Body Image Done Right: Colbie Caillat’s “Try”

Colbie Caillat at the beginning of the “Try” music video. Simple and stunning, just like the song.

A lot of artists have produced well-intentioned songs dealing with body image and self-esteem as of late. Though these tracks have a good feel and move the music industry in the right direction, several of them miss the mark: John Legend’s patronizing “You & I,” Bruno Mars’s subtly sexist “Just The Way You Are,” and even Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” which veers into the realm of skinny-shaming and man-appeasement. However, Colbie Caillat hits all the right notes with “Try” – instead of pushing women to respect themselves in a certain way, she tells them to love themselves without condition, no matter what anyone else thinks.

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Should Girls Wear Makeup? And Why Not to Call Girls Pretty

Lately, I’ve encountered a lot of tweets/facebook statuses/social awareness messages like this one:

I stand behind the appliance of makeup 100%. Just kidding, I wouldn’t want to get shot by my mom…

Tweets like this one have some truth in them. Makeup serves plenty of purposes. Sometimes, it supplies females with a sense of confidence or attractiveness. The equipment of makeup can reveal signs of refinement or care toward one’s appearance, which is not altogether a negative thing. In fact, it seems like standard practice for women to wear makeup whenever they attend formal occasions like weddings, or even when they go to work. Wearing makeup does not make women stupid, nor does it make them shallow.

But, like all things, there comes a time when excess leads to error.