Tuesday, July 1, 2014

"All About That Bass" the Pros and the Cons

If you haven't seen the video yet, Meghan Trainor released a video on June 11 for her song "All About That Bass." The video is a lovely slightly kitschy homage to the '50s and '60 filled with soft pastel hues and adorably preppy clothes. It is, in general, a lovely video that is well laid out and shot wonderfully. It is a lot of fun, and the song is super catchy and fun, and Meghan has a lovely voice, sure to garner her a few award nominations and hit singles. Moreover, Meghan has taken a stance in this video that is popular at this moment and sure to help her gain a fan base and will be a great example for little girls. However, like most stances in the world, there are a few troubles with the video to accompany the positivity. To help see where the problems undermine her motives of positive body image and undermine the movement to appreciate your body as it is, I'll examine the main "Cons" and the major "Pros" of this video.

Pro #1: she has dancers in her video that have the body types that many dancers and "average" woman have and of course there is the heavy set man who is super fierce in the video. Meghan is making the point that to be pretty and dance well and have great moves, one needs to be thin. This is an excellent point to make since dancers are often under a large amount of pressure to be very thin.

Con #1: The skinny model is painted as being unacceptable. Though most people agree that the demands put on models to be super thin is wrong and unacceptable, I hear it all the time from people who are overweight or larger (even I've said it and yes I'm fat) that skinny people "need to eat a burger." We never take into account that some people are built very thin and don't starve themselves to thinness and that some people are leaner. This point in her video is very subtle, though the model is seen later as dancing around and enjoying herself, she is almost always alone in the video and when she is accompanied by someone she is often not engaged but is forced to engage or sexually objectify another person. And the use of skinny bitch, even with just kidding or just fooling or just playing thrown after it, is skinny shaming and acting like a mean girl. 

Pro #2: The fashion of the video. Everyone looks great in this video. All of the clothes are super flattering and not super objectifying, even though the song is about her body. Usually bigger people are made to look unhealthy, unattractive, and unstylish; however, the stylist for this video went about making sure to dress everyone in a stylish way and make them all look great.

Con #2: The insinuation that a girl is "supposed" to "shake it." Perk of having a big booty is, well, tweaking looks like it is supposed to. However, girls aren't "supposed" to "shake it." If you want to shake it, shake it, but that is not the sole purpose of having a big booty. Though it is a major perk.

Pro #3: "You are perfect from the bottom to the top" This is a wonderful reinforcement of body positivity: it tells people to be happy in your skin, love what your body looks like. 

Con #3: Though it is a trope that she is playing on from '50s and '60s pop music, informing the world that your "mama" says that "boys like a little more booty to hold at night." Though this point may be true (I must admit I like a man who's got some junk in his trunk), valuing your booty for the male appreciation you'll receive is, to be frank, misogynistic. It is saying that your body is only good if a man appreciates it. That is not body positivity, it's objectification. Though seemingly harmless, it is insisting that self worth is based only on outside appreciation. And the argument that it is only motherly advice and a mother trying to help her daughter appreciate herself, is reinforcing cultural misogyny, which isn't really helpful. 

Pro #4: A catchy pop video with a healthy looking confident pretty girl who is built like the average girl on the street, is wonderful and shows girls and people that the music industry is moving forward and away from a very tight idea of beauty.

Overall this is a cute fun video with a well intentioned catchy song. This post is in no way to diminish  what Meghan is trying to do. It is simply to show that to feel good about yourself or teach people to love themselves, you don't need to tear down someone else to feel better about yourself. On a note of how to do this type of message 100% right lets listen to Mindy Kalling on being body positive:

No comments: