Dove Cameron recently released a music video for her song “Breakfast” that switches traditional gender roles — and she says the concept came about after learning about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In the video, the singer and other powerful women harass a lower-level male employee who is later shown getting an abortion. As the song ends, footage is played from marches in support of reproductive rights.
On the red carpet at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, Cameron spoke to TODAY about changing the message of the “Breakfast” music video at the last minute.
“I was up in Vancouver shooting Season Two of my Apple show ‘Schmigadoon!’ when Roe v. Wade got overturned,” she said. “I think – like everybody in the States and the world round — I was really disturbed. I was really upset. I was super disillusioned. I felt myself falling into the ether.”
Although she had already filmed the “Breakfast” video, Cameron did not feel comfortable promoting the song following news about Roe v. Wade.
She recalled feeling depressed at the time and said it felt “inorganic” to release a video based on the original idea.
“I really wanted to make a video that felt like it was commenting on the times. I wanted to make a video that at least made people feel emotionally involved in the issue because I think it’s so easy to get disillusioned and feel disempowered with how much negative information … it feels like we’re constantly losing,” she said.
Cameron explained that the current video, which has almost 2.5 million views on YouTube and is currently trending on the site, was made to inspire action.
The musician shared, “We started diving deep on what it would be that would make people feel emotionally reconnected to the issue in a way that would recontextualize it in their mind and make it feel like, ‘Oh, right. This is super f---ed up!’”
She also said that the intent of “Breakfast” is not to be “inflammatory” or “negative towards any one party.”
“It’s more so about trying to elicit empathy for these situations that are not from the 1960s and they are not, you know, antiquated,” she told TODAY. “It’s unfair for one gender to carry the entirety of the weight of the reproductive conversation.”
Cameron said she wants the video to add to a broader conversation that can include empathy.
She concluded, “And I hope that young people feel closer to democracy. What else can we do, right? We got to vote.”