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In a still from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, a group of Black women line up to kiss each other underneath the sunlight in their bathing suits.
music

Janelle Monáe’s “Lipstick Lover” Music Video Has Fully Melted Our Brains

Carmen Phillips —
May 11, 2023
COMMENT

I am here today because some extremely gay and evocative Janelle Monáe just dropped (a music video for her new single “Lipstick Lover,” from their just announced new album The Age of Pleasure which comes out June 9th).

I’m supposed to write about it, which is unfortunate because also I think watching it broke my brain and I don’t… remember how to words.

In a still from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, it reads: Janelle Monáe Presents... across the back of a bathing suit.

"Lipstick" written across the back of a bathing suit

"Lover" written across the back of a bathing suit

In a still from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, two black women kiss underwater.

I… I just… I…

I’m not to be trusted with this music video, this queer Black feminist sex positive pool party has shattered everything inside me. But even if all the good sense that the Lorde (word to Audre) gave me has left my body, I knew I wanted to celebrate this momentous occasion with family. So I immediately popped into the Autostraddle QTPOC slack and promptly @‘ed everyone I knew.

Let’s check in on the group chat and on how the gays are doing, shall we?

In a gif from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, toys fall around them in bed.

Carmen: my thoughts and feelings are… what
followed by… w h a t

Nic: My thoughts are: how do I get invited to that party
Also: huh?
And: i am so gay
Honorable mention: WHAT

A collage of six images from the Lipstick Lover music video.
From Nic: “Screenshotted the video and opened the layout app SO FAST”

shea: Holy shit
My my my, how far we have come from them little black/white fits.

Carmen: My brain has fully broken.

shea: Also, the elder smoking a cigar is me in 30 years.

Dani: I’m hyperventilating.
This is how I want pride to be this year.

Carmen: My thing is… ok my thing is maybe the ass grab?
but also the cigar smoke?
but also WHEN THEY LICK THE HEEL
like.. my thing is… many things

Nic: Is it bad that I want to gatekeep this album so badly?

Shelli: I’m just saying we should do a tag yourself.

Dani: I love this era of Janelle being hot and thotty
This is me:

In a still from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, Monáe squeezes the butt of a dancer.

shea: Do y’all think Janelle was like “what will make them hot?” and then said “cool, cool. let’s do that!” to every suggestion?

Dani: YES

Shelli: This is me at a pool party to a T.

Janelle Monáe at a pool party in their music video.

Wearing a beret in my own world.

Shelli: Me as a queer elder supporting the girls.

In a still from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, they are between the legs of an older Black queer elder and smoking a cigarette

Carmen: omg
omg shelliiiiii

Nic: Unrelated but the AESTHETIC of this photo 👩‍🍳💋

Shelli: Me in so many ways

Janelle Monáe sings to a high heel, about to lick it.

Dani: I JUST WAS GONNA ADD THIS

Carmen: Wait I was ALSO going to be licking the heel!
We can’t all be licking the heel.

Nic: CANT WE

Shelli: I shan’t be the licker but the wearer

Carmen: 👆🏾

Shelli: Also, I could have used more fat babes in the pool party yes and I don’t care if that upsets people. But that was literally my only qualm.

Dani: Yes, totally.

Carmen: No, that’s facts though.

Carmen: How am I just seeing this? They are so unserious!

For the next 15 years!!!

Sai: I’m sorry, I’m late… I think I stopped breathing for a few minutes.

Carmen: THE ALBUM DROPS DURING PRIDE!!
ooooh say less, it’s up.

Nic: 🔥🔥🔥
I remember when Dirty Computer came out and I thought THAT was going to be peak Janelle for me, but wow I am so thrilled to have been wrong.

Shelli: 2nd Janelle 6:9 — The Age of Pleasure.

Carmen: I am ready to read from this scripture.

Shelli: 69!!

Nic: OHMYGOD

Shelli: THEY ARE A SNEAKY DEVIL

Dani: The theme of pride is PLEASURE I’m so excited.

Dani: How do I already know the lyrics?
Shit is on REPEAT

shea: Me, all summer:

Janelle Monáe reads a book off the back of someone's butt.

Nic: Oh damn shea, that’s me too.

shea: What I’d like to be doing:

A black queer elder smoking a cigar
Honestly, they need to sell the print of this shot.
Like I need this on my wall.

Carmen: Immediately.

Dani: I need the pleasure shirt.
Now!

Sai: Me when i realize this is the last slice of pizza:

In a still from Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover music video, someone eats a piece of pizza while in a pool.

A. Tony: A thank you to Janelle Monáe, I hope the sapphic vibes of the universe relay this message to you.

Christina: I clicked play and meant to type by my brain literally shut down so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Natalie: Understandable.

Janelle Monáe and their dancers, dancing in short shorts and crop tops.

Let’s recap. First, drink your water because hydration is key. Second, it’s been five years since Janelle Monáe gifted us with an album to soundtrack our queer lives, and that’s about to change. You can listen to Janelle Monáe’s “Lipstick Lover” wherever you do your music, and you can expect us to cover the countdown to June 9th’s Age of Pleasure with a hyperfocused, obsessive level of detail that only the gays do best.

Speaking of, let me use my one final brain cell to say this: Have you read adrienne marie brown’s Pleasure Activism? Because that feels like a thing you could do.

And one last thing — if you’re a Black queer person reading this, I love you and all of this is for you. I hope the sun kisses your melanin today.

The word pleasure across a wet t-shirt as Janelle Monáe gets out of a pool.

Two Black queer people holding each other while looking at the camera.

A black queer person eating cherries.

An orange slice with waxy red lips, and a black person's finger with a yellow acrylic fingernail (to match the orange) going inside the wax lip.

An orange slice with waxy red lips, and a peeled banana going into those lips. Overlayed over the image are the words "the age of pleasure"

Janelle Monáe in a poker furry creature onsie, brushing their teeth.
😉
COMMENT
Carmen Phillips profile image

Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle’s former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen Phillips has written 716 articles for us.

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