all-american bitch

American writer Joan Didion's 1979 book The White Album is a compilation of autobiographical magazine articles. These essays, while loosely linked, delve into a range of themes encompassing the American Dream, celebrity culture, and the turbulent landscape of the late 1960s. One of these essays transports us to San Francisco, where Didion immerses herself in encounters with the counterculture, meeting hippies tripping on acid and attending Grateful Dead concerts. During her journey, she engages in a conversation with a young runaway hippie who refers to his mother as an "all-American bitch." Olivia Rodrigo told Phoebe Bridgers for Interview magazine that when she read The White Album, the phrase "all-American bitch" jumped out on her. She thought it the "coolest phrase" she'd ever heard and had to write a song about it.

The term "all-American" has its roots in the late 19th century United States. Initially, it was coined to describe a group of college football players renowned as the best in their respective positions. The inaugural "All-America" team, the 1889 College Football All-America Team, was handpicked by Caspar Whitney and published in a magazine called This Week's Sports in partnership with football pioneer Walter Camp. In her song "All-American Bitch," Rodrigo delves into the societal pressures and expectations imposed on women to align with the perceived ideal American standard. The emotions laid bare in the track underscore Rodrigo's sense of not quite fitting into American culture and society, leaving her feeling as though she falls short of embodying the perfect all-American woman. "It's one of my favorite songs I've ever written," Rodrigo told Apple Music. "I really love the lyrics of it and I think it expresses something that I've been trying to express since I was 15 years old - this repressed anger and feeling of confusion, or trying to be put into a box as a girl."

The song playfully celebrates the idea that society often expects young women to hide their discontent. "I've experienced a lot of emotional turmoil over having all these feelings of rage and dissatisfaction that I felt like I couldn't express, especially in my job," Rodrigo told The Guardian. "I've always felt like you can never admit it, be so grateful all the time, so many people want this position. And that causes a lot of repressed feelings. I've always struggled with wanting to be this perfect American girl and the reality of not feeling like that all the time."