Not so fine!

The late rsquo90s and early 2000s saw many music videos with women at the centre They were dressed skimpily and gyrating all over our screens Fast forward to 2026 and mainstream pop music is simply recyclingGuru Randhawarsquos latest track Fine Shyt is simply put brainrot Itrsquos frankly quite ldquoshytrdquo a sticky looping earworm featuring lyrics comparing a womanrsquos waist to an Audi steering wheel and her walk to a GWagon But the real talking point isnrsquot just the lazy songwriting itrsquos the visual treatmentSet in a corporate office the video features Randhawa as a senior professional trying to look intensely busy at his desk while a bevy of female colleagues and Internet creators mdash including Ruhee Dosani Divinity Bisht Arshia Sinha Raema Grover Darlene Laura and Mehar Kaur mdash interact with the spaceVishwesh Krishnamoorthy and Utkarsha KotianIt opens with a cheeky disclaimer ldquoSic Highly advise you donrsquot try this at your actual 9to5 unless you want to be permanently banned from the office by HR No corporate policies were harmedrdquo But this is exactly whatrsquos worrying about the songFine Shyt has triggered a massive wave of cringefests memes and hard questions about why women in a workplace are performing entirely for the male gaze Previously Randhawarsquos song Azul faced backlash for sexualising school girls in the videoRandhawa though has remained entirely unfazed Taking to Instagram he brushed off the criticism with a caption ldquoGuilty as charged of making songs that repeat in your head foreverhellip sicItrsquos just a silly little slanghellip calm down calm down calm down famrdquo Itrsquos a textbook deflection we have heard a thousand times beforeAnother still from Guru Randhawarsquos music video which got flak for sexualising women in the workplaceBehind the scenes the mechanics of these videos are driven by pure commercial calculus Filmmaker Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy also a member of the metal band Scribe points out that creators in the business arenrsquot losing sleep over social responsibility or artistic ethicsldquoNobody in there is thinking that Itrsquos like asking people who sell processed sugar to be mindful of diabeticsrdquo Krishnamoorthy explains ldquoThings that involve women presented with some kind of covert or overt vulgarity are often rewatched in private by men And that simply from an application point of view is just more viewsrdquoKrishnamoorthy adds that this regression runs deep into societal conditioning ldquoI canrsquot believe the second most populated country in the world continues to get titillated by cleavagerdquo he saysWhat makes Fine Shyt particularly jarring isnrsquot just the objectification itrsquos the music videorsquos setting As Utkarsha Kotian senior faculty at Whistling Woods International points out the real discomfort comes from placing it squarely in a workplace ldquoIf it were any other space mdash a basketball court or a garden mdash it would still be problematic but not as much out of place The fact that itrsquos a workplace I think that has catapulted it That was the one thing that made me the most uncomfortablerdquoA fascinating paradox within the videorsquos casting is the inclusion of prominent digital creators and Internet personalities like Ruhee Dosani alongside other performers Yet unlike background dancers bound to traditional itemnumber styling Dosani is dressed in her signature casual streetwear rather than leaning into standard titillationThis is of course a calculated strategy by production houses By bringing in recognisable beloved internet influencers music videos attempt to borrow a veneer of progressive credibility and relatability It acts as a shield masking the underlying regressive gaze with familiar Internetfriendly facesIt proves that while the packaging has adapted to the creator economy mdash by swapping traditional background dancers for Instagramfamous faces mdash the core framework remains entirely unchangedSome dancers have stepped forward to defend the concept stating they simply enjoyed the dancing Others argue that the choreography was just fun and that viewers are reading too much into a simple club trackBut it only further highlights how deeply conditioned the medium has becomeKotian says ldquoThere is an internalised misogyny in a lot of people where you see yourself represented in a certain way and you say lsquoOkay this kind of representation is finersquo And Irsquom not saying that itrsquos not okay for you to make those decisions for yourself either But itrsquos murky territory to think that a woman will come in and that representation is always going to be better or more authenticrdquoAt the same time as Kotian highlights putting the blame entirely on the dancers ignores the systemic problem ldquoIt also takes away any responsibility from male producers or male creatorsrdquo