Maybe we can work it out

Kanye West's "The New Workout Plan" parodies work out tapes, and all the empty promises that come with them. Through this, it satirizes the expectations that society places on women to be sexy and fit.

The song begins with Kanye speaking to the target audience of his faux workout tape: women looking to get fit for the summer. From the get go he makes ridiculous empty promises. 

                    "And Ladies, if you follow these instructions exactly

                   You might be able to pull you a rapper, an NBA player

                                    Man, at least a dude with a car"

Here he uses hyperbole, while the workout tapes he's parodying wouldn't promise things as extreme as 'a rapper' and an 'NBA player', but they would make insincere promises for how helpful the tape would be. He sort of breaks out of the satire by saying almost desperately 'at least a dude with a car', as if he's aware of how useless the workout tape actually is. Like hell, something has got to happen.  I think it still works to show that the people selling workout tapes know better than anybody that their product isn't worth the money. This type of criticism could cover any quack miracle product, so why a workout tape?

Because silly puns revolving around workout terminology make for a fun song, sure. But I'd argue that the song also serves to criticize the expectations placed on women to be fit and sexy. Someone who feels bad about their body would of course be more likely to buy a workout tape.

The song goes through various lines of exaggerated misogyny to demonstrate the ways that women are valued for their bodies alone. "Excuse me miss, I forgot your name/Thank you, God bless you, good night, I came" Here he completely forgets the name of the woman he's having sex with. Now at this point in rap, this has become a fairly common thing to brag about (sadly). In the context of this song however, I think it's fairly clear that Kanye is using this line to show how little women can be valued outside of their bodies.  "All the mocha lattes, you gotta do Pilates/ You gotta pop this tape in before you start back dating." Again he talks about how women have to workout and get in shape before any man will be interested in them.

My favorite part of the song, and the funniest part is the customer testimonies. These ridiculous testimonies take the satire to an over the top level. One customer was able to date NBA players, another able to pay her phone bill (thanks to the workout tape?), and a girl from Alabama who was finally able to date outside the family. Basically, the results are hilariously ridiculous, giving the workout tape credit for every change in their life. Obviously none of these would ever happen due to a silly workout tape. This section just serves to further mock the idea of changing one's entire life with a few workout instructions.

Misogyny remains to be a big problem in rap music, and even Kanye isn't completely innocent, but at the very least, this song takes an interesting approach to criticizing sexual standards for women.