WARNING: If you have been touch-starved for two months because of social distancing and self-isolation, Harry Styles’s new video may cause you to feel exceedingly hot and bothered and there may be some flooding in your basement (iykwim).
Yesterday, Harry Styles released the video for his song “Watermelon Sugar” which was trending #1 on YouTube yesterday. It’s my favourite song offFine Line, and it’s also a great summer bop that I feel like listening to on a patio with a cold drink. When I first heard the song, I naively thought it was just about love and missing someone. It’s obviously about sex. Harry even told us that he wants to sing aboutbeing sad and having sex. But the song was never explicit.
“Tastes like strawberries on a summer evenin'
And it sounds just like a song
I want your belly and that summer feelin'
I don't know if I could ever go without”
See? It’s not immediately apparent!
So as excited as I was about this video, I also didn’t know what to expect. Harry’s videos don’t always correlate to the meaning of the song. Remember when the “Adore You” video was just abouta huge ass fish? Watching “Watermelon Sugar”, it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. The video is…how do I put this delicately…horny as f-ck.
Like the song, it’s not really explicit. There’s just a bunch of people eating watermelon. However, it’s clear that there’s a not-so-hidden meaning. Especially when the video opens with this:
Maybe it’s the quarantine in me, but yeah… HOT.
One question. Comparing this along with “Lights Up”, I wonder: Does Harry have a lot of group sex? As a celebrity, he could if he wanted to. I’m not insinuating that he does, but I do need the answer for um… personal reasons.
At the beginning, Harry dedicates the video to touching, because Harry understands how “Watermelon Sugar” is going to be received. It was obviously filmed much earlier, and maybe it wouldn’t have been so titillating if we lived in different times. But a video featuring a lot of touching in the middle of a global pandemic can be read two ways.
LikeVogue, you can see it as a celebration of physical joy. (Vogue also points out, in detail, the amazing outfits that Harry wears.) Alternatively, you can view it as temptation or longing, painfully reminding us of what we can’t have. Either way, it’s a statement, one that on his Instagram, he makes sure to use as a reminder to stay inside.
There’s something else that’s special about “Watermelon Sugar”. Even though there’s a lot of straight up sexiness in, no one seems exploited or objectified. There’s a lot of “sex” in music videos, but rarely does it seem natural and fun. There’s usually a man surrounded by lots of women who act more like accessories and props than participants.
In “Watermelon Sugar”, everything seems consensual and respectful. And it’s almost sexier because of that. That too is the vibe that’s being reported by the models themselves. In almost all their posts and stories, they talk about how comfortable the shoot was, and how respectful Harry and his team were. It was just a fun beach day.
My favourite story is from one of the women, Ephrata. She explains in an Instagram Live that Harry asked if he could touch her hair, if that would be okay. The consent was two-way too, with Ephrata asking Harry if it was okay for her to kiss him on his cheek. That sounds like a positive, creative environment. One that is so, so, so refreshing given the stories we know about Hollywood.
We love our respectful, polite, and educated king, even if watermelons will never be the same.
