After a rocky split from his former boy band, One Direction, Zayn Malik has finally released a new single and music video as a way to launch his new solo career. While I have personally missed Zayn’s unique voice and soulful eyes as much as the next One Direction fan, I’m not too keen on the new direction that Zayn went in his music video. Besides being a carbon copy of something that The Weeknd would produce, the music video to his new single, “Pillowtalk,” exploits the Western beauty standard and stereotypes of black, female sexuality as a way to convey its message.
To sum it up, the video is a combination of trippy images and of Zayn kissing his beautiful, thin, blond, supermodel girlfriend, Gigi Hadid. The only other person in the music video is the equally beautiful, thin, black, British actress Jodie Smith. However, she is only shown in ways that emphasize her sexuality, which is the main problem that I have with the video. While Gigi is shown having intimate and compassionate moments with Zayn, the scenes with Jodie include a flower blooming from her crotch as she spreads her legs, metal spikes shooting out from her face, and dark silhouettes of her body.
Do these observations even mean anything? Even though Zayn had been famously dubbed as the “deep and mysterious” member of One Direction, I’m sure he did not purposefully include any symbolic content in his new music video. However, by associating Gigi with the emotional side of a relationship while Jodie solely represents sex, Zayn further propagates the impossible standard of beauty and promotes the stereotypes of black female sexuality.
Gigi, a perfect representation of this cultural beauty standard, is Zayn’s love interest in the video because she is seen as the “ideal” woman – white, blond, thin, and beautiful. Additionally, this idyllic perception of Gigi is further exemplified in the lyrics of the song. The parts of the song when Zayn is singing about how pillow talk is a “paradise” are almost always paired with images of Gigi, which further connects Gigi to being the quintessential woman.
In comparison to how Gigi is presented in the video, Jodie is portrayed through the lens of stereotypical black femininity. Throughout history, black women have been labeled only for their sexuality. This stereotype is represented in Zayn’s video, as the majority of Jodie’s scenes focuses on or emphasizes her body. In contrast with Gigi being described as a “paradise,” Jodie is characterized as a “war zone.” This phrase is even literally written on her shoulder. The blooming flower, the metal spikes on her face, and the general aggressive theme associated with Jodie not only paints a picture of the black woman as overtly sexual, but it also almost creates an image related to the characteristics of primitivism. In addition to placing Jodie in the stereotypical box of black sexuality, the video also degrades Jodie by further constructing her race through a Western perspective.
“Pillowtalk” is an extremely catchy song, and I’m still a fan of Zayn. His most recent music video does not reflect him as an artist, but it represents the continuous cycle of objectification that keeps dominating the music industries because that is what record labels believe will sell. In the words of Zayn, his video tried to show a “paradise,” but instead it created a “war zone.”