women, showing she is not just driven by her own sexual needs, but to be desired by the others in the audience; this is not in an egotistical way, it’s almost done with confidence.
But who is this man? Does it matter who he is or just that others desire him?
A slight pivot of interpretation and this video is a terrifying nightmare.