Today’s culture has adopted a trend – “loving” your body and accepting yourself regardless of what you look like. But, keep in mind, just like everything else in this world, some exceptions come along with the promotion of self-acceptance. For example, in most cases, if you want to promote the acceptance of ONE specific body type, you must ridicule the opposite.

Take Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass,’ which, to the passive listener, only seems like a positive message to girls who have a little more junk in their trunk. But, after further review of the lyrics, it seems to be a bit too harsh on ladies of the opposite body type. Along with the reassurance that “every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top,” Trainor includes that “boys want a little more booty to hold at night,” and to tell the skinny girls, although she chooses to use a much more derogatory term, that she’s “bringing booty back.” She chooses to apologize for the previous comment in the next line, saying that she was “just kidding,” and that she knows they think that they’re fat too, although that does not cover it for me.

Nicki Minaj’s song, ‘Anaconda,’ has the same overall concept. She gives all of the power to women with curves, which, I thought was a wonderful thing. Minaj chooses to promote loving your body… unless your body does not look like hers. This song screams body positive things about girls who look a lot like Minaj, while it calls girls out who are thinner and “boney,” according to the songwriter. Just like Trainor, this song employs some choice words to describe girls of the opposite body type.

Did these artists need to make thinner women feel less than them in order to make their songs more appealing? After reviewing both of these songs, one will find that they could be much better if they discluded the negative things about smaller girls. I think that it decreases the overall “body-positive” message that the artists may have intended to promote and also makes their songs less appealing.

Honestly, who has the right to place one specific body type above all of the others? Whether it be someone getting a dirty look for being “too big” or someone being told that they should “go eat a few burgers,” it should not be an issue that needs to be discussed. When 91 percent of women already have a problem with the way that they look, they do not need anyone else to tell them that they need to change.

My advice would be to find positive things that you admire about your own body and share it with the world. But keep in mind, when doing this, you do not need to diss someone who is unlike you in any way while you promote the things that you love about yourself. A simple “I really love my curves,” can be sufficient without the superfluous, “Real women have curves.”