What ARE We All About?

We currently live in a period of time where feminism is a strong theme in everyday life, body shaming is no where near okay, and self love is very important among everyone. I'm not sure how these trends started, but I'm so glad they did. But, as happy as I am that I can't go to any social media site without seeing something about one of these themes, I'm also a bit off put by some of the media surrounding these subjects. One of the bigger portions of media that has stirred up controversy among these subjects is pop singer Meghan Trainor's song, "All About That Bass."

The song has become an anthem for many women who are said to be more "curvy" than others, which I honestly find great. Being bigger shouldn't be a shameful thing, and I'm really glad that that's out there. However, as much as the song has it's high points, it's also got a lot of lows. As much as I love to hear that every inch of me is perfect from the bottom to the top, I'm not so sure that I like to hear that the reason I should be okay with having a little more "booty" is because that's the way guys like it. This idea comes from the line "my mama, she told me, don't worry about your size. She said that boys like a little more booty to hold at night." I don't think that in a world where feminism is rising that girls should love their bodies because boys do. 

I'm not the only one who thinks so, either, This Instagram video by the user "mobrienorwhatever," was posted on the subject, The new lyrics say "fuck what boys think, it's your body so do as you like." And, however crude or funny you might find this short video to be, it's very true. No girl should ever feel empowered by her body just because a guy likes her that way. It's 2015, and we've got to start loving ourselves because IT'S WHO WE ARE, IT'S HOW WE WERE BORN, AND IT ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE, and that should be okay.  

This isn't the only problem encountering the song and it's video. While the song promotes women who have curves, it very much shames people who do not. It refers to girls without curves as "skinny bitches" and "stick figure silicone barbie dolls." The smaller girls in the video seemed more ditzy, more rude and just overall not nice people. This is the WRONG message to be sending out. Smaller girls should love their bodies too, they don't need to spend their time figuring out how to gain weight so they can "shake it like they're supposed to do," just as much as curvy girls shouldn't be worrying about losing weight to be like smaller girls.  There's no reason to be shaming girls who are smaller, don't hate them for their metabolisms, they can't help it. This is also something that I think many people can agree on, and YouTube user Natty Valencia expanded on it and made her own rendition of the song, that includes all woman, skinny, curvy, black white, and encourages them to forget about guys who don't accept them the way they are. 

I think this is a really great way to approach the matter, because the tune is catchy, and it's something people catch onto. I hope all women get to see this version of the song, because it's really important that we stop body shaming, and we start loving ourselves for who we are. 

Thoughts on the media policy

Back in the beginning of October, there was a lot of noise made by both students and staff when President Rochon implemented the new media policy; lately, I haven't heard much about it.  It kind of reminded me of how everyone exploded over a thing like Kony (a little late to the party, it's been happening for years): there was the initial flare of interest, particularly on social networks, but it died down quickly.

Just recently, the Ithacan published an article stating that this policy has since been rescinded, thanks to the collaborative effort of many groups on campus to communicate with the president of the school on the topic.  Check out the full article here.

A quote that stood out to me from this article goes as follows:

"It really has been amazing to see the community rally around this topic and shows that students, faculty and staff can have an impact, and I hope that this spirit doesn’t go away now that the media policy has been rescinded"

It is impressive to see the impact of this campus community, but do we have the endurance to keep it going now?  Maybe it's just me, but it seemed that, as with many causes people tend to rally around, support dwindled with time, making it appear to lose steam regardless of whether there was still action or not (in this case, there was some definite success for those who stuck it out).  Does anyone else have this feeling about it, or am I just out of the loop?