I heard this Meghan Trainor song for the first time the other day. It came out in June 2014, so I know I'm a little late to the party, but that's just how I roll with my (judicious) consumption of pop culture.
One the one hand, I want to love it. First, girl's got pipes. The doo-woppy sound is fresh and infectious, and the rap break in the middle is a fun and unexpected touch. Second, she's a fellow New Englander, raised in Nantucket and Hyannis, MA. Third, the video is cute and everyone in it is appropriately clothed(!!!). Fourth, it's body-positive: Meghan and her backup dancers resemble me size-wise, a rare occurrence in this day and age, and they are unselfconsciously enjoying the hell out of their bodies, fat-shaming be damned. Huzzah.
However.
While there is a refreshing lack of fat-shaming in this video, there are plenty of digs at thinner women. Multiple references to "skinny bitches" and the implication that they can't keep their "boys" (ew) warm at night without a "booty"? A skinny, Barbie-looking girl literally wrapped in plastic and getting the stink-eye from the other characters in the video? Yeesh.
Well, progress is progress, right? Sigh. Here's an idea: learn how to accept and celebrate body differences, instead of recycling the same old trope (thin = good, curvy = bad) in a way that builds you up and tears others down (curvy = good, thin = bad).
*Steps off Preachy Academic Soapbox and returns car radio to NPR*
One the one hand, I want to love it. First, girl's got pipes. The doo-woppy sound is fresh and infectious, and the rap break in the middle is a fun and unexpected touch. Second, she's a fellow New Englander, raised in Nantucket and Hyannis, MA. Third, the video is cute and everyone in it is appropriately clothed(!!!). Fourth, it's body-positive: Meghan and her backup dancers resemble me size-wise, a rare occurrence in this day and age, and they are unselfconsciously enjoying the hell out of their bodies, fat-shaming be damned. Huzzah.
However.
While there is a refreshing lack of fat-shaming in this video, there are plenty of digs at thinner women. Multiple references to "skinny bitches" and the implication that they can't keep their "boys" (ew) warm at night without a "booty"? A skinny, Barbie-looking girl literally wrapped in plastic and getting the stink-eye from the other characters in the video? Yeesh.
Well, progress is progress, right? Sigh. Here's an idea: learn how to accept and celebrate body differences, instead of recycling the same old trope (thin = good, curvy = bad) in a way that builds you up and tears others down (curvy = good, thin = bad).
*Steps off Preachy Academic Soapbox and returns car radio to NPR*
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