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All About That Bass
Aug. 24th, 2014 11:30 amSo, somehow, I became exposed to a pop song video "All About That Bass." It's not squarely within my interests, but it's pleasant, it's catchy, it's got some positive body image stuff, and I love Sione Marachino's dancing. A lot.
Here it is, in case you care:
I've also stumbled across feminist deconstructions of it. And just to be clear, I'm all good, here. I'm all good with a song celebrating people not being real fucking skinny, good with feminism, good with deconstructions of songs that I like, good with pretty much all of it.
The two main criticisms of the song from a feminist perspective are, I think, both valid. The first is that instead of simply arguing that it's ok to look the way you look, the singer is claiming that she's beautiful because some het boy wants to do her, and so approval is still based on male acceptance. The second is a lot of dislike for the lyric referring to skinny bitches, arguing that accepting of all body types has to include skinny girls, too, and setting up a conflict between fat and skinny girls is not a good thing, either.
While all of this is true, I think that the deconstructions mostly miss the primary message of the song, something that I suspect a lot of younger, heavier women need to know: being fat doesn't mean you will never get laid. Now, I have empirically tested this hypothesis, and can tell you that, yep, I can still get laid when I'm fat. I can also tell you that the thing that has most impeded my ability to get laid has been age, not weight. Turning 40 mattered in a way that gaining 40 pounds did not. Not that I'm feeling deprived, here, in case you were concerned.
But if you're 20 (as I believe the singer is), you have an awful lot of media trying to give you the impression that you are undesirable. Kirstie Alley permanently offended me when she said that she went on a diet because she didn't want to have "fat sex." As if it were some type of especially disgusting thing, to have sex while you weren't Hollywood thin. And I think there is a very real amount of insecurity, especially when you're young and don't have a lot of experience with sexuality, your own and other people's, to assume that you will not be able to find sex. And love. And sex. And this very silly, slight song is actually, I think, about the fact that no, really, it's ok. You will get laid. And that message? I like it a lot.
Also, that black guy dancing? I find that his name is Sione Marachino, he has some silly video of him in a parking lot that went viral, and I'd do him in a second. That boy has the moves, and is the chief reason I've watched this silly video several times.
Here it is, in case you care:
I've also stumbled across feminist deconstructions of it. And just to be clear, I'm all good, here. I'm all good with a song celebrating people not being real fucking skinny, good with feminism, good with deconstructions of songs that I like, good with pretty much all of it.
The two main criticisms of the song from a feminist perspective are, I think, both valid. The first is that instead of simply arguing that it's ok to look the way you look, the singer is claiming that she's beautiful because some het boy wants to do her, and so approval is still based on male acceptance. The second is a lot of dislike for the lyric referring to skinny bitches, arguing that accepting of all body types has to include skinny girls, too, and setting up a conflict between fat and skinny girls is not a good thing, either.
While all of this is true, I think that the deconstructions mostly miss the primary message of the song, something that I suspect a lot of younger, heavier women need to know: being fat doesn't mean you will never get laid. Now, I have empirically tested this hypothesis, and can tell you that, yep, I can still get laid when I'm fat. I can also tell you that the thing that has most impeded my ability to get laid has been age, not weight. Turning 40 mattered in a way that gaining 40 pounds did not. Not that I'm feeling deprived, here, in case you were concerned.
But if you're 20 (as I believe the singer is), you have an awful lot of media trying to give you the impression that you are undesirable. Kirstie Alley permanently offended me when she said that she went on a diet because she didn't want to have "fat sex." As if it were some type of especially disgusting thing, to have sex while you weren't Hollywood thin. And I think there is a very real amount of insecurity, especially when you're young and don't have a lot of experience with sexuality, your own and other people's, to assume that you will not be able to find sex. And love. And sex. And this very silly, slight song is actually, I think, about the fact that no, really, it's ok. You will get laid. And that message? I like it a lot.
Also, that black guy dancing? I find that his name is Sione Marachino, he has some silly video of him in a parking lot that went viral, and I'd do him in a second. That boy has the moves, and is the chief reason I've watched this silly video several times.
