Why I'm Not All About that Bass

Okay, It's a catchy song. I'll give you that, and I'm all for anything that's about embracing our beauty despite the ridiculous standards the media and popular culture pump out. But that being said, there is a certain way to do it.

And tearing down women who have a different body type than you while simultaneously whittling down the only self worth women are entitled to to how attractive they are to men is not the way to do it. 

In case you haven't heard, or haven't really noticed, the lyrics to the very popular song "All About that Bass" by Meghan Trainor, read as follows (With the chorus omitted to save space.) : Yeah, my mama she told me don't worry about your size
She says, "Boys like a little more booty to hold at night."
You know I won't be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll
So if that's what you're into then go ahead and move along/ I'm bringing booty back
Go ahead and tell them skinny b****** that. 

At first glance, the lyrics are cute, funny and harmless. But as I am a serious lover of all words, especially lyrics, I looked a little harder and was deeply disturbed. 

First of, can we just say, IT IS NEVER OKAY TO CALL OTHER GIRLS THE "B" WORD. I don't care if you think it's childish to use that phrasing, but I will not ever be using the actual word because I hate it. It is a word that needs to be eradicated from the English language because women are not dogs. Okay? Okay.

Now onto a topic commonly known as skinny shaming. Just because the world is starting to wake up and realize there is nothing wrong with being a plus-size woman does not mean we start hating and belittling thin women. Another phrase we need really to delete from out vocabularies is "Real women have curves." Because guess what?

This is not empowering. This is essentially saying that the only way a women is worth anything is if she has a big butt and boobs. Instead of throwing the marginalizing of women in Hollywood's face, we are perpetualizing it by saying the women are only a good as their bodies are "sexually appealing" to a certain demographic. And thin women, who we see as the favored majority, are beginning to be shamed and discriminated against. While it's so great that people are no longer commonly telling heavy women to "go eat a salad", terms like "get yourself a cheeseburger" are prevalent and cheered on.

While I appreciate the sentiment of not starving yourself...really? There's that "Real Men/ Real Women" thing again.

This also goes right along with another issue I have with the message of a song. Can we not justify our differences with "Meh, guys think I'm hot anyway." Who freaking cares? It's okay to be bigger because it does not diminish your personal worth. It's okay because it does not water down your sense of humor, or your intelligence, or your kindness or nice smile or beautiful singing voice or way with words or dancing skills or math awesomeness or whatever the crap else makes you special and unique and a good person. It just doesn't matter- it does not matter- if you are considered sexually attractive or not. 

And that goes for anyone; male, female, fat, skinny, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, or anything in between. Be a good person. And judge yourself on that.

Welcome to my Nightmare

Hello, reader. Now, I don't actually know that anyone will be reading this, but hope springs eternal in the human mind, right? Anyway, I suppose introductions are in order, due to the off chance that you don't know me in real life, and somehow stumbled upon this land mine. My name is Haley Spencer, and I'm a sixteen-year-old in a ninety-year-old's body.

Yes, I realize how pretentious this sounds, I do. But I don't say this because I'm so much better than the heathens in this decade, I don't think that our music is all terrible nowadays, and I'm not writing this listening to Frank Sinatra as I lay draped over my bed wearing a poodle skirt and saddle shoes. I say this because I'm grumpy, frustrated by loud children, slightly afraid of teenagers, and my joints hurt. 

As for the title of this post, I want anyone reading this to know that while the heading of this post combined with the name of this blog, may lead you to believe this is going to become an angsty, whiny diatribe, I hope it will not. I have a lot of ideas and opinions, and to avoid getting punched out, I'm posting them here, at a safe distance from anyone reading. 

(Aside: It may become pretty clear that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to anything technological, so I apologize. My sister told me that adding pictures will break up the monotony of a my onslaught of words, and I have no pictures to post so..here are some inexperienced selfies.)

I don't even know what this is.

 

Now, to the issue I want to write about today. I attend a high school, as most people my age do, and I was running late to school today, as most people my age often are.

As I was hurrying along the sidewalk, trying to walk fast while not harming myself or anyone around me (which can be embarrassingly difficult for me sometimes), a pair of adults shoved a packet of papers in my hand, and I didn't think much of it. Homecoming just happened, and for some reason, I thought it had something to do with that.

But then, I opened the pamphlet. And my eyes were absolutely assaulted with horrible, graphic pictures of babies (or fetuses, if you prefer, but a baby is a baby.) torn to shreds. I closed it immediately and threw it away, but the damage was done. I spoke to others at the school, and no one else was prepared for the material of the pamphlet either.

Now, I am a vehement pro-lifer, and believe people should be able to express their opinions. But to stand outside of a high school, full mostly of minors, and pass out disgusting, horrible, disturbing photographs like that without warning is inexcusable, and it is, in my mind, a form of assault. I felt angry, disgusted, and powerless to erase the images now imprinted in my brain.

 And, another reason this is so awful, if someone is so upset over the death of these children, why in the name of all that is holy would you exploit their little broken bodies so horrifically?  It's such a sensationalized tactic, it's sting is lost to those whose minds they're trying to change, and to those, like myself, who already hold the beliefs they are propagating, it's a total sucker punch to the stomach. So what are they trying to accomplish, and what have they managed to do?

If they were handing out simple, earnest facts, more minds would be changed, or at least would listen. People usually see those images, presented with no warning, and throw the pamphlets away. Nothing is accomplished, besides alienation.

Okay... so mood swing now, back to Tentative Teenage First Time Blogger. I hope to continue this, and if you have any questions, comments, or thoughts (and I'm cool with constructive critisism. I'd appreciate it actually. :)) So... Whoomph there it is. Hopefully, I'll be writing again soon, and you'll be wanting to read it.