The music video for “Lucky,” a song off of the pop and R&B album Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain, starts with an old-fashioned title card reminiscent of an old Hollywood film introducing Raveena and “The Worm.” You then see Raveena—wearing headphones and glasses and holding a book—run to her window and stare with intrigue at The Worm walking by her house. The Worm is a human-sized caterpillar, a literal interpretation of the “love-starved shell” and “black shades” Raveena says her lover hides behind in her lyrics. The music video then shows a montage of Raveena and The Worm on dates at a bookstore or having a picnic, making drinks, playing the piano, and slow dancing. These scenes are spliced with up close shots on a cam recorder of them seemingly documenting falling in love while Raveena croones “my feminine love can heal all the hurt.” Occasionally, lyrics will be displayed on the bottom of the screen: “let me be your escape from the world,” and “you must know one thing—I will change.”
The second chorus sees Raveena waking up, looking around, and realizing her lover had turned into a little moth beside her. A white, plague doctor-esque moth holding a single white rose looks over the scene, before the cam recorder montage of Raveena and The Worm falling in love returns, with more lyrics displayed: “if only you can see how you make me blush,” “I see your roses in every moment,” and “won’t you see them fall?”
The music video ends with Raveena slowly walking towards a giant chrysalis in a white dress, then going back to the scene where Raveena sees the little moth. . . only this time, it flies away.
The song and music video is about the transformational power of love, how the right relationship can help a person grow their wings.
The only characters featured in the music video are Raveena—a beautiful thirty-two year old Indian American woman—and The Worm. While the montage scenes feel like they could have been taken from any movie depicting a love story, the social roles are somewhat subverted given that the love interest is a caterpillar, with no clear gender, age, class, or ethnicity. However, the identity of The Worm never posed a problem in their love story; both Raveena and The Worm are represented as normal, valuable, and worthy of love. Neither are objectified. While the ambiguity of The Worm’s identity seems to be a general representation of otherization (and not a specific intersection of marginalized identities), The Worm itself is not othered.
As a music video, it’s a pretty lighthearted and silly piece of media. However, I found the rejection of the typical over sexualization of young, beautiful women in music videos no less meaningful!
3 replies on “Would you still love me if I was a worm?”
After reading your blog post, I went and watched the music video and I very much agree with your analysis! It is refreshing to see a woman of color and an animal (bug?) in the same space without any under/overtones of hypersexualization; historically, we might expect to see some uncomfortable, disturbing association between WOC and animals emphasizing their “inherent” savagery or lust. What I also found striking about the music video is its uprooting of a heteronormative vision of love, the dreamy, innocent kind of love we find reserved usually for straight, conventionally attractive couples. Here, the unconventional characters (a woman of color and a caterpillar) cast a potent re-imagining of who has access to that magical kind of intimacy, that queer relationships can also experience a sweet and delicious violet-toned love. I also appreciate the anonymity of the caterpillar lover – – yes, they are the “other” but that “other” holds so much potential and possibility!
After reading your blog post, I went and watched the music video and I very much agree with your analysis! It is refreshing to see a woman of color and an animal (bug?) in the same space without any under/overtones of hypersexualization; historically, we might expect to see some uncomfortable, disturbing association between WOC and animals emphasizing their “inherent” savagery or lust. What I also found striking about the music video is its uprooting of a heteronormative vision of love, the dreamy, innocent kind of love we find reserved usually for straight, conventionally attractive couples. Here, the unconventional characters (a woman of color and a caterpillar) cast a potent re-imagining of who has access to that magical kind of intimacy, that queer relationships can also experience a sweet and delicious violet-toned love. I also appreciate the anonymity of the caterpillar lover – – yes, they are the “other” but that “other” holds so much potential and possibility!
When I watched this music video, I really enjoyed the use of a worm love interest. The worm’s lack of specified identity allows the worm to be whoever the viewer wants it to be and is not constrained by a fixed gender, racial, etc. identity. This open-endedness combined with the lack of gendered lyrics allows the song and music video to be accessible and affirming to queer audiences. Through focusing on core themes, namely the healing power of love, rather than the identity of the love interest, Raveena creates an expansive depiction of love rather than a strict, definite, and exclusive representation.