Music Video Critique: Meghan Trainor's ‘All About That Bass’

For the music video critique I chose to analyze Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’. This song and accompanying music video have always seemed very controversial to me. Meghan Trainor boasts that she wrote this song to promote “loving your body” including lyrics such as “every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top”. However, there are also lyrics included in the song that read “you know I won't be no stick figure, silicone Barbie doll… So, if that's what's you're into then go ahead and move along” and “I’m bringing booty back… Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches that”.

The music video itself features men and women of various sizes, however the ‘curvier’ women are celebrated, while the skinniest woman is seemingly criticized and made fun of throughout the video. Furthermore, the skinniest woman is wearing a dress that is seemingly made of plastic wrap and a pair of very high heels, which appears to be alluding the aforementioned lyric “stick figure, silicone Barbie doll”. I didn’t have a huge issue with the song when I first heard it, because while I believed there were a few controversial lines, the majority of the song was very body positive. However, once I saw the music video my opinions on the song quickly changed. The song paired with the music video sends a very strong body positive message, but only to curvier girls. I believe that making some women feel better about themselves by tearing other women down is counterproductive to the whole body positive movement. There are many women who are born skinny, just as there are many women who are born curvy, and skinny women should not be viewed as people who are against the body positive movement. People often wrongly associate thinness with confidence, however, insecurities exist everywhere. I believe that body positivity is extremely important in today’s society, specifically in the age of technology and social media. However, I believe that body positivity extends to everybody, and that a video like this pins the curvy women against the skinny women as if they are holding curvier women back from being confident. A video like this could impact body image and eating habits in many ways.

While I do feel that this video sends an extremely positive message to curvier women to love themselves, and their bodies, no matter what, I feel like it could have a negative impact on Trainor’s skinnier fans. It could make them feel uncomfortable with their weight, and that Trainor does not accept them. This could have a severe negative impact on young girls who are fans of Trainor’s. I applaud Trainor’s attempt to make a body positive song and video, I just think that next time it is important for her to consider taking a more ‘whole’ approach to body positivity. She needs to remember that skinnier people can be insecure too, and you want to make everyone feel equally confident.