Clearly the editors of Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too” music video have had their heads buried deep, deep in the sand since 2014. Otherwise, they would have heard the refrains, “I see the magazines working that Photoshop/We know that shit ain’t real” and “Because you know I’m all about that bass/’Bout that bass, no treble” issuing from every radio tower from here to kingdom come. The Grammy winner’s success is a direct result of her killer vocals and body positive message, which is why the singer was quick to have the egregiously altered “Me Too” removed from Vevo.
In the fun flick, Meghan “M-Train” Trainor joyrides around L.A. in a giraffe onesie, drinking Starbucks and hanging out with her entourage, until she ditches the cozy life to front a turquoise dance squad in a glimmering royal blue asymmetric dress. Therein lay the trouble.
An earlier version of the video, released on Monday, shows a gyrating Meghan with a virtual waist tuck. Observe the difference between the edited (left) and unedited (right) versions:
An irate Trainor took to Snapchat (and Twitter) to assure fans this was not her doing. “Hey guys, I took down the ‘Me Too’ video because they photoshopped the crap out of me,” a frustrated-looking Trainor explained. “And I’m so sick of it and I’m over it, so I took it down until they fix it.”
“My waist is not that teeny, I had a bomb waist that night, I don’t know why they didn’t like my waist, but I didn’t approve that video and it went out for the world, so I’m embarrassed,” she continued. “The video’s still one of my favorite videos I’ve ever done, I’m very proud of it, I’m just pissed off that they broke my ribs you know?”
In her Monday evening interview with Watch What Happens Live’s Andy Cohen, Meghan revisted the incident: “I was so upset because I thought the fans were doing it online when they were screen-shotting it and then I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s my own video.’ So I called the gods of Vevo and I said take that down now.”
It strikes us as a puzzling creative choice on the part of the editing team, given that the lyrics of “Me Too” highlight Meghan’s self-confidence and happiness with her figure (“Who’s that sexy thing I see over there?/That’s me standing in the mirror”). When will the Photoshop disasters end? Hopefully people stop wasting their artistic efforts playing God with women’s bodies and celebrities continue to clap back at offenders.
