9/8/2023 0 Comments Beyonce flawless feminist![]() ![]() I haven’t yet taken the opportunity to think more deeply about her as a person, a woman, a celebrity, a singer/entertainer, or a character in her music, so I’m really looking forward to digging deeper and pushing my own assumptions and perspectives of the topic at hand. Third, and I’m not sure if this will enhance or hinder my part of these exchanges moving forward, I’m not incredibly familiar with Beyoncé. Second, I listened to the song that sparked this exchange for the first time more than a month after you pitched me about engaging in a collaborative reckoning of this media text. First, a few confessions: I put off reading the articles that critiqued, pulled apart, celebrated, questioned both the content and delivery of Beyoncé’s self-titled “visual album” for quite some time. ![]() Mia,I could begin my response a dozen different ways.there’s so much to potentially touch on. But the better angels of my nature are glad to know that you’ll complicate and disrupt.Answer me soon,Mia Part of me secretly hopes you’ll be the one to square the song and its imagery with my feminism. Maybe I should be more rigorous about bringing my beliefs and actions into alignment.I’d love to know how you responded to the song and video. This video makes me wonder if I haven’t just used this label “simultaneity” as license for inconsistency. It influences how I construct my appearance. I claim to be in a good position to criticize popular imagery because, apparently, it works on me. So I’ve used this line to kind of apologize for my long blond hair and interest in fashion. My party line has been that when something-say, patriarchy-works on you, you’re in a great position to criticize it. To me, there’s a real incoherence there, and when it’s in my face, I’m forced to consider the incoherence in myself. She is simultaneously “sexy” and powerful a wife (“I took time to live my life”) and a superstar (“don’t think I’m just his little wife”) someone who’s learned both “home training” and how to “speak mind.”The imagery of “***Flawless” is so stark: Beyoncé snarls and, in her lyrics, destroys her haters (“bow down, bitches”) and, at the same time, she’s wearing these-what would they be called?-thong cut-offs that do nothing to disrupt patriarchal notions of femininity and beauty and sexiness. ![]() Instead, I’d like to start by making sense of my own anxiety.Here’s what I’ve got so far: in this song and its video, Beyoncé embodies and celebrates simultaneity in a broad sense. Does she “count” as a feminist? Maybe it is their business to do that, but I’m not interested in this. What I’ve found instead are folks who have made it their business to review Beyoncé’s feminist bona fides. I’ve been looking for a reading that squares the song and its imagery with some semblance of my feminism. To avoid writing about my discomfort, I’ve been reading everything the Internet has to say about it. Usually, I’m pretty comfortable with this sense of incoherence.So I have to begin by admitting that I’m not comfortable with this song. In the past, we’ve talked about simultaneity-about being able to simultaneously enjoy and criticize a cultural product. This song has brought me joy and anxiety in equal measure. ![]() Below is what we've put together, hope you enjoy! Emily,Let me confirm what you already know: I’ve been putting off launching this conversation. We've exchanged emails over the last few months, both taking time to sit with each other's thoughts before writing back. Mia Hood, a friend and colleague from Teachers College, a fellow lover and aficionado of pop culture, and author of the blog Answer Me Soon, invited me to engage in a correspondence about Beyoncé: to debate, air out, challenge and celebrate the woman, the artist, the celebrity, the performer. ![]()
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