I’ve never been much of a Beyoncé fan. Not because I didn’t think she was good or I didn’t like her music, I just wasn’t part of her fandom. As soon as "Lemonade" came out, I knew that was going to change. All over the internet there was talks of Jay-z cheating and who was Becky with the good hair? As a pop culture fanatic, I couldn’t just ignore her album forever. After watching the video for "Lemonade," I knew I was officially a Beyoncé fan. It was so good. She doesn’t hold anything back in this album which is what I look for in an artist. "Lemonade" is retribution. "Lemonade" is brilliant. "Lemonade" is empowering.

I tended to ignore the whole “Is Beyoncé Empowering?” conversation before this album because I wasn’t educated on the subject of Beyoncé. I knew she was called the Queen (which I now know is a suiting title), so I figured she must be doing something right to get that many people to fall in line behind her. It’s been said that Beyoncé is more of a brand than a person, and I kind of had to agree with that before "Lemonade," but "Lemonade" is an entity produced by the human, Beyoncé. The human that has feelings and hardships and problems. Lemonade is the heart and soul of Beyoncé. It is not easy to put all of your emotions on display for the world to see. "Lemonade" takes us through Beyoncé’s life over the past couple of years. We see her mad at Jay-z. We see her sad about Jay-z. We see her confident. We see her fragile. She didn’t hide anything she was feeling. She used "Lemonade" to help work through her problems which is how the best art comes about.

That’s why I was mindblown when I saw negative people saying that Beyoncé wasn’t empowering and criticizing her. I know that every celebrity gets criticism from haters, but I honestly don’t understand how someone could think that "Lemonade" wasn’t empowering. Beyoncé gave a voice to an entire group of people. Lemonade is an ode to Black Womanhood, and maybe if you don’t understand that it is because the album wasn’t made for you. "Lemonade" is also incredibly feminist. Beyoncé shows us that feminists can be fragile while also being badass and not taking crap from anyone. Beyoncé says that you’re OK if you get cheated on. Beyoncé shows us how to be forgiving. If you don’t think that Beyoncé is empowering, maybe you need to look at it from other people’s perspectives. Maybe you need to understand that Beyoncé is a brand, but also a human being. Maybe you need to learn that if something is empowering to even one person, then it is automatically empowering because it helped someone. Maybe you need a little hot sauce.