On February 1, 2017, Beyoncé announced on her Instagram that she was pregnant with twins. On this fateful day, I was sitting in my chemistry lecture with a friend, and I got a BuzzFeed notification on my phone sharing the news. I immediately showed my friend my phone screen, and obviously, neither of us could focus for the rest of the lecture.
As Beyoncé's pregnancy announcement got more and more attention, there were varied reactions. Many people were thrilled that the Carter family was growing, many were fawning over the beautiful pregnancy photo that was shared on Beyoncé's Instagram, and others were just really excited for the birth of the twins. However, there were many people that didn't take to the news too kindly.
Upon seeing the joyous reactions to the impending arrival of the two newest members of the Carter family, some cynics spoke out about how being pregnant doesn't make Beyoncé special, that there were more important things to care about than a celebrity pregnancy, or that there wasn't much of a reason to care about Beyoncé, anyway.
Now that the twins should be here soon, I have a few reactions to those nay-sayers who don't think I should be excited that my idol is pregnant.
It's not really about the pregnancy. Of course, all of us Beyoncé die-hards are absolutely thrilled that our queen is adding to her already beautiful family. We're excited to find out the names and the sexes, and we're excited for Blue Ivy to turn into a big sister. However, it's more about Beyoncé herself. We idolize her, we respect her, we look up to her, and we're excited to see her happy. We shouldn't be expected to apologize for that.
Yes, there are a lot of horrible things going on in the world. Beyoncé's pregnancy announcement came shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump, and we were still grappling with his first few weeks of executive orders and adjusting to a new government. The entire nation was divided following the announcement of Trump's travel ban. Brexit was being pushed forward. The pregnancy announcement gave us solace, something to look forward to, something to be invested in that wasn't completely depressing. And, it was a great way to kick off Black History Month.
Beyoncé is special and that's not because she's pregnant. Beyoncé continuously and vehemently holds her own in a male-dominated field. She makes albums that not only have amazing vocals but are beautifully written and socially conscious. The Lemonade visual album was a work of art. When she dropped her self-titled album with no promo and it still immediately rose to the top of the charts, she proved her worth as a musician and a performer. Also, she's smart, talented, and is definitely someone to look up to in terms of feminism and social change. She's an icon and while her pregnancy doesn't make her special, I'm still gonna be excited about it because I look up to her.
What's so wrong with being excited? People seem to be pretty angry that Beyoncé fans are placing so much stock into her pregnancy, but why do they care? If you can be excited about Pitbull going on tour, I can get excited about Beyoncé 's pregnancy. Everyone likes what they like.
We may be overly excited about our favorite person getting pregnant, but the world has been pretty awful lately and people want to jump on whatever they can feel positive about. I look up to Beyoncé, and when good things happen to the people I look up to, I get excited. Sue me.
