The Politics in your ‘Breakfast’

By Polly Symes

Before the summer of 2022, I only had a vague awareness of Dove Cameron. I knew she ’d been on Disney Channel and had released the Queeranthem and social media sensation ‘Boyfriend’ , but very little else.

That all changed in June when she released ‘Breakfast’ : a song that transcended pop-norms through lyrics such as:

“I eat boys like you for breakfast, one by one hung on my necklace”

In an interview with Vogue, Cameron stated that ‘Breakfast’ was written “ at a time when I was feeling incredibly disempowered as a young woman ” , and this sentiment feels electric in the accompanying music video released two months later. Importantly, the video for ‘Breakfast’ also came out a month after the US Supreme Court’ s overturning of Roe v. Wade, a decision which now gives states the power to limit or ban access to abortion. Half of the fifty states are expected to do this, and many have already. Her video is a response to this, and a plead with viewers to take action.

The video plays out in a world with reversed gender roles, a world in which a powersuited Cameron struts to work whilst her terrified stay-at-home husband frantically prepares her breakfast. Male secretaries timidly type on keyboards whilst women in managerial positions lounge around on sofas or sprawl themselves in front of their desks. It’ s a shock to the system in parts, retro and camp in others.

Most powerful, perhaps, is the video ’ s last shot. Four charitable organisations supporting women ’ s rights flash on the screen, and we as the viewer are starkly reminded of the realities behind the seemingly playful scenes.

In an age in which so many celebrities are attracting media attention for the most vacuous of reasons, with her video to ‘Breakfast’ it is undeniable that Dove Cameron has firmly made her mark in the music-scene.