One Direction continues to send worst messages

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard some lyrics from the first few stanzas of One Direction's new single "Little Things" - about (obviously) all the little things that the teen heartthrob loves about his lady friend, even if she doesn't necessarily love them about herself. Her quirks are what make her special!


First, I was excited about:

You've never loved
Your stomach or your thighs,
The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine
But I'll love them endlessly
(lyrics) 

 Hey, that's kind of body positive!  Girls are allowed to have curves!  He loves your body exactly as it is!

But then ....

You never want
To know how much you weigh
you still love/have to squeeze into your jeans
But you're perfect to me

Because it's somehow endearing for a girl not to know her own weight?  Her weight anxiety is cute!
And then things really took a turn for the worse with this gem:

You'll never love yourself half as much as I love you

Well, that's right out of the abusive boyfriend handbook.  They try to save themselves by saying:
 
 If I let you know I'm here for you
Maybe you'll love yourself like I love you, oh.

but the damage is already done; the message is that the girl will always need her One Direction boy as the source of her self-esteem/self-worth.   The message of this song is an excellent follow-up to One Direction's last hit, "your low self-esteem is attractive"

 Pop songs sending shitty messages isn't anything new, but One Direction is notable in that their two big hits so far send these messages: 1) Ladies, it's attractive when you have low self-esteem, and 2) and because of your low self-esteem, you'll always need me. It's a double-win!