ABSTRACT
On the surface, Meghan Trainor’s first big hit, “All about That Bass”, exerts her agency by using the spectacle of the dancing body to glorify the full-figured woman. The music video draws on Black aesthetics via choreography, emphasis on the “booty” (bass), and the song’s Doo Wop and R&B heritage. Unlike the other dancers, male-presenting Kelepi acknowledges contemporary concepts of gender fluidity in subtle ways. Posing, hand on hip, back arched, Dibb’s strapless, pale blue bodysuit and clear vinyl dress expose her slender waist and thighs, emphasizing her chest and making her body visually available. While the video uses Kelepi to critique cultural promotions of Barbie-doll figures for women and Ken-doll stereotypes for men, it also reinforces white heteronormative ideologies through pastel colors used to signal femininity, short girlish dresses, heavy make-up, references to 1950s heteropatriarchal culture, and emphasis on male–female relationships.
