Within six days of being posted on Vimeo and Instagram, the fashion film in which Cynthia Nixon reads a poem about the impossible standards imposed upon women had amassed 20m views around the world and been shared by Cara Delevingne, Dua Lipa and Madonna.

Going viral was one thing, but the Madge seal of approval is another – Claire Rothstein, the British photographer and publisher of the fashion magazine Girls Girls Girls, which is behind the Be a Lady They Said video, is “lying down and breathing” when I contact her. “We thought it might get a response, but it’s been completely mad,” she says.

The steely voice of Nixon rings out against a backdrop of hyper-glamorous shoots with models including Georgia May Jagger, Erin Wasson, Sam Rollinson and actors Rose McGowan, Rachel McAdams and Vanessa Hudgens. They are spliced with Hollywood film clips and contemporary news footage, including a grimacing Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein.

The poem the former Sex and the City star reads is a 2017 work by Camille Rainville, from her Writings of a Furious Woman blog. “Your skirt is too short. Your shirt is too low … Don’t be a temptress. Men can’t control themselves. Men have needs. Look sexy. Look hot. Don’t be so provocative. Wear black. Wear heels …”

The messaging goes on: “Don’t be too fat. Don’t be too thin”, flashing to footage of a model being laced into a black corset, a woman snapping a courgette in two, swinging a piece of raw meat on a fork. The model Sophia Hadjipanteli flexes her famous unibrow, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addresses Congress, a tummy is tucked, an anus is bleached.

Directed by Rothstein’s partner, Paul McLean, the video looks and sounds like a provocative 1980s pop video, something Madonna herself might have put out. Meme-y, with a pumped-up soundtrack by Louis Souyave, it’s a fashion film for the #MeToo generation.

Rothstein’s work has enjoyed viral fame before. In 2018, she shot the actor Rachel McAdams for the cover of the second issue of Girls Girls Girls. She was wearing Versace, diamonds and the breast pump she was using to feed her six-month-old son – a comment on motherhood and careers. Rose McGowan, then in the midst of the Weinstein case, was shot for the same issue. “It sort of set the tone for us to be a bit more political,” says Rothstein. “We’re not huge activists, although Paul and I are both feminists. But the message for us is always about female empowerment, however you want that to be.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A still from Be a Lady They Said video Photograph: vimeo

Some don’t like the way that Rothstein wants it to be. Her women are sexy and sexual, with pouty lips and slicked back hair. The name Girls Girls Girls is taken from the signage of strip clubs. “It’s meant to be ironic,” she says. “But that’s lost on some people. I don’t understand why sexy has become a negative thing. I take those classic stereotypes that are considered negative when seen through the male gaze and flip them on their head. It’s hyper-real, it’s fantasy, but I don’t see that as diluting the message in any way.” And it’s this aesthetic, she says, that lends itself to getting the message heard: “If the video wasn’t as stylised as it is, it wouldn’t have made the impression it has.”

The film’s star, for Rothstein, always had to be Nixon. “Cynthia was the only person we wanted to do it, the only person who made sense,” she says. “She loved the project, but we had to wait for her to finish campaigning [for governor of New York in 2018]. I wish she’d won. Although I suppose it worked out better for us that she didn’t.”