Dove Cameron’s “Breakfast” MV Is An Urgent Defense Of Roe v. Wade
“I eat boys like you for breakfast.”
Dove Cameron is speaking out about the state of abortion rights in the United States. On Aug. 23, Cameron released the music video for her single, “Breakfast.” The song was first released on June 24. This was the same day the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ultimately overturned the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v. Wade. While Cameron’s “Breakfast” lyrics address what it’s like to be a woman in a male-dominated world, the music video visualizes this power imbalance with an unexpected twist.
Directed by Lauren Dunn, the “Breakfast” music video depicts a gender-flipped ‘50s America where men are responsible for housekeeping while their wives head off to work. Think Mad Men if Don Draper was told to stay home while Betty worked in a high-powered office.
The music video opens with Cameron at home listening to a news report about men fighting for more expansive rights — sound familiar? Meanwhile, Cameron’s husband is attending to her every breakfast need.
Cameron is then seen marching into her workplace office where her presence visibly intimidates her male colleagues. The period-perfect script-flip continues as one of Cameron’s female coworkers inappropriately touches a male assistant while big boss Cameron looks on. Eventually, Cameron takes the male coworker for herself, while her husband sits at home at an empty dinner table.
The man from the office soon gets overwhelmed by seeing Cameron at work and runs to receive an abortion from a doctor; however, instead of receiving comfort, the man’s doctor chastises him for drinking too much and wearing clothes that were sexually inviting to women.
Clearly, this is a universe flipped upside down. Men in Cameron’s video deal with common experiences that women are used to in the real world. This became apparent at the end of the video when Cameron snaps back to reality. She turns on the TV and sees what appears to be footage from real-life abortion rights rallies.
This isn’t the first time Cameron has spoken out in support of abortion rights. She routinely shares her advocacy on her social media platforms, including a May 2019 tweet calling into question the beliefs of pro-life advocates. On Instagram in June of this year, Cameron also shared The New Yorker’s viral article on the gravity of overturning Roe v. Wade.
All this makes her “Breakfast” music video the latest in a series of essential responses. In fact, the video ends with a call to support several organizations fighting for women’s rights: Supermajority, EMILY’s List, Headcount, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
If Cameron has made one thing clear in the past few years, it’s that she won’t be staying silent.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit online.rainn.org.
