For my project, I think I'd like to examine the differences in portrayal of men and women concerning overweight status in popular music in the last decade. I'd like to look at the differences in stigma associated with this and how these portrayals may be shifting the cultural norms concerning what is acceptable for each gender. I think it would also be interesting to examine the effects of these songs' positivity/negativity, psychologically, in response to these songs, and the coincidental prevalence of obesity in recent years and how much this form of media could be contributing to any changes in the rates.
Examples of songs that I've though of to include in this analysis as of now include "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor, "Anaconda" by Nicki Minaj, "Try" by Colbie Caillat, "Booty" by Iggy Azalea, "Red Cup" by E40, "Secrets" by Mary Lambert, "Big Girl" by MIKA "No Mediocre" by T.I., "White Dude" by Lil Dicky, and "One More Drink" by Ludacris. Obviously, I'm open to suggestions on more material to include.
I'm in the beginning stages of looking into this project, but there are some secondary sources I've found concerning psychological effects of deviating from the cultural norms (according to weight status) and perception of weight between the sexes. I've also been able to find reviews stating various opinions on both positive and negative portrayals of overweight individuals.
Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas!
Your project sounds really interesting! If you want a bit of a throwback, one song that came to my mind when I was reading your post was Sir Mix A Lot's "Baby Got Back."
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read your post, I just glanced over the word men my mind started to think about songs that are about women's body types. But I think it's interesting that you're going to talk about men's weight and physical appearances as well. I think it is easy for us to focus on women's bodies and be skeptical. When I see music videos I find myself not very interested in watching because the women have "perfect" skinny bodies. But then when Meghan Trainor came out with her song "All About That Bass," I thought to myself, "please, girl, you're not even fat." Either way there seems to be no way to please me. On the opposite end, there are also songs like "The Fat Man" by Jethro Tull where he talks about how he doesn't want to be a fat man. Otherwise, the band The Fat Boys have a few songs (one of them called "Fat Boys") where they talk about how great it is to be overweight. P.S. Lil Dicky is my fave!
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