21 year-old Meghan Trainor, known for the chart topping single ‘All About That Bass’ last year, recently released her music video earlier this month for the new song ‘Dear Future Husband’, which features in her first album ‘Title’. The song has a fun, pop beat, which narrates the brightly coloured video of Trainor telling her man the rights and wrongs of their relationship. Sounds fairly empowering to start with right?
A fair amount of people seem to disagree. Trainor has received some backlash regarding the misogynist messages conveyed through the video, with many stating their opinions very bluntly. Social networking site Tumblr, home to many feminists, have had their share of negative responses. The video shows the singer cooking and cleaning in a stereotypical, american suburban home, along with lyrics like ‘open doors for me and you might get some kisses,’ which many Tumblr users have picked up on. They suggest that Meghan is conveying an anti-feminist message, in that she will be easily satisfied, and look after the home if she’s told she’s pretty; bought pretty things; taken on dates etc.
She’s already gotten in trouble for her debut song ‘All About That Bass’ last year, which, despite the good intention of promoting positivity towards larger women, has been met with claims of ‘skinny shaming’ and other negative connotations.
On the other hand, many of Meghan’s fans (who identify themselves as ‘Megatrons’) have argued that she is in no way complying to social expectations of women at all, whereby her lyrics have lines like ‘you’ve got that 9 to 5, but baby so do I,’ which does imply that she won’t be your typical housewife either. Some say that her lyrics and video are ironic in every sense, although the danger in that is that Robin Thicke had claimed that same intention for his song ‘Blurred Lines’, which only infuriated people more.
Meghan Trainor has only recently become popular in the music industry, and her bubbly, perky attitude has attracted many supporters already. Despite the controversy, she seems to still be doing well enough, reaching 16th place in the UK Top 100 albums as of now.
But what do you think? Is Trainor a poor role model for young girls or are her lyrics more than meets the eye?
Or, if you’re like me, are you just trying to enjoy a good song?
Trainor in ‘Dear Future Husband’.
