Argumentative Essay On Body Image

Meghan Trainor is a recent American pop star defined by her sense of empowerment as she urges listeners to reject body shaming. Encouraging positive body image is becoming a societal norm in the U.S. and the Nashville singer 2014 debut single, “All About That Bass,” help persuade her audience that bigger bodies are better. The objectification of larger bodies contribute towards a feeling that there is a criteria for beauty. Similarly, Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” is part of a tradition of hip hop that celebrates women with larger bodies. In considering the thematic focus on female empowerment embedded within the two women’s music, it is imperative to take into account the societal and historical context of black culture appropriation which Trainor borrows in order to glorify women with larger bodies. This practice allows Trainor, to address a social problem: body image. Examining body dissatisfaction can better help us understand why body image can be so prominent in popular music and rap. Psychology researchers at the University of Sussex describe body dissatisfaction as the “salient discrepancy between a person’s perceived body …show more content…
As described by Yousman, “Whites often simultaneously identify with and envy Blacks partially because of repressed sexual desires” (Yousman, 384). Not only is there an appreciation for black culture because something like bigger bodies have long been denied and rejected by white culture, it allows Trainor to reinvent what white culture equate to beauty. It is possible that Meghan Trainor chose to incorporate a bit of black tradition because she feels like black music is strong and is better able to shed light on the effects of body image on women. The intro of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” is dedicated to showing off the big butts of black woman and celebrating black