Now, a feminist critique of this song (and of Meghan Trainor's strange, proto-pop-feminism writ large) would be too easy. There is obviously a ton of strange things going on in this video. I mean, the "future husband" that meets her strange list of criteria is the one that brings her pizza. Oh, sorry bachelor #1 who likely spent all day making me a beautiful scallop dish. Your hard work to make me something that I might enjoy is worthless because it might make me look like one of those "skinny bitches" from my other song, "All About That Bass". AH!
What I am interested in is the bubblegum tempo, abundance of color, spunky dance moves, and bright lipsticks. Trainor has attempted to avoid criticism of her music's messages by making a really smart evasive move: she says the music, and subsequently the music video, is a fantasy. She (or more likely, her very smart publicist) asserts that her music is simulacra, something that we must view as imaginary only. Her music is like Disneyland, “there to conceal the fact that it is the ‘real’ country, all of ‘real’ America,
which is Disneyland” (Baudrillard
1565). Trainor's seemingly isolated sentiments concerning her relationship to men, her body, and her role as a woman is indicative of gender inequality issues in the hyperreal.
There are many ways to read this music video: feminist, performative, postmodern, marxist. Respond with what you think! Let's tear this garbage apart.
I'm not sure how I feel about the video. It's sort of clever, but it doesn't re-appropriate the conventions in any meaningful way. It also plays to stereotypes--"I'm always right. . ., etc. Hmmmmm. It's sort of post-feminist, but I don't know what the message is--other than women want what they want--which is not really a 3rd wave statement.
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