Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass: She’s Playing Our Song

meghan trainor self-esteem

by Dr. Daniel J. Heller

We’ve been talking about this for years: our culture places unrealistic expectations on women and girls to look a certain way. And, problems with self-esteem often and unfortunately stem from women and girls trying to measure up to an unrealistic, airbrushed, genetic-freak-of-nature-supermodel "standard."

Since June 2014, 539 million people have watched Meghan Trainor’s catchy music video "All About That Bass," which tackles some of these issues with sass, verve, and a sense of humor. We hope that some of the people watching the video have been women and girls who take to heart her message: "Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top."

We also hope that men who, sadly, criticize women for their weight and, per appearance have watched it too, and have realized the error of their ways; and what’s more, that some media and advertising types who perpetuate a destructive and unrealistic portrayal of what "the ideal woman" looks like will make greater efforts to reverse this trend.

Happily, there is a growing chorus of women and women’s advocates who are joining in. We recently posted about Keira Knightley’s admirable and courageous nude campaign.

We’re not saying the message contained in the video is perfect. We’re still advocates of mostly avoiding the Technicolor cupcakes in the video. And we don’t think that women and girls should base their self-esteem on whether men desire them based on certain physical characteristics. Still, it’s a music video, a fun one, and it has the right message, and we applaud Meghan Trainor and her producers for singing out.

Of course, not everyone is a fan of pop music. We appreciate this refined version of "All About That Bass" by the talented musician, Kate Davis.