The song is part of a large wave of media trying to be body positive, notably the company Dove. However, “All About That Bass” perpetuates the ideology that in order for a woman to feel good about herself, she not only has to put down other women, but she has to be sexually appealing to a straight man.
While Trainor is embracing her love for her body, she does so on the basis that the she is attractive to a man, the line, “Yeah, my mama she told me don’t worry about your size, she says ‘boys like a little more booty to hold at night,’” best illustrates this, as well as the way she sexualizes herself. She is presenting herself as a sexual object, providing no other way in which her body is of value.
Although she says “Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top” she also makes disparaging remarks about skinny women, singing “I’m bringing booty back, go ‘head tell them skinny bitches that.” Not only is this shaming women who are naturally skinny, but it puts women in a terrible position where not only are they facing criticism no matter how they look, but now they’re receiving criticism from a fellow woman who is trying to be body positive.
Not only this, she also jokes about how skinny women believe they have to lose weight, writing, “No I’m just playing, I know you think you’re fat.” This completely undermines the struggle of women who have eating disorders and body dysmorphia, joking about the fact that they believe they aren't good enough, and have to be something else. I find this the worst part of the song, as it trivializes a disorder that has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
I entirely agree with what you are saying. While parts of the song have inspirational and uplifting lyrics about everyone accepting and loving their body, other sections just put down women who do not have the same body type as her. We are seeing more and more of this now in the media: a positive body image achieved by calling girls who are naturally slim, "bones" or saying they have eating disorders when it's just their natural body shape. I love your analysis
ReplyDeleteLovely critique, and I wholeheartedly agree. People, at least within my range of notice, often like to do things such as this in an attempt to be progressive, or at least appear as such. Often times the message they send is only half of the harm they cause, as they label themselves as things such as feminist or body positive, causing others to believe that that is what the group stands for.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of the other comments here. I also think it's worth pointing out that all the women in the video are shaped similarly. Instead of promoting acceptance of all body types, the video is just stating that only curvy women are attractive or beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your argument. I think that this sadly is a trend in our society, in order to build up one group of people, you must put down another. It's sad that instead of accepting all people we have to say that one specific group is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. This song sounded so positive and nice on the exterior, but it's actually deceptive. These kinds of songs are making it even harder to distinguish between the good and ill willed intentions of pop culture.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this critique completely. Instead of disparaging anyone with a particular body type, we should be appreciating and accepting who people are.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this post. I think that it is really sad there is nothing that just appreciates both sides, rather than having so many things just put the other side down. This song may bring appreciation to bigger girls, it shames the girls who aren't. While they may say this is what they've always been dealing with it, this is not the right way to combat that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post. I didn't even really think about the song in that way until I read this post. At first I disagreed but I thought about it for a while and realized the reality of the song. You would think that it's positive because of its peppy beat but it's not. It appears to be about lifting confidence but its only one-sided confidence for people that only fit the description the song gives.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your statement about the song trivializing body dysmorphia. I don't think she was intending to dismiss that issue but a lot of people have viewed the song as skinny shaming. I believe the intention of the line " I'm just playing" was referring to when she says "Go ahead and tell them skinny b*tches that!" as a way to ensure that she was not skinny shaming and then the following lines about "I know you think your fat" as a way to continue encourage the curvy girls addressed in the rest of the song.
ReplyDeleteI think this song and video has a really positive message and that there was only one line that could count as skinny shaming which was the one about "skinny b*tches". The praising that she is doing about one body type also should not be seen as putting another body type down. The song is just trying to raise a body type up after being so put down by all the recent photo shopping of models and saying that even the "skinny" models are perfect as they are and shouldn't be being photoshopped. I thought that this video deffinitaly did a lot more good than harm.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your post, I made sure to edit mine completely, to make sure that I didn't accidentally copy any of your ideas, but writing on the same song, I definitely agree with everything you said in this. It's interesting reading yours, and thinking about the other things I didn't mention, such as the way she sexualizes herself in such a way that gives no other value besides her body. This song was a little difficult for me to write about, because I love the tune, and the idea in general, but after rewatching it I just couldn't get past the harmful messages. I think you did a wonderful job expressing your opinion through writing, and I think that. After reading it, despite already thinking heavily about this song, it still left me thinking about it even more. Wonderful job.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree for the most part. While I believe in body positivity and no shaming, there's no denying that skinny people are seen in a more positive public light. I understand that its just as offensive calling someone [too] skinny as it is calling someone fat, but I think we can still all agree which we'd rather be called. This song, though Meghan could have had some more eloquent and respectful lyrics, did call attention to an important issue in our society regarding how we look at women's bodies. Though I completely agree that the song perpetuates that ideology that she has to be sexually appealing to men (which I don't like).
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