Keri Hilson - Pretty Girl Rock

Self esteem is a tricky topic to discuss.  Encouraging people (particularly children) to feel good about themselves is important, but often times this is taken to extremes, leading people to have an overblown sense of self importance.  The most recent world-wide comparison of American students to students in other countries found performance of US students was near the bottom, but their pride in self was the highest.  They performed poorly, but thought very highly of themselves.  It doesn't seem that our children are having many self-esteem issues.

My radio adventures today brought me to Keri Hilson's self love anthem "Pretty Girl Rock":

Where to start, where to start?  How about the beginning?

"My name is Keri, I'm so very
Fly oh my it's a little bit scary
Boys wanna marry looking at my derri-
erre, you can stare but if you touch it I'ma bury"

Ok, we've established who you are, that you consider yourself fly, and that your butt is so attractive that men want to marry you at a glance.  I'm all for people feeling good about themselves, but saying you're so fly it's scary?  That's a little over the top.  What else is over the top?  The idea of a butt that can inspire proposals.

"Pretty as a picture
Sweeter than a swisher
Mad cause I'm cuter than the girl that's witcha
I can talk about it cause I know that I'm pretty
And if you know it too then ladies sing it with me "

Now, Keri Hilson is an attractive woman, but so attractive that I get mad because she's more attractive than my wife? Laughable, and clearly a sign of delusion.  Seriously, you can talk about it because you know you're pretty?  You sound like the douchebags on Jersey Shore, their bravado and "swagger" which is merely a thin layer of protective emotional shell to shelter very, very shallow individuals.  This is the kind of talk that we hear from that jerk who gets all the women in college.  Is that supposed to be attractive coming from Ms. Hilson?

"All eyes on me when I walk in,
No question that this girl's a 10
Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful
Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful
My walk, my talk the way I drip
It's not my fault so please don't trip
Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful
Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful"

No question that you're a 10?  Thinking of yourself as a 10 is one thing.  Loudly declaring it is another thing entirely.  Especially when that's really a subjective thing.  There is no woman who is a universal 10.  Looking at celebrities for example, I have a friend who thinks Jennifer Aniston is the hottest woman in Hollywood and I think Halley Berry is much more attractive.  He doesn't think Halley is all that hot, and I wouldn't rate Aniston above a "cute." 
I've also never heard of hating someone because they're so beautiful. I know it's a famous line in pop culture, but it's ridiculous.  Perhaps it's more of a female on female issue?  If that's so, then I question why it's in this song, since she herself said the song is about ""uniting women over their shared beauty rather than the jealousy that drives them apart."

"If you're looking for me you can catch me (pass by)
Cameras flashing
Bet he turned his head just as soon as I passed him
Girls think I'm conceited cause I know I'm attractive
Don't worry about what I think, why don't you ask him?"

Here again she taunts other women by stating the men in the room are looking at her and not their dates.  Aren't we deviating from the goal of uniting women at this point?


"Get yourself together don't hate (never do it),
jealousy is the ugliest trait (don't ever do it)
I can talk about it cause I know that I'm pretty
And if you know it too then ladies sing it with me"

How can you expect others to not be jealous when you walk around boasting about how amazingly hot you are?  How childish to attempt to engender jealousy, then tell people not to be jealous.  LAME!  This song, which on some level is supposed to make women feel good about themselves, really only works for ONE woman.  Keri Hilson.

FAIL!