If Meghan Trainor’s instant hit “All About That Bass” isn’t stuck in your head already, it certainly will be by the end of this sentence. This catchy tune has been praised all around for being a song of empowerment and self-love, preaching that big is beautiful and curves are to be loved because ‘every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top.’ But is this song as appreciative of body types as it claims to be? “All About That Bass” has been getting a lot of shade for what many people are calling ‘skinny shaming,’ or putting down those of us who aren’t buxom or bootylicious, as well as criticism for being less about self-love and more about what others want to see in a woman.
The message of the anthem seems to be to own your body and love yourself no matter what the size on the tag says with lines such as ‘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.’ Other lyrics, however, point more toward a message that centers on pleasing men, exemplified in the line ‘Boys like a little more booty to hold at night.’
‘All the right junk in all the right places’ also begs the question “What are the right places and who says you need junk there?” And what about those who don’t have junk there? Are those girls doomed to go through a life where they cannot love themselves? Is the worth of a woman based on her curves? While the dancers in the “All About That Bass” music video vary in size, the thin girl in the cellophane dress sure does get pushed around a lot for a song about loving your body. Just like some girls can’t help having curves, others can’t help being slender. Trainor refers to girls without junk in the trunk as ‘skinny bitches’ and ‘stick-figure, silicone Barbie dolls.’ Is this really a positive message to send to women? If you’re thin, you’re automatically a superficial, plastic bitch.
Meanwhile, on the hip-hop scene, Nicki Minaj and her new hit “Anaconda” have also been getting heat for not only spicy cover art, but a sexy video and suggestive lyrics. Al Roker in particular called the video and song ‘vile’ and said that Minaj is desperate to keep her name on the top of the hip-hop charts against Iggy Azalea and Meghan Trainor on television.
First of all, isn’t it Nicki’s thing to embrace her sexuality? It isn’t as if she has ever been anything less than risqué. Second, why is it okay for Meghan Trainor to love her body, but the second Minaj sings about having a ‘big fat ass,’ the world is in arms? Isn’t the message ‘I love my body’ the same? Of course, it is a little racier than “All About That Bass,” but no less racy than Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 90’s cult hit “Baby Got Back,” a rap that Minaj samples in her song. In Mix-A-Lot’s video, girls danced on a giant ass while he rapped about wanting to have sex with voluptuous women! Yet, when Nicki sings about loving big butts, it’s a problem?
She is being slut-shamed for showing off her body and praising her booty, even though male rappers have been sexualizing women for years. Nicki retaliated to the shade on her cover art by posting pictures of models from behind showing varying degrees of nudity, captioned with the word ‘ACCEPTABLE.’ The last picture was a photo of herself titled ‘UNACCEPTABLE.’ Some people think that she is taking the controversy in the wrong light by saying that the problem is her skin color, because all of the models she posted were white. I think, however, that she hit the nail right on the head. All of the pictures she posted were swimsuit models for Sports Illustrated, a magazine infamous for printing sexy pictures of scantily-clad women in skimpy bathing suits (or half of the suit, in some cases). A difference that I see is that those girls were photographed for people to drool over their slim bodies. Nicki Minaj’s photo let her embrace her sexuality as a woman with a booty.
All shaming is bad. Skinny shaming and slut shaming are bi-products of a culture that caters to male desire. It’s time for women to reclaim ownership of their bodies and sexuality in ways that show respect and appreciation for all types of women. It doesn’t matter whether you are thin, curvy, chaste, or sexual, and it ESPECIALLY doesn’t matter if boys like big butts or slender girls. All that matters is that you love you!