I love Lucy Dacus as much as the next Gen Z girl, but the music video for her new single, “Best Guess,” left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, and I know I’m not the only one. Having been a fan for many years, I am no stranger to Dacus’ music, creative direction and how she uses her platform. As a teenage girl growing up in an environment where being queer wasn’t openly discussed, Lucy Dacus’ music provided me with a form of escapism, and she became an inspiration for me.
Her commitment to raising awareness about issues affecting the queer community is so important, and at that time in my life, her style and lyrics deeply resonated with me. While I’m still a big fan, her most recent music video had me questioning if I identify with her as closely as I had previously thought.
If you haven’t seen the video yet (go watch it!), it features a cast of 18 masculine-presenting queer people alongside Lucy Dacus, dancing, fighting, playing cards and interacting. Among them are well-known musicians Naomi McPherson of Muna, Towa Bird, actor E.R. Fightmaster and Cara Delevingne (who is apparently considered butch?).
The video follows Dacus as she engages with the cast in scenes of them working out, arm wrestling and gambling — traditionally masculine activities — juxtaposed with a softer song that explores the distinctly feminine qualities of queer relationships from a lesbian perspective. It opens with a scene of playing cards (designed by an independent artist), then cuts to one of the cast members tightening their tie to the lyrics “clasping your necklace,” evoking the multiplicity of lesbian relationships and gender expressions.
Right off the bat, the video presents itself as unapologetically queer, a long-standing hallmark of Lucy Dacus’ work. Following this scene, the cast is pictured together in full, wearing different styles of suits against a white background. Because of the simplistic styling and set choices, the cast itself becomes the focal point of the shot.
However, this scene raised an initial red flag for me regarding the supposed diversity of the cast. Seeing them all together, the lack of variety in terms of the age, size and complexion of the actors could not be overlooked.
Throughout her career, Lucy Dacus has built a platform centered on advocacy. She has been openly supportive of the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, and has pledged to donate $10,000 this year to expand access to gender-affirming care.
Having been brought up in a devoutly Baptist family in the Bible Belt region, she herself has had a long journey reconciling her queer identity. Taking this into account, it could be argued that Lucy Dacus has an even greater awareness of challenges that minority groups face and, therefore, some kind of obligation to combat their disadvantage. During an interview with Elizabeth Aubrey of NME in 2020, Dacus specifically mentioned the need for increased awareness of how people of color are treated within the music industry. Also, having written songs about her own experience with body image, Dacus is no stranger to advocating for the visible representation of all body types.
To promote this music video and her new album, “Forever is a Feeling,” Lucy Dacus posted a TikTok looking for “hot mascs” to star in the video. In response to this post, TikToks came pouring in from masculine-presenting queer folks, and all walks of life were represented. Under the “Best Guess” audio on the app, there are over 5,300 posts auditioning for a role in Lucy’s new video.
Submissions included “hot mascs” of every body type, complexion and age, giving an accurate representation of the diversity of the lesbian community. After the open casting call, many of the people featured in the video ended up being Lucy’s famous friends.
This has sparked a bit of controversy among fans: why have an open casting call if Dacus was planning to use well-known friends of hers all along? Many have speculated that this could have been a marketing strategy to boost the song’s popularity pre-video release, but regardless, it led to countless missed opportunities to feature underrepresented queer people on the platform.
As an important pillar of the queer community, butch lesbians with larger body types have served a unique and essential role in the community’s history. Similarly, queer people of color paved the way for alternative gender expression for all queer people, yet they too are often overlooked.
Because of this, they deserve even more visibility for the positive impact and forging of identity they have done for the queer community, particularly white women. Taking this history into account, as Lucy Dacus often does in her lyricism about religious trauma and mother-daughter relationships, the casting choices are even more staggering.
Ultimately, “Best Guess” depicts visibly queer people in a joyous environment and provides visibility to marginalized gender expressions, which seems like a win for the community. While the casting choices have stirred up controversy among fans, Lucy Dacus still continues to show up for her community and utilizes her platform in a positive way. Though the creative decisions were definitely a misstep, in my mind, Lucy Dacus still has plenty of room to redeem herself. I will be patiently awaiting the release of her new album today, Mar. 28, along with other Lucy and boygenius fans.