In the music video for Bejeweled, the second to Taylor Swift’s album Midnights, the traditional Cinderella fairy tale is given a feminist reinterpretation. Swift is supported by the three Haim musicians and Laura Dern. Swift plays Cinderella, Este, Alana and Danielle Haim her sisters, Dern the evil stepmother. Her studio colleague Jack Antonoff plays the prince.
The clip begins with a conversation between Cinderella’s three spoiled (Haim) sisters: “No guys, he’ll take me. I even used dirt from the pig pen to trace the contours of my arm muscles,” says Lady Este with conviction.
“That’s nice, but I bought diamonds for my nipples,” contradicts Lady Alana.
Lady Danielle then explains: “But this year everything is different anyway: instead of just showing up there and looking ‘hot’, you have to enter a talent show.”
New dialogues in the old fairy tale Cinderella
The traditional setting has remained, but modern dialogues are spoken. It is increasingly concerned with current social problems such as ideals of beauty and materialism.
The ideas of the poorly brought-up trio are based on today’s property wishes: Lady Este wants the royal title, Lady Danielle wants the ring and Lady Alana wants the prince’s ‘d***’, as shown in the video.
One would assume that Cinderella, played by Swift, would like the prince at her side. On the other hand, she has his lock in her sights. With this, the musician makes a feminist statement against typical role assignments right from the start.
She continues to write about her new work on Instagram: “This video is wild, whimsical and created only for you, my dear fans. For you have opened up this wondrous path for me.”
The music video continues like this
There is a ball where a lucky girl is to be chosen by the prince. “Housewife Taylor”, as she calls herself in the video, is forbidden to appear at the ball. As her sisters head out, Swift looks into the camera and grins. Then the music starts and she starts to sing.
Of course, Swift still shows up at the ball in the evening in a sparkling dress.
Prince Jack quickly feels under her spell in the evening. He then kneels before her with a ring. After that, the words “she ‘ghosted’ me” will appear. Subtitled “but she kept the castle”, the last scene features the former Cinderella as the new princess.
Apparently she doesn’t need a man by her side and shows herself to be an independent woman.
The cast, including Laura Dern and Haim
The evil stepmother is played by Laura Dern (“Jurassic Park”) and Swift’s spoiled stepsisters by the three Haim members. Prince Jack is played by Midnights partner Jack Antonoff.
“Swifties” can reportedly look forward to eleven more videos. The musician would like to publish a video for each work on her new LP. Our review of “Midnights” here.