The unannounced release of Beyoncé’s new visual album, BEYONCÉ, had fans and any living person on December 13th buzzing. The album has undergone intense critiques about whether it is a contribution to any sort of feminist movement. The contradictions and mixed messages in the album leave me wondering if the lyrics and videos are in line with a positive and productive feminist movement for young women. I must admit, I am a fan of the album--minus a few songs--but do not give the lyrics too much weight.
The album starts out with Beyoncé as a beauty pageant contestant, struggling in an internal and external battle with her weight and appearance, claiming that “pretty hurts”. She criticizes society’s obsession with blonde hair, large breasts, thin waists, models, and fad diets. This song creates quite the precedent for the remainder of the album, leaving the viewer excited to see her defy societal standards of beauty and promote self-empowerment. Her next song, “Ghost,” validates this thought as she appears with natural-looking makeup and then covered head to toe with black paint looking very grounded and powerful. “Ghost”’s fast poetry style stresses how she did this album for herself and her fans, not caring about the money or what critics think. Again, my hopes are high for the girl power messages to come.
However, pretty much from this point on, the performer hyper-sexualizes herself with her choices in outfits and words. Despite earlier critiques, in almost every video she has a blonde weave in while sporting some sort of corset. In “Flawless,” Knowles quotes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ted Talk “We Should All Be Feminists” about how we teach girls to put a cap on their abilities, ambitions, and self-worth without a man. Chimamanda gave an incredible lecture which focused on the extremist anti-feminism attitudes in Nigeria. She described herself at one point as being a “happy African feminist who does not hate men and who likes lip gloss and who wears high heels for herself and not for men”. While I don’t doubt that Beyoncé would describe herself in a similar light and was simply being fashionable, edgy and taking artistic risks, the lyrics in her songs illustrate her craving of approval from men. “Flawless” preaches wearing make-up for yourself but also being ashamed of it and not wanting to tell men, claiming you “woke up like this [and] we flawless”.
Although catchy, “Partition” is one of the biggest offenders of this feminist contradiction. The video begins with Beyoncé eating breakfast and being ignored by her husband. Side note: her almost white looking skin appears as if she is giving in to racism that lies within the Black community that darker skin is a less desirable feature. Beyoncé then fantasizes about him ravaging her sexually, ripping her clothes, and ruining the makeup that she applied for 45 minutes. Second side note, pretending that it only took her 45 minutes to go through professional make-up, get a new weave put in and styled, and dressed in expensive couture gives young girls the false notion that Beyoncé semi-naturally looks this perfect when she went through hours of prep for one scene. The chorus is simply her repeating “take all of me, I just want to be the girl you like” while in a burlesque/strip club type setting with the man just watching as she and other women wearing bras and thongs throw themselves at a pole. Variations of this video are repeated throughout the album with even catchier music and more suggestive innuendos. Other lines include “Imma let you be the boss of me” and “I don’t need you seeing Yoncé on her knees”. How is a grown woman’s fantastic desperation for her significant other to give her attention, sexually not emotionally, a good thing to tell young girls?
The album ends with a compilation of dubbed home videos of Bey in her younger days, re-creations and new content of her in 2013. The song re-enforces that she is a “grown woman and can do whatever [she] want[s]”. This new take on lipstick feminism is being taken out of context by celebrities such as Queen Bey herself, not to beat a dead horse but Miley Cyrus, and Lilly Allen, telling girls to be overtly sexual in public and refuse to tolerate any criticism or judgement that a man wouldn’t receive for the same action. The context is that the girls who would be implementing this are not in the music industry where sex is considered art and innovation. I think the confusion is that people think that sexualized male musicians are well respected and revered intellectually so women should strive to act the same way. They are praised for their music and living out male fantasies on stage but any CEO of a fortune 500 company who would hire Robin Thicke or Lil Wayne based on their performances would be committing PR suicide. I consider myself feminist because I am a human being in 2014 and naturally understand equal rights, but there is a clear line between being a respected woman and selling out. I fear that Bey is inching towards that line. To give the album credit, there are many songs on here that are unbelievably creative, well done, and a product of extreme talent. Songs like “Heaven” “Superpower” and “Blue” are on a level of music that is rarely reached in a music industry fueled by Youtube plays. The only issue is that these songs have nothing to do with empowering girls and women and therefore I don’t think it is appropriate to include them in this review.
And while I do love Bey and Jay drunkenly rapping on a beach together, I’m not sure that this album is consistent enough to declare it as a great act of feminism when women existed like Alice Paul, who sexualized herself in a way that created positive change that females craved, not public indecency.
Beyoncé, and Jay-Z for that matter, have always been open about Bey being a multi-faceted woman, putting work over relationships while balancing the two, and simply being fabulous/ untouchable. I am all for being who you are and who you want to be, especially if who you are is Beyoncé Knowles. It just almost seems impossible to not criticize people who make such a grand production of not wanting to be criticized. No one had any issues with Queen Bey before, so much so that everyone calls her a queen when that’s not even her stage name. Her cult following already knows she is the ideal of perfection and a role model.
Perhaps the height of her influence has pressured her to feel she needs to take certain types of political risks. Taking risks in music should not mean replicating a strip tease and condoning the objectification of women. Taking risks is rapping when you’re not a rapper, singing about topics people never talk about like postpartum depression, opening up spiritually about a friend’s passing, and using influences from unfamiliar cultures, all of which Beyoncé does flawlessly and are what give this album value and illustrate the true growth of an artist.
So Bey, my plebeian advice to you is just keep doing you and stop saying that you don't give a f*** because if you really didn’t, you wouldn’t need to say it. Trust me, the rest of us will follow suit.
