Asian American women find self affirmation in Olvia Rodrigo's new song: ‘all-american bitch’

Olivia Rodrigo screams in frustration in her song 'all-american bitch.'

Whether she intended to write an anthem for AANHPI women or not, some women are giving a deeper interpretation to Olivia Rodrigo's new hit, "All-American Bitch."

Upon initially hearing Rodrigo's lead song in her new album "Guts," it easy to understand that the song is against the ways women are expected to behave. But some Asian American women it is also a cry against the age-old stereotypes imposed on Asian women.

"It’s vital to remember that Rodrigo is, yes, sharing her experiences in girl- and womanhood, but she’s doing so from an intersectional perspective," writes Abby Sypniewski in Medium.

Sypniewski reminds us that 20-year old Rodrigo is Asian American, who grew up in California with a white mother and a Filipino American father. She is not the girl the Beachboys sing about classic ode "California Girls," because of her dual racial heritage.

When speaking to white journalists or a white audience, Rodrigo explains her song in more generic terms:

“I really love the song ‘All American Bitch,’” Rodrigo said in a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. I really love the lyrics of it and I think it expresses something that I’ve been trying to express since I was 15 years old, this repressed pressed anger and feeling of confusion or trying to be put into a box as a girl. So yeah, I think that that’s one of my favorite songs on the record."

In an interview with The Guardian, Rodrigo expands on the inspiration for "All-American Bitch." Despite her fame and fortune, like other people of mixed racial heritage, Rodrigo experiences  moment's of self-doubt and confusion while trying to navigate between and through two different worlds.

"I’ve experienced a lot of emotional turmoil over having all these feelings of rage and dissatisfaction that I felt like I couldn’t express, especially in my job. I’ve always felt like: you can never admit it, be so grateful all the time, so many people want this position," Rodrigo tells The Guardian. "And that causes a lot of repressed feelings. I’ve always struggled with wanting to be this perfect American girl and the reality of not feeling like that all the time."

 In an interview with The Guardian two years ago after her debut album exploded onto the music charts, she explained: “It’s hard for anyone to grow up in this media where it feels like if you don’t have European features and blonde hair and blue eyes, you’re not traditionally pretty,”

“The reason why I think the song ‘all american bitch’ by Olivia Rodrigo is so powerful is how it reclaims the phrase ‘all-American’ for Asian American women,” Hannah posted on Tik Tok. “When you think ‘all-American’ you think blonde hair, blue eyed, right? … Well, she doesn’t just reclaim it, she also comments on the fact that oftentimes Asian Americans aren’t seen as American. We’re seen as foreigners or outsiders.”

The verses' simple, sweet lightness with a simple acoustic guitar playing behind Rodrigo's lyrics, alternating with the loud, screaming, raging chorus musically emphasizes the contradictions imposed by society's expectations.

The discussion about the song is trending on Tik Tok.

“The way you can literally feel all the feminine rage infused into this,” wrote Sarah Lockwood. When she first heard Rodrigo’s song, Lockwood was reminded of America Ferrera’s monologue in Barbie about how hard it is to be a woman. “It’s this constant balancing act,” she tells Elle. “And if you fall off the balance beam or even wobble a little bit, you’re called ungrateful, you’re told you’re complaining, or that you’re a b*tch.  We’re constantly walking on eggshells.”  

The difference between rage and feminine rage is that feminine rage must hide itself behind a perfectly polished and polite veneer. Don't show that you're upset, or they'll call you sensitive. Don't react, or you'll be considered dramatic.

“All-american bitch encapsulates the Asian woman experience and the expectations put on a hyper-sexualized but demure community,” writes Zhou (@maggie_zhou) on Tik Tok. “Love to see Miss Rodrigo dismantle the model minority trope. Go queen.”

"all-american bitch" lyrics

[Verse 1]
I am light as a feather and as stiff as a board
I pay attention to things that most people ignore
And I’m alright with the movies that make jokes ‘bout senseless cruelty
That’s for sure
And I am built like a mother and a total machine
I feel for your every little issue, I know just what you mean
And I make light of the darkness
I’ve got sun in my motherfuckin’ pocket
Best believe, yeah, you know me

[Chorus]
I forgive and I forget
I know my age and I act like it
Got what you can’t resist
I’m a perfect all-American

Verse 2]
I am light as a feather, I’m as fresh as the air
Coca-Cola bottles that I only use to curl my hair
I got class and integrity just like a goddamn Kennedy, I swear
With love to spare

[Chorus]
Forgive and I forget
I know my age and I act like it
Got what you can’t resist
I’m a perfect all-American bitch

[Bridge]
With perfect all-American lips
And perfect all-American hips
I know my place, I know my place and this is it
I don’t get angry when I’m pissed, I’m the eternal optimist
I scream inside to deal with it, like, “Ah”
Like, “Ah” (Let’s fucking go)

[Outro]
All the time, I’m grateful all the time
I’m sexy and I’m kind, I’m pretty when I cry
Oh, all the time, I’m grateful all the time (All the fucking time)
I’m sexy and I’m kind, I’m pretty when I cry

Not included in the lyrics that reprinted above is Rodrigo's primal scream which perfectly expresses the extreme frustration of women and girls trying to fit the prim and proper feminine image foisted upon them. We're not one to censor any of the lyrics, here it is: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Use when necessary.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.