blouse by clairo
objectification and over-sexualization of women
"Why do I tell you how I feel? / When you’re just looking down my blouse"
- Clairo, “Blouse”
Analysis
I love the lyrics of this song because they hold a visceral weight that all women, or possibly people in general, will identify with. Clairo tenderly illuminates and delivers the internal battle of feeling objectified with her soft voice. Objectification is at the root of women’s inequality, oppression, low self-worth, and fixation on appearance. As opposed to many other songs about objectification being angry ballads about confidence and revenge, Clairo instead makes a striking statement on the unnerving feeling in a gentle and somber matter.
In this song, Clairo describes the desire for genuine connections with others but feeling limited to being someone who is not listened to but instead overly sexualized.
“It's something I wouldn't say out loud
If touch could make them hear, then touch me now”
According to Nylon, Clairo wrote this verse about the predatory producers in the music industry, explaining why she no longer goes to studio sessions alone. Initially, the behavior of the producers discouraged Clairo as an artist, “I have moments where I wonder if it even matters what I write. I put in so much effort, but is it going to get to a point where I’m just overly sexualized again? You’re so desperate for someone to hear you out that you just let them do it.”
Here we are, quiet at your kitchen table
With courtesy to little pet peeves
Napkins on laps, strands pulled back
I hang the scarf and my mom's anorak
What we have here in the introduction of the song is a kitchen table conversation. A conversation she is expecting to take place professionally. She’s hung her scarf and coat, her hair has been pulled back, and she’s seated herself courteously and elegantly with a napkin in her lap. She’s come prepared to speak, to be heard, but her male colleague is staring down her shirt before she can even finish sharing her pre-rehearsed ideas. She feels defeated. She decides that ‘if this is what it takes for them to hear me, so be it.’ And emotionally withdraws herself from the conversation
“Why do I tell you how I feel
When you're just looking down the blouse?
It's something I wouldn't say out loud
If touch could make them hear, then touch me now”
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