I do like the song because it’s catchy, but that doesn’t mean I agree with it. If she listens to “Just The Way You Are,” I will tell her that she should always value and love herself – no matter what I or any other guy thinks.
If my little cousin hears “Just The Way You Are,” I want to remind her that although she should feel proud of her appearance, she should also appreciate her advanced reading ability, her penchant for board games, and her artistic talent. But, as someone who cares about his little cousin who’s entering the seventh grade in a few months, I feel that we should take a step back and think about what we hear on the radio sometimes. Why is it so hard to praise women who are aware of their attractiveness and who are actually able to articulate how much they love themselves, without a man whispering the reasons in her ear? If pop music strives to empower, we should examine songs like these with a keener eye, because empowerment should not just come from others – it should also arrive from within the self.Īs a male, I do not want to assume what women want. Toward the end of the music video, the woman shakes her head while smiling, as if she still cannot believe what Mars sings to her – the video portrays her lack of confidence in a positive light. While the lyrics sound well-intentioned, the music video shows this patriarchal standard to an extreme: the entire video fixates on a woman who acts coy and shy, while Bruno Mars draws her, serenades her, and plays the piano for her. Why do some men think that women can only find their self-worth if we give it to them? Just like One Direction’s song “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Just The Way You Are” implies that women’s insecurity contributes to their beauty. He states that “you’re amazing just the way you are,” but his compliments only focus on the woman’s “eyes make the stars look like they’re not shinin’,” her “hair falls perfectly without her trying” and her “smile the whole world for a while.” He addresses her eyes, her hair, her smile, and her face – what happened to her compassion? Her work ethic? Her athleticism? What about her personality? While this song creates a surface-level message of body positivity, it fails to delve deeper into how we should value ourselves for more than how we look, because contrary to what Mars assumes, perhaps women want to feel good about things other than just their beauty.īruno Mars, singing and playing the piano, while his love interest… sits. However, unlike Mars’s lyrics imply, there is more to women – and men – than just the way they look. Īll humans should feel confident and safe within their own skins, and we should use our physical appearance as a self-esteem booster if we wish. Well-intentioned sentiments that miss the mark.
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