Janelle Monáe’s new music video is a celebration of the color pink, but it’s also a celebration of something else—donuts, grapefruits cut in half, a wet, long-haired cat, and, obviously, a vagina.
“Pynk” is the third video from Monáe’s eagerly anticipated second album, Dirty Computer. A happy little bop, the song reunites her with Grimes and essentially rubs the public’s face in the ongoing rumor that Monáe and Tessa Thompson are dating.
We can’t confirm that they are dating, but at one point, Thompson’s face peeks out from betwixt the legs of Monáe, who is wearing pants styled to look like a vagina, so at the least they’re having fun with the rumors.
What starts off as a rebirth metaphor—similar to this video from Residente, “Somos Anormales”—becomes less about rebirth and more about celebration of the pynk, specifically the vagina and the love, friendship or otherwise, that Monáe and Thompson seem to be enjoying.
Still hard to tell what the message is here. If it’s not clear to you either, there’s some other compelling evidence.
Here’s Tessa staring at Janelle across a vast canyon of bouncing bottoms.
Here’s Janelle looking back.
Here’s one last gif that really hammers home what she’s talking about when she talks about pink. In terms of merging messaging with art, Monáe has the formula down pat and it’s a wonder to watch it unfold.