‘Best Guess’ music video falls short in representation

By Jay Roberson

Lucy Dacus is a queer music artist who is known as a fierce advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. 

On Jan. 7, Dacus posted an open casting call for her new song “Best Guess” on TikTok seeking people: “If you are smooth or suave or can pretend to be, maybe you’re a hot masc.” A “masc” is generally a woman or non-binary person who identifies as being attracted to women and presents in a more masculine way. 

Many fans jumped on the chance to be featured in the music video. Over 5,000 videos were posted to an audio clip of her new song, “Best Guess,” with a wide array of diversity among submissions. During that week, I was happy to see lots of queer and trans people submitting their videos on my TikTok “For You” page.

When the music video was released on Feb. 10, a lot of her fans and I were shocked to see a majority of skinny, light-skinned people. 

Her music video starred celebrities like actress Cara Delevingne and singer Towa Bird as well as popular masc influencers including Mattie Wesbrouck and Elio Kennedy-Yoon. Throughout the video the cast was shown playing cards, arm wrestling, lifting weights and dancing. It was meant to be a celebration of masculinity in queer spaces. 

Though Dacus ensured different cultures and the transgender community were represented, featuring people like Kennedy-Yoon who’s a known trans influencer, there was no representation for those with disabilities, physical differences, plus-sized people, South or East Asian people or dark-skinned Black people.

11 out of 16 of those casted were people of color, but a majority of the cast was lighter skinned. If Dacus was truly doing an open casting call, then she should have considered more than just the conventionally attractive mascs. 

Dacus should have also included more “average” people in her music video as well, rather than relying on celebrities and influencers. Some people on TikTok are questioning if the open casting call was just a stunt to promote her new music.

Eight out of 16 of those casted for her music video were already famous or had some sort of high-profile presence on social media. Personally, I would have loved to see the faces of more “average” queer people. There is strength and visibility in your local butch lesbian handyman, your trans mechanic or your queer doctor.

To see queer people exist outside of popular media is essential to all of the LGBTQIA+ community right now. Though I think Dacus had to work with what she had in a short time frame, with better planning, our community could have been better represented in her video.

Not to say that Dacus did not have any diversity in her music video, but there were a lot of ways in which she fell short. Any media featuring the LGBTQIA+ community is a safe haven for me at a time where our rights are under attack, but not all members of the LGBTQIA+ community can feel safe in a space where they’re not being represented. 

I hope that in the future, influencers and celebrities can be more aware of their own biases when it comes to casting. Out of the 16 people casted, there was no reason for none of them to have skin darker than a paper bag. For the LGBTQIA+ community to remain strong, we need to ensure that all members of our community are being accounted for in our work.

Jay Roberson is a senior English and secondary education major