Carrie Underwood song makes me ill

"All-American Girl"
Carrie Underwood, 2007

youtube video with lyrics here

[I haven't written on this blog for a couple of years, but hearing this song has put me into a ranting mode, and I figured I might as well post my thoughts here.]

My daughter started singing this song last week - I missed it when it was popular a few years ago - and I've had occasion to hear it a few times since. Underwood sings the hell out of it. It's got a solid, if run-of-the-mill, contemporary Nashville sound, a hooky melody, a song-structure that really is quite delightful, and some of the most insidiously hateful lyrics I've heard recently.

Now, I should say that I'd never stand in the way of anyone who wants to write offensive lyrics - in fact some of my favorite songs fall into that category. I actually enjoy the way divergent opinions, viewpoints, assumptions, biases can appear in pop songs. Sing away about any old thing you like. In this particular case, however, it's the fact that the agenda is a hidden one that gets me riled up, and I feel there needs to be a critical context.

I've copied the lyrics below, for reference. At first blush, it appears to be a story song about how the birth of a baby girl changes the lives of people around her (more on why that's the the crux of the problem later, after I've gotten through a first layer of critique). Underwood has performed and co-written some genuine female-empowerment songs, so it's easy to misconstrue this one as ... well if not exactly Ani DiFranco, at least something a cut above the Spice Girls' ouevre. Sadly and shamefully, it reminds me more of Billy Joel's creepily bitter "She's Always a Woman" more than anything else.

The lyrics of "All-American Girl" sure do focus on football a lot, don't they? Presumably because this is safe male territory - basketball and baseball (well, softball) having been infiltrated by women. The birth of the daughter brings down her father's big dreams of football championships, then as a teenager the girl interferes with her boyfriend's game too. Yet in the end, she's still liked, and the boyfriend (now husband) is even hoping to have a daughter himself - such progress! Oh you womenfolk, the song seems to say, you're always screwing up our football, but god bless ya, you're just so darned adorable! I can almost guarantee that there was another verse written and later scrapped, about how the birth of the next-generation baby girl happened on Superbowl Sunday and kept everyone from watching the game.

I'm going to gloss over other obvious grimace-inducing bits, like the fact that the father can't seem to imagine going fishing with a daughter, and perhaps the biggest cultural signifier: marriage to the high-school sweetheart and a baby on the way in short order.

In my view, the unforgivable sin of this song is right out of a Women's Studies 101 textbook. The baby/girl/woman who is the subject of the song is 100% passive, with no agency at all. Her only worth, within the world of the song, is in the effect she has on the men around her. Presumably men are women-hating neanderthals until they encounter her sitting there prettily, then realize that women aren't so bad after all. This is called progress.

It's the Nashville equivalent of Sarah Palin calling herself a feminist, and I want to go wash my ears out with Erykah Badu for a while after hearing it.




Since the day they got married
He'd been praying for a little baby boy
Someone he could take fishing
Throw the football and be his pride and joy
He could already see him holding that trophy
Taking his team to state
But when the nurse came in with a little pink blanket
All those big dreams changed

CHORUS
And now, he's wrapped around her finger
She's the center of his whole world
And his heart belongs to that sweet, little, beautiful, wonderful, perfect
All American girl

Sixteen short years later
She was falling for the senior football star
Before you knew it he was dropping passes
Skipping practice just to spend more time with her
The coach said, hey son what's your problem
Tell me have you lost your mind
Daddy said you'll lose your free ride to college
Boy, you better tell her goodbye

CHORUS
But now, he's wrapped around her finger
She's the center of his whole world
And his heart belongs to that sweet, little, beautiful, wonderful, perfect
All American

And when they got married and decided to have one of their own
She said, be honest, tell me what you want
And he said, honey you outta know

A sweet, little, beautiful one just like you
I want a beautiful, wonderful, perfect All American

CHORUS
Now, he's wrapped around her finger
She's the center of his whole world
And his heart belongs to that sweet, little, beautiful, wonderful, perfect
All American girl