Beyoncé’s visual album "Lemonade" premiered as a “World Event” on HBO GO this weekend. The video chronicled the personal journey that she went through while commenting on many of society’s problems. By discussing the way that she dealt with her husband cheating on her, she highlights the importance of women's empowerment. The poetry of Warsan Shire, home videos, and news stories combined with Beyonce’s music call attention to the unjust treatment of women, black women in particular, and the importance of true love.
The first step in dealing with her husband cheating on her was intuition, discovering that it was happening. Beyoncé takes the audience with her through this process by wondering, “Where do you go when you go quiet?” She compares him to her father, “a magician... able to exist in two places at once.”
Next, denial. She tried to change herself. To be “softer, prettier, less awake.” This calls attention to the way many women feel and react when they are treated unjustly. Beyoncé is criticizing the social construct that forces women to be submissive, calm, and quiet. She becomes submerged in water, symbolizing that she was trying to purify herself and become what society wanted her to be. As she bursts out of the water-filled house, she proudly marches around the town destroying cars with a baseball bat to a song “Hold Up” in which she questions herself, asking “What’s worse, looking jealous or crazy?” and reminding her husband that, “They don’t love you like I love you.”
Quickly, this transitions into anger. She begins this section with bargaining and suggesting that she wear the skin of the woman that he cheated with as an outfit. With this, her anger begins to resonate with the reader as her voice becomes more abrasive. She comments that love is “illusive” and compares lovers to “trees, growing to and from one another.” The song “Don’t Hurt Yourself” ensues, in which she stands up for herself and releases her anger with an intense rock sound. She reminds Jay Z that if he does this again, “You gonna lose your wife!”
Following the empowering feeling of the previous song, “Sorry” does quite the opposite of apologizing by repeating “I ain’t sorry” and introducing the stage of apathy. The cinematography uses the manipulation of time by speeding up and slowing down Beyoncé’s movements showing that she now has the power over her perpetrator. The lack of color adds to the feeling of darkness and unapologetic feeling that her words create. She no longer cares and has no more feelings of sorrow.
The black and white slowly turns into a dark scene with red lighting. Emptiness creeps into the story. Illustrating sex as a religious event, Shire’s poetry embodies the empty feeling when the man leaves after having sex. The dependency on men comes back into the picture. Without her husband she felt empty. In the song “6 Inch,” she describes a strong but unhappy woman going through the motions, perhaps alluding to the way she turned to her work when dealing with her husband cheating. She ends the song with “come back.”
The viewer is now forced to think more about the legacy of women. She begins to take accountability for her actions and asks her mother to teach her how to be in charge of her own life and how to control her partner. The song “Daddy’s Lessons” pulls the audience into a complex relationship between Beyoncé and her father. Her father was her manager until 2011, and this song illustrates the tense relationship that they shared while showing that he also cared for her and wanted the best for his daughter.
“He bathes me until I forget their names and faces.” Reformation begins. The use of water appears again, alluding to the healing process that she was beginning. Beyoncé suggests that the man who hurt her will be the same one to help bring her back up. She is emphasizing the capability of true love.
Forgiveness comes next in her process. She forgave her husband and he forgives her. “There is a curse that will be broken!” The curse of patriarchy. In her song “Sandcastles,” she discusses that though she made the promise that she would never take her husband back, “every promise don’t work out that way.” The act of forgiveness can act as the water that washes away sandcastles on the beach.
A woman’s voice asks how one should lead the young women in her life and she answers with “love.” Black women are shown with photographs of dead men in their families. The mothers of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown are included here. Remembrance of these young men acts as a form of resurrection while also suggesting the resurrection of Beyoncé and Jay Z’s love. The importance of respecting and containing cultures of different races is shown through a Native American in traditional clothing as well as a newborn baby lying on a bed.
Hope for a better future and a continuing love. Women gather together to lead a better life for themselves. After going through such an emotional journey, Beyoncé has finally found freedom. She performs her song “Freedom” for a group of exclusively black women on a stage. This shows how with the help and support of other women, they will gain freedom. There is hope for women. One day, black women will not be the most ostracized group of people in America. In her intimate performance of this song, Beyoncé does not use a microphone, showing that she has finally found her voice and doesn’t depend on anyone else.
The last step in healing was redemption. A recipe for lemonade was shared, passed down from mother to daughter for years. The film inscribes into the minds of the viewer how “nothing real can be threatened.” By ending the film with all different kinds of love between man and woman, father and daughter, black and white, etc., it shows “true love never has to die.”
