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.