The Best Thing a Girl Can Be
“I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”
This line is from one of those books that almost everyone had to read in high school: The Great Gatsby. Most of us probably skimmed past this particular line, but Jorja Smith, an English singer-songwriter could not just keep reading. Instead, at the young age of sixteen, she stopped and wrote a song about it.
Daisy Buchanan, the lead female character of The Great Gatsby, was referring to her daughter in the quote. Rather than wishing her daughter to be strong, independent, or intelligent; Daisy is hoping that her daughter will conform to the prevailing gender expectations. She hopes that her daughter will be able to find happiness in her attractiveness and superficiality. To Daisy, it is better to be ignorant of her circumstances than to face the tragedies of life. The fact that she sees this as the better option for her child is quite dismal.
Smith, after reading this line, recognized the dismal nature of the statement and concluded that such an existence would never be preferable. She refused to accept the assumption that women are supposed to conform to society’s expectations and sacrifice their innate and natural beauty. With this in mind, she wrote a song mourning this sad state in which women were destined to be fools, and born to be adored.
She begins the song asking where all of the independent, strong women are. She wonders if there are any women who are proud of their flaws and willing to embrace fullness of life. In the second verse Smith goes on to point out the ways in which women are forced to participate in their own objectification. She compares the face of young girls to canvases and points out how they are being asked to turn themselves into something new — a Hollywood perception. She sings:
Most of these girls pick up her brush
They might not like art, but their face is a canvas
Designing something that is not their reflection
Becoming a beautiful little Hollywood perception
She emphasizes that women begin to turn themselves into something other than themselves — to the point that they are no longer recognizable, even to themselves. While Smith is strongly critiquing harmful beauty expectations, she is not saying that women cannot be beautiful, but only that they do not need to also be a fool. She says in the bridge,
Why can’t you be a beautiful little girl
Instead of being a beautiful little fool?
I guess we’re all just beautiful little girls
Playing a game of being fooled, yeah
In this section, she critiques the very voices that have told her that she must be a fool. She asserts that she does not need to sacrifice her intelligence, depth, or character for the sake of societal expectations. Girls are not required to be fools, but can simply be girls even when society has them trapped in a game that’s intention is to fool them. She knows that society has destined her to be a beautiful little fool, but she has a different fate in mind.
Here is Jorja’s interview with Vevo Behind the Scenes about her inspiration for the song and music video.
