Selena Gomez’s “Fetish,” released in 2017, marked a bold departure from her previous music style. The music video, directed by Petra Collins, blends surreal visuals with symbolic imagery, creating an enigmatic and alluring piece of art that captivates viewers. With its haunting yet ethereal atmosphere, “Fetish” explores themes of desire, control, and transformation. In this article, we will break down the music video scene-by-scene, uncover the symbolism behind its imagery, and decode its underlying messages.
Setting the Stage: Visual Aesthetic and Mood
The video’s aesthetic is carefully constructed to evoke a sense of intimacy and vulnerability while maintaining an eerie, otherworldly vibe. Petra Collins is known for her dreamy, pastel visuals and the use of natural and soft lighting, which subtly contrasts with the dark themes in the narrative. The palette alternates between muted whites and blues to vibrant reds and blacks, representing the duality of purity versus obsession.
The slow-motion sequences and soft focus amplify the surreal mood, placing Selena in a dreamlike world where reality and fantasy blur. This stylistic choice suggests that the video is a metaphor for internal emotional conflicts rather than a literal narrative.
Dissecting the Opening Scene
The music video opens with Selena alone in a white room, dressed minimally. She appears fragile, almost doll-like. This setting symbolizes vulnerability and purity, but there’s also a sense of isolation. Her movements are slow, deliberate, implying a trance-like state that hints at being trapped in a psychological or emotional space.
The white room acts as a metaphorical blank slate, portraying Selena’s psyche before the introduction of external and internal desires represented later in the video.
The Fingertip Motif: Delicate Control and Obsession
One of the most notable motifs is the recurring focus on fingers and fingertips. Multiple close-ups show Selena’s hands, sometimes intertwined, sometimes weaving around her face or body. Fingers are traditionally a symbol of touch, sensation, and connection, but here they also represent control and constraint.
Example: In one scene, translucent fingers wrapped around Selena’s face like webs highlight both fascination and entrapment. This duality suggests that the sensation of desire (“fetish”) can be both empowering and suffocating.
Transformation Through Makeup and Costuming
The video uses makeup and costumes as tools to visually narrate transformation. Early in the video, Selena’s face is bare, almost porcelain. As the video progresses, her makeup becomes more dramatic, with a focus on glossy lips and sharp eyeliner, evoking a more seductive and assertive persona.
Her wardrobe shifts from minimal whites to flowing, silky fabrics with dark undertones, symbolizing the transition from innocence to experience, from submission to agency. This evolution represents the complex nature of desire and identity that the video seeks to explore.
Surreal Imagery: The Use of Water and Mirrors
Water and mirrors are potent symbols featured throughout the video. Water often symbolizes purification, change, or the subconscious. In “Fetish,” Selena is seen submerged in water, which suggests an immersion into her deeper feelings or emerging desires.
Mirrors represent self-reflection, duality, and sometimes distortion of self-image. Scenes where Selena stares into mirrors evoke questions about identity and the way individuals perceive themselves versus how they are perceived by others. The interplay of these elements enhances the storyline of self-exploration and emotional complexity.
Interpreting the “Fetish” Concept: Desire, Power, and Vulnerability
“Fetish” as a concept delves into complex emotional and psychological terrain, intertwining themes of desire, obsession, and control. The music video visually manifests these concepts through symbolic layers that challenge the viewers’ understanding of these emotions.
- Desire: Represented through sensual imagery, slow movement, and the tension in Selena’s interactions with her environment.
- Power: Symbolized by the controlling fingertips, the shift in makeup and wardrobe, and moments when Selena asserts herself visually.
- Vulnerability: Highlighted by the recurring imagery of fragility in white spaces, the doll-like portrayal, and moments of hesitation.
The video invites viewers to confront the blurred lines between fetishization as admiration and as objectification, and it evokes a deeper understanding of personal relationships with desire.
The Role of Petra Collins: Directorial Vision and Style
Petra Collins, a renowned photographer and filmmaker, brought her unique visual signature to “Fetish.” Known for her evocative, dreamy aesthetic and exploration of femininity and youth culture, Collins created a video that is both strikingly beautiful and emotionally provocative.
Collins’ use of natural light, unconventional framing, and a focus on female gaze challenges typical music video clichés that often sexualize women without nuance. Instead, this video explores sensuality as complicated and multifaceted, reflective of Selena’s artistic maturity.
Fashion Choices and Their Symbolism
Fashion in the “Fetish” video is integral to the storytelling. The choice of fabrics—silk, lace, and the nearly translucent material—evokes sensuality but also fragility. Selena’s wardrobe oscillates between vulnerability and empowerment.
Example: In one scene where she’s dressed in a flowing, sheer gown, it suggests openness and exposure but also a kind of regal confidence. Meanwhile, other outfits playing with textures such as latex or mesh hint at themes of submission, control, and fetish fashion as a literal interpretation of the song’s title.
Accessories are minimal but meaningful—a chain necklace that subtly implies restraint, or delicate rings emphasizing the focus on hands and touch.
Symbolic Use of Color Throughout the Video
Color plays a critical role in reinforcing the video’s themes:
- White: Purity, vulnerability, emptiness
- Red: Passion, danger, intensity
- Blue & Black: Mystery, melancholy, the subconscious
The fluctuating use of these colors visually narrates Selena’s emotional journey—from innocence through conflict, to final acceptance of complexity.
Fan Theories and Cultural Impact
Since the release of “Fetish,” fans and critics alike have proposed multiple interpretations of the video. Many see it as Selena stepping into a more mature space, expressing the complexities of adult relationships through metaphor. Others view the video as a commentary on how public perception shapes celebrity identity, especially for young women navigating fame and personal growth.
The cultural impact of “Fetish” is evident in how it challenged the norms of pop videos at the time, offering bold artistic imagery layered with psychological depth. It opened new dialogues about representation, female desire, and control in media.
Conclusion: The Lasting Legacy of the “Fetish” Video
Selena Gomez’s “Fetish” music video is more than just a visually stunning accompaniment to a song; it is a layered work of art that explores themes of desire, power, vulnerability, and identity. Through symbolic imagery, deliberate fashion choices, color, and directorial vision, the video invites viewers to contemplate the nuances buried underneath what may initially seem like a simple love song.
The collaboration with Petra Collins produced a groundbreaking visual narrative that continues to resonate with fans and shape conversations around music, fashion, and female empowerment. “Fetish” remains a milestone in Selena Gomez’s career, signaling her evolution as an artist willing to explore complexity and ambiguity.
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