The Very Best Thing About Women
One of the saddest Facebook status updates of the month (you know, after things like cancer updates, car accidents, ebola, world hunger, GoFundMe requests, and people uploading photos of their stitches) was this:
Nothing helps a women feel her best than [sic] a great pair of heels, a sexy dress, and flawless makeup.
That pretty much sums up my life value and mood litmus test. You, too?
The saddest part was that the near-middled-aged women who wrote it was utterly serious. Looking like a hottie is pretty much the #1 way for women to feel awesome.
Given that cute female fact, the latest feminist fad has been to prove that all of us are always hotties — no optic inequality here! — thus proving we all have (the only apparently available form of) female power.
We are hot; all is well with the world.
Not an Anthem
While in this pseudo-suffragette mode, Meghan Trainor released the latest body acceptance and self-love strain, All About That Bass. Other's have called the catchy, torch melody a “feminist anthem,” but I keep wondering if any of them have actually listed to the lyrics.Â
Let's parse a few:
Yeah, it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two
But I can shake it, shake it
Like I'm supposed to do
Women — big, small, and in between — can fulfill the purpose of their creation by wagging their body parts while others watch. Boom chicka boom. Wah wah.
‘Cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase
And all the right junk in all the right places
Boys like fat in certain places and if you have your fat distributed appropriately you'll be pursued by boys. Come and get it.
If you got beauty, beauty, just raise 'em up
‘Cause every inch of you is perfect
From the bottom to the top
And if you don't have beauty, beauty? Which, I suppose, would be having junk in the right places? Then sucks for you, sugar. Keep 'em down, down.
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're lovable if you're fat because (some) boys like fat and (some) boys like a big backside in bed. Whew, you're still OK! Keep breathing!
I'm bringing booty back
Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches that
No I'm just playing. I know you think you're fat
But I'm here to tell ya
Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top
“Skinny bitches” no longer rule because they don't have enough booty junk going on back there at the stern. Plus you're 100% perfect (if you've got your (excessive?) fat in the right places), so…woman power and self-esteem boost! Woot! Woot!
Do Over
Fads come and go. Curvaceous is in and then emaciated it in. Would that people trying to write a “universal message to appreciate your ‘booty'” were old enough (or well-read enough) to know that.
If we want women to be empowered, we should move beyond the incivility of placing their value on their bodies and on how those bodies please others. We are more than objects to be admired.
Um….AMEN! But I guess that’s not quite enough words for the comment form (so I’m told by the comment form) so I’ll add a few more.
Ladies, Our worth is infinite and unchangeable…. No matter where the junk lies…and I have junk in all kinds of places…so I can talk.
Andrea recently posted…Back to school and Emergency contacts
I know this isn’t a new song, but every time it comes on (which is still often) it makes me want to say just what you said.
Thank you for giving me a place to link when I’m annoyed.
Amen!!! The first time I heard that song I was shocked. The women on the radio introduced it so “women power” then when I heard it I was ill. I am not fat nor am I skinny. Why couldn’t she just say your perfect how you are! Your beautiful because YOU say so not some boy!! Bless our little girls growing up in this world!!!
Sir Mix Alot was ahead of his time in female empowerment anthems. Seriously, when I first heard this song I honestly had flashbacks to his song that was so popular back in the day. The messages are the same, only this was from the female perspective.
“Why couldn’t she just say your perfect how you are!”
Because Bruno Mars already wrote that song