SZA has been one of my favorite artists for a while. So many of her songs hit different for me in so many ways, giving me a link to femininity in a way that I don’t really have otherwise. From messy breakups to the unhealthy behaviors that follow to hating everyone but especially yourself at times, to finding those small moments where everything feels like you can be at your best. I went to her concert last night and was amazed at the energy of the crowd for the entire setlist – you could tell which songs meant the most to us and what lyrics we could sing too passionately about amongst people who have felt the same feelings about them.
One of my favorite songs from her has to be “Special” from her new album, SOS, which she performed during the segment of the show where she came out on a lifeboat and floated across the arena. I’d always scream sing the intro to this in the car when I’m driving late at night trying to escape my head, so it was extra special that I got to see this live and see everyone else live the same moment I was.
I wish I was that girl from that Gucci store
She never wore any makeup and she owns couture
I got pimples where my beauty marks should be
I got dry skin on my elbows and knees
I never liked her, wanted to be like her
Hate how you look at her ’cause you never saw me
Like I was an art piece, like I was an ordinary girl
Toward the end of Young’s “Throwing Like a Girl”, she gives us this quote: “she gazes at it in the mirror, worries about how it looks to others, prunes it, shapes it, molds and decorates it. This objectified bodily existence accounts for the self-consciousness of the feminine relation to her body and resulting distance she takes from her body.” Now, if you’ve listened to SZA’s discography, you know that so much of her music speaks about being a girl – that is, living up to every expectation placed on you. The way she talks about femininity makes girlhood so much more relatable to me when she discusses the standards we place on ourselves when we see other women and can believe they are art pieces, but are still working to believe we can also be seen in the same way. I think it, all the beautiful women I saw singing along probably think it, and SZA herself must think it if she decided to sing about it.
The girl from the Gucci store that she wishes she was must think the same way, then.
Image of SZA in a red dress on her floating lifeboat 50 meters above the arena’s floor with a warm spotlight washing over her while she reaches out to the left.
Unruly Bodies 
Firstly I too, adore SZA, and have listened to all of her discography. I really enjoy how you connected part of her music to young’s piece because, as you alluded to, female empowerment music is just one of the many ways that the discourse around women’s bodies shows up. Your post also makes me think of these lyrics from SZA’s “Normal Girl” :
Wanna be a type of girl, you take home to your mama
The type of girl, I know your fellas they’d be proud of
Uh, be proud of, uh, be proud of, uh, be proud of, boy you know
As another example of how a woman might prune and shape her body for other people’s validation as the “objectified” experience. I’d love to go to a concert of hers one day!!
SZA has also one of my favorite artists, and CTRL is my favorite album on the planet. I remember when I was 16, the song “Normal Girl” used to be my go to scream-in-the-car song. Like “Special,” it perfectly captures what it is to be a young woman. Maybe I’m too emotional, or too mean, too loud, or not loud enough. The thought of also trying to please someone, and not being enough by yourself. She says
Wish I was the type of girl that you take over to mama
The type of girl I know my daddy he’d be proud of
… normal girl…
I wish I was a normal girl
I absolutely love the connections you made between SZA’s lyricism and Young’s “Throwing Like a Girl.” Like you said, the girl from the Gucci store probably looks at other women the same way they look at her. Even women who are the literal definition of the modern beauty standard still compare themselves to other women. Like Young said, women mold and shape and prune their bodies to fit unrealistic feminine beauty standards. But bodies that are wider or darker or hairier or fatter or anything else that’s deemed “unfeminine” are made to feel unworthy and ostracized. However, we must redefine the beauty standard by redefining womanhood and femininity to be whatever we make it to be. In other words, our embodiment of it is real and can’t be considered wrong.