On the surface, Tove Lo’s new song sounds like a girl praising herself for being okay with just hooking up, she’s “too cool” for commitment. The more you listen to it, the easier it is to realize that this fun, catchy song is actually a social commentary on male hookup culture.

In her Genius Verified video (here), she says that the cool girl monologue from Gone Girl essentially inspired the song. The lyrics are reminiscent of how breathtaking that monologue is. “Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl.” Girls strive to be the cool girl, the one who watches football and cooks and cleans and drinks beer and lets her man do whatever they want and doesn’t want to put a label on it. If you can become his perfect woman, you’re his cool girl.

Tove Lo puts this into perfect irony. The song starts with “You can run free, I won't hold it against ya.” Cool girl doesn’t hold her man down.

“Rules you don't like, but you still wanna keep 'em

Said you were fine so for whatever reason

Sure we can chill, try and keep it platonic

Now you can't tell if I'm really ironic”

A lot of girls have experienced this situation -- as soon as you commit to non-commitment, it becomes a problem. She put this feeling into words-- “So they rather have me being jealous or acting out. They are expecting me to react to the freedom and when I’m just fine with it, then that gets to them instead of being happy with that.” This relationship dynamic is especially toxic within our generation.

Women are socialized in such a way that makes us believe that we have to make a man happy, we have to be the dream woman to find a good relationship. Really, the opposite is true. The most important thing us girls can remember is to stand our own. Tove Lo reminds us of that, and that’s why "Cool Girl" is such an important song.