Over the weekend, I had the song “Stupid Girls” stuck in my head for at least five hours! (I think it was playing on the radio or something). This song by Pink was probably at its peak of popularity around this time last year, but I think it’s important to bring it up again. It’s a catchy song with a powerful message. Pink is clearly deriding the way young women are portrayed in the media: “What happened to the dream of the girl president? She’s dancing in the video next to 50 Cent!” She makes some important points, and frankly, it’s a funny video, especially where she makes fun of Paris Hilton in the hamburger comercial.

However, is this song really that girl power-y? I have a few issues with it:
1. I have blonde hair, I tan frequently, I have big breasts, and I wear sunglasses that, yes, are a little too big for my face. But I don’t think that makes me a stupid girl, as Pink suggests. I think I do conform to certain standards of beauty (that aren’t always fun or healthy), but it doesn’t mean I’m any less intelligent. By referring to the people she criticizes as “stupid girls,” she argument becomes more catty than poignant.
2. Last I checked, isn’t Pink tan and blonde and kind of busty?
3.. Our society encourages women to act one way, and then derides them for it. Case in point: the “stupid girl” phenomenon. Girls today have been “pseudo-told” that it’s cute to be ditzy (I say only “pseduo” because one of the chapters in my book is about how we’ve also taught girls to be smart and savvy Supergirls)… but then they get made fun of for it by people like Pink (and Sarah Silverman at the MTV Movie Awards, and all the others who deride “stupid girls”). This phenomenon is similar to the way that some girls are made fun of for being virgins, but called slutty if they aren’t or how we criticize celebrities for wearing too much makeup or getting plastic surgery, but then they get made fun of by Us Weekly when they have flaws.
4. Making fun of people with eating disorders is not okay. And eating disorders are certainly not voluntary, as Pink implies.
5. Pink is speaking as a “feminist,” but she is perpetuating every stereotype about feminists being angry and YELLING.
Pink derides the stupid girls, but I don’t think she really thought this move through… and I think she did more harm than good.