Today, Jenny Lewis' premiered the music video for her Beck-produced song “Just One of the Guys.” It is silly to perfection. And it has more than just Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway and Brie Larson in drag to unpackage.
I think of Jenny Lewis as an artist whose spent a career surrounded by dudes. She started up with in Rilo Kiley at the age 22 with all-guys, toured with the Postal Service, written and recorded music with her boyfriend Johnathan Rice as Jenny & Johnny, works in an indie rock industry that is male-dominated. In her earliest career, she was a child actress, and now she writes scores and soundtracks for film. (Though, don't discount: she also recorded and toured with ladies The Watson Twins, who helped launch her as a solo act, a wonderful ensemble.)
In a lot of industries, being “just one of the guys” holds serious social capitol as a woman. This can take a variety of forms, but I think it whittles down to having a voice and being a hang that isn't perceptively different from males around you. The stereotypes: farting, drinking whiskey, talking about hot girls, low self-maintenance, Chuck Taylors, whatever.
In Lewis' video, dressing in drag means lampooning these cliches, but also offers social commentary to what the content of her song actually speaks to: “No matter how hard I try to be just one of the guys / there's a little something inside that won't let me… There's only one difference between you and me / when I look at myself all I can see / I'm just another lady without a baby.”
Lewis is 38 years old. The video shows her taking a pregnancy test, she makes reference to her “ticking clock” and how “all our friends they get it on / But the girls are still staying young.” Her age and her want/ability to bear children weighs on Lewis in this song, who acknowledges how “hard” she wants to be one of the guys while at the same time shrugging off the ageist tendencies of her “friends” as so-typical at best and sexist at worst. There are those outside forces and there are those inside her, as the “sister to my own sorrow.”
And I don't think Lewis' selection of talent for her music video directorial debut is coincidence, either. Brie Larson, Kristen Stewart and Anne Hathaway (and collaborator-drummer-actress Tennessee Thomas) are fans of Lewis' work, but they can also be stand-ins for industry double standards. I think of Hathaway as ultra-feminine, and her famous tears for “Les Miserables” are recreated here as she apes as a dude. “Twilight” franchise star Kristen Stewart is an accidental celebrity in a lot of ways, and took the brunt of attacks over her romantic life's foibles. Brie Larson is a comedic and dramatic actress, who so far seems to actively avoid compromising roles that box her into one type of character or another.
So, yes, dressing them in (tacky) drag is funny on its face; it makes light what is heavy. But it's also a shot back at baby-making, “having it all” notions, topics rendered inapproachable “if I were a boy…” They're a crop of what ladies do and do not do, as the last lines of the song suggest.
Which takes it to some next-level sh*t debuting it on GQ, the self-proclaimed “authority on men.” It's a deliberate choice — a little bit of punking, a little of education, a little subtext, a little empowerment. (I find that emphasis of the article is on the “fun” of the shoot, and a light mention of how good Brie Larson looks as a bro.)
Aside from/because of/despite all that, it's a great tune to boot.
“Just One of the Guys,” produced by and featuring Beck, is on Jenny Lewis' next solo album “Voyager,” out on July 29.
Read the full lyrics below the video.
All our friends they get it on
But the girls are still staying young
if I get caught being rude in a conversation
with the child-bride on a summer vacation
No matter how hard I try to be just one of the guys
there's a little something inside that won't let me
no matter how hard I try to have an open mind
there's a little voice inside that prevents me
And how I live you got me here
locked in this bathroom full of tears
and I have begged for you and I have borrowed
but I've been the only sister to my own sorrow
No matter how hard I try to be just one of the guys
there's a little something inside that won't let me
no matter how hard I try to have an open mind
there's a little clock inside that keeps tickin'
There's only one difference between you and me
when I look at myself all I can see
I'm just another lady without a baby
No matter how hard I try to be just one of the guys
there's a little something inside that won't let me
no matter how hard I try to have an open mind
there's a little cop inside that prevents me
I'm not gonna break for you, I'm not gonna pray for you, I'm not gonna pay for you
that's not what ladies do