Why Won’t Meghan Trainor Go Away?

Last updated on January 5th, 2019 at 12:00 am

Here we are, once again approaching a brand-new year. Excitement, nervousness, and all the general feelings that come when approaching the unknown are starting to appear. This may even be the first time we experience a New-Year Hangover, as many of us are still attempting to wrap our heads around the total mess 2017 turned out to be.

However, between all the political, environmental, and social issues that consumed our attention this past year, the whiplash that was the music industry is still leaving many people sore and befuddled. Every week there was a new fad, dance craze, song, or even artist that took its turn at dominating headlines and securing its place in obscure trivia questions for years to come.

What I do dislike, however, is her willingness to be a pawn in the music industry, and allowing herself to be used to exploit young women.

Many people take some time at the end of each year to reflect. They think about their accomplishments, their failures, how their lives have changed, and everything they have experienced over the last twelve months. I, too, have spent some time thinking about the events that have transpired in 2017, and I find myself asking the same question I have had for the last three years; why the fuck is Meghan Trainor still relevant?

Now, if you have somehow made it all the way to (almost) 2018 without ever hearing that name before, I commend you. I revel you. I, too, wish I could say the same thing. This woman has been a four-inch thorn in the crack of my ass for well over three years now, and it’s time to say enough is enough.

This woman, who has somehow achieved the affectionate title of a Feminist Icon, is, frankly, anything but, and by no means deserves any of the praises she has gotten over the last three years, including winning the Grammy for “Best New Artist” in 2016.

I mean, what about this video screams “Women deserve to be treated equally!” to you? Is it the part where she is sprawled out on the floor, while steadily maintaining that perfect amount of cleavage for the camera, cleaning and mopping? Or is it the part of the song where she tells her future husband that she is “never wrong” and to simply apologize regardless of the issue at hand, and she will then allow him to “rock her body right.”

Now, it’s not that I necessarily dislike Meghan Trainor as a person. I’ve never met her, and after writing this, I probably never will, but I can’t imagine she is really that bad of a person. I even doubt that she possesses the incredibly strong misogynistic ideals that her persona portrays in her songs & videos. What I do dislike, however, is her willingness to be a pawn in the music industry, and allowing herself to be used to exploit young women.

If you know Meghan Trainor or god forbid, you even like her, then you are probably aware that female empowerment has sort of become her “shtick.” With songs such as All About That Bass, and the ever-so-clever-and-not-annoying hit NO, her message from day one has been “You are beautiful just the way you are, and you don’t need to man!”

But, is this how she really feels? Did she spend late nights in Nantucket, Massachusetts dreaming about someday becoming a voice for women across the world and telling them to love themselves, love their bodies, and that they’re perfect just the way they are? Or, was she sick of writing songs for everyone else, and saw a chance to gleefully exploit millions of insecure women across the globe for her own personal gain?

Let’s say the former is exactly what happened. Little Meghan, the backup cheerleader at Nauset Regional High School in Massachusetts, who struggles with her self-esteem and personal body image, but will someday go on to receive a full-ride to Berklee, becomes a feminist and someday wants to write the end-all-be-all female empowerment anthem. She sits down and thinks to herself “What would that sort of song sound like?” and then writes this:

“Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches Hey”

And then…

“I ain’t no size two-But I can shake it, shake it like I’m supposed to do”

Clearly, to empower one set of women, you must tear down and shame another set, that’s just how the game works! r/sarcasm

Meghan Trainor is not the feminist icon you, for some reason, believe that she is. She is exploiting you. She is playing you. She is capitalizing on an entire gender’s insecurities for her, and the record companies, personal gain. Meghan Trainor is a sham. Meghan Trainor is lying to you. She doesn’t give a fuck if the chubby girl in your 6^th period Social Studies class loves herself. She just wants her money.

If all of that wasn’t enough for you to ask yourself why we are still allowing this to happen, it gets worse. Here we are, in 2017, where not only are people still buying into this nonsense, her opinions and insight have somehow been deemed important enough for her to become a judge on a network singing show.

Now, I understand that creating a new singing contest in 2017 is at the point of beating a dead horse where you are no longer actually hitting the horse, but the ground beneath it, so it’s not going to do much for her, but the fact that I must see this woman’s face in any sort of “mentorship” role is disgusting.

This new year, we need to do what we have failed to do for the past three years, and finally leave the total sham of a human being Meghan Trainor is in 2017. She is doing far more to hinder female empowerment and advancement than she is to promote it, and it is stop we say enough is enough.