“Yeah, my mama she told me don’t worry about your size. She says boys like a little more booty to hold at night.”
This is a line from the debut single “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor. You’ve heard it. It’s one of the songs that played incessantly on the radio over the summer. During the height of the song’s popularity, Trainor was praised for her song’s message of female empowerment and refusal to conform to unrealistic beauty standards projected on women by today’s society. The same has been said of Nicki Minaj’s most recent chart – topper, “Anaconda.” But for all the praise that these songs received, there was an equal amount of backlash against these songs for not conveying the type of feminist message that many felt young women need to hear.
Let’s examine the previously mentioned line from “All About That Bass.” “My mama she told me don’t worry about your size” Okay, message received, and good message at that. Clothing size does not define us, nor should it matter in how we view ourselves and others. Excellent, kudos to you, Ms. Trainor. “Boy’s like a little more booty to hold at night.” Okay, no… stop right there. What’s all this about validating your body with a man’s approval? This is a theme also common in “Anaconda,” as most of the song is about Minaj’s boyfriends’ approval of her shape (e.g. when Minaj raps “He keep telling me it’s real, that he love my sex appeal. Because he don’t like ’em boney, he want something he can grab.”) Despite the misleading tones of girl- power cloaking these songs, both seem to be reinforcing the stereotype that women’s bodies only exist for the pleasure of men.
Don’t get me wrong, Nicki Minaj’s and Meghan Trainor’s anthems to the curvy girls of the world does send a body- positive message in part, and that’s wonderful. Parts of these songs I would even describe as downright empowering. For example, when Trainor croons “Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top.” Lines like these should not be dismissed, they’re inspiring and very much in line with today’s body- positive movement. However, these songs as a whole are not.
Case in point: the last verse of Anaconda. It starts off positive enough, with a strong, defiant tone of “This is my body, deal with it!” And that is a message we should by all means be encouraging. However, then Minaj goes on to say “f*uck the skinny b*tches in the club […] f*ck you if you skinny,” suggesting that not all body types deserve approval. So what happens when girls like my friend from high school, who are naturally petite, are told on a weekly, if not daily, basis that she should “eat something” or was accused of being anorexic?
That’s wherein the problem lies. While sending an empowering and body- positive message of being proud and loving her curves, both artists go too far in the opposite direction by enabling even more body- hate and at the same time espousing a women’s need for a man’s approval in order to feel validated. That’s the opposite of what we as females in this society need to be doing. We should not be breaking down one group of girls, or one specific body type down in order to build up another. We need to be writing and listening to songs that empower girls of ALL shapes and sizes; songs that say “This is my body, deal with it!” while referring to anyone and everyone.