So, Little Mix: Glasses are Only for Geeks?

Whilst flicking through music channels on the TV the other day, I came across a video that I had not seen before by Little Mix. The video was of their latest single, 'Black Magic', which is their first taken from their forthcoming album, 'Get Weird'. The song itself is one of those 'mehh' tunes: not one of those tunes that makes you want to grab the radio (or TV, in this case) and hammer against a wall until the machine is entirely dysfunctional, but not one that you just cannot resist whacking on full volume and belting out the lyrics to when you're in the car. However, what really caught my attention was the characterisation in the video.

'Black Magic' is based at a college. Perrie, Leigh-anne, Jade and Jesy are the college's 'uncool' girls. In fact, they're so uncool that two of the clan are glasses-wearers. Stumbling (literally) out of the school entrance, the girls are wearing some shocking outfits as, obviously, every girl wears their watch on the exterior of one of their sleeves- right?

The quartet long to be able to call one of the most popular boys at their college their own and are mortified when they discover that the guy of their dreams isn't waving to them but to some other girl, who is evidently in a different league. On looking through some books at the library- as that is obviously where every uncool girl goes- Jade happens to come across a book full of recipes to conjure some mind-boggling spells that have the potential to eradicate poverty, make world peace and... Get rid of their glasses, with the hope of attracting the attention of that top guy. Oh, yes. This book of spells may have contained spells that even Dumbledore hadn't heard of and they choose to get rid of their glasses. I mean, come on, girls- not even Harry Potter was able to cast a spell that got rid of his glasses.

In this video, every single person who is uncool just so happens to be someone wearing glasses. Not one of popular crowd wears glasses. In the UK, six in ten people wear glasses. Therefore, the odds are that at least one of them would wear glasses. But, no. Only the uncool people of society are those who believe wearing plastic frames on their faces is acceptable. Although this portrayal of glasses-wearers may not cause universal offence, you would think that society is past the phase where these stereotypes exist.

What do you make of the portrayal?

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Florrie Elizabeth.

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