What Sarah Palin Taught Me About Beyonce
by Guest Contributor M. Dot, originally published at Model Minority
I am working on a paper titled, “How Beyonce and Capitalism Undermined R&B’s Ability to Normalize Black Love.”
The title may change to Beyonce Incorporated, as that is more focused and more appropriate for academia.
My professor wants me to l shift my focus to the media’s investment in what I have called the Beyonce Beauty Aesthetic – light skinned, size 4/6, curvy, blond hair.
But I am not interested in just talking about the media, I am interested in how Beyonce is a tool for maintaining US hegemony and the ways in which she normalizes really fucked up, patriarchal, Black heterosexual relationships.
I am fascinated by a light skinned, middle class Black woman from the Houston suburbs who sings about needing a soldier, who she could upgrade, so that he can put a ring on it, and if he likes her he can put her in his video phone.
Conversely, why is a woman worth tens of millions of dollars singing about needing a baller?
I’m intrigued by this binary of success that allows one Black woman at a time to be a megastar, with the general prerequisite being that she is light skinned and talented, and while all the rest remain pretty marginalized.
Kelis. Amel. Tiombe. Georgia Ann Muldrow. Algebra. Aaries. Goapele, Solange.
Estelle, Chrisette, and Erykah may get some mainstream play, but for the most part they are regulated to the VH1 Soul channel and its requisite circuit.
Mary may get some pop play.
By and large Billboard-wise Alicia and Mariah are presented to us as (the) Black Pop R&B stars. (Did I miss anyone? I may have, and I sure you all will let me know in the comments.)
Both are light skinned. Both keep their sizes in a 4-6-8 range.
In trying to figure out how to frame this paper, I called Moya and asked for her advice. She suggested that I read Summer’s piece about how Beyonce is simply doing her job. Summer makes the argument that Beyonce is doing her job, singing, dancing, shimming and making work out music and that to expect her to expect her to do anything else is implicitly naive.
Her job is to be a diva, and she most certainly does it well.
While, I agree that she most certainly is doing a job, my job is to show how her efficiency is related to both the larger project of maintaining white supremacist patriarchal capitalism and how the songs normalize some really patriarchal, and implicitly violent Black heterosexual relationships.
How did I get to Beyonce from Sarah Palin?
I was talking with another professor about politics and Sarah Palin.
I mentioned that my issue with my generation is that they are far too focused on Sarah Palin and not on the people who are willing to vote for her in 2012. That calling those folks stupid will not discourage them, and that it may,
in fact, embolden them.
She responded saying that there needs to be both a focus on Palin and a focus on the people who support her. Her rationale was that some people, because of their platform, influence and power, need to be made to shut up, because the things that they say are harmful and can cause other groups of people to do harm. She used Rwandan genocide as an example. She made it clear that we need to see Palin as a willing participant in her career.
It was at that moment that I had a better idea of how to frame Beyonce.
My homie Jess said that I should lay out the facts and then make my argument, given the fact that multiple arguments can be made on the same facts.
I now understand that the argument section has to be simultaneously on the Beyonce and the culture that she influences and creates.
Culture is US hegemony’s goon.
Culture does hegemony’s day to day dirty work.
It was then that I realized that when I write this paper, that I will not write about Beyonce per se, but about the power that she has, and the harm that is done when Black women dating hustlers is normalized.
All people need love. Hustlers too.
Women of all races have dealt with people who operate in the underground economy. I get that.
However, this must be reconciled with the fact that the most popular Black pop singer in the world is continually singing about needing a baller, and perpetually valuing men for what they can give.
If Black men are only worth what they can give, then they must be worth very little, as they are woefully under or unemployed. There are nearly $1 million of them in prison mainly for non violent drug offense, largely selling small amounts of crack or other drugs.
In a country where 1 in 15 Black men is incarcerated this is a problem.
Black and white women are going to jail at unprecedented rates too.
Human beings deserve to be loved regardless of how much cake they have.
Peep game.
Folks want Jay Z to rap about being married.
Jay Z will not rap about being married to Beyonce because young White men, other non Black people and perhaps some Black folks, do not want to hear about it.
Jay can be married to the game, but he can’t be married to her.
The reason why I am writing this piece is for the women that I know of from East Oakland, California, who have gotten shot in the face, kidnapped, stuffed into trunks, have caught been caught hustling or dealing with hustlers and are now doing dumb ignorant time or they are dead.
This morning, I woke up and while I was making coffee I remember my patna from elementary school, Tange. In the early early nineties, Tange’s cousin got shot in Brookfield while sitting in the car with her boyfriend, who was a hustler. The killer murdered both of them. Peep game. When I saw Tange, she was spooked because she looked like her cousin. So when people saw her they would say her and say, “Girl, I thought you were dead.” They thought she was her cousin because they looked similar.
People may not care, because the lives of Black women are not important to them. Or they may think I am putting ten on two.
Their lives are important to me.
So I write.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Eva wrote:
I’d like to read that paper. At first I didn’t see where you were going, but right now I’m listening to the newest song by Sade and how different it is to everything that Beyonce is singing about.
But does anyone really listen to the lyrics of Beyonce’s songs or do they just dance and work out to the music? I remember on American Bandstand whenever they’d play a new song and people liked it they said, “I like the beat and it’s easy to dance to.”
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 10:34 am ¶
Olivia wrote:
Another 2 to add; Rihanna and Leona Lewis etc
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 10:44 am ¶
Marcus Kwame wrote:
Thanks for writing this. Is there any chance your paper will be posted eventually?
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 10:51 am ¶
Jason wrote:
I love-love-LOVE this piece!
“I am interested in how Beyonce is a tool for maintaining US hegemony and the ways in which she normalizes really fucked up, patriarchal, Black heterosexual relationships.”
Totally agree when you add the “Beyonce Beauty Aesthetic” then she also normalizes colourism/pigmatocracy among black folks in the way the aesthetic becomes tangible and accessible through the dominant culture since it serves as a colour line
Do you think that the way Beyonce’s sexuality is marketed ala “video phone” is also a tool that hyper-sexualities both black men and women? – I guess this goes back to you main theme about reinforcing fucked up black heterosexual relationships, but I’m just thinking about the way the identification of Black male bodies as hustlers/soldiers or “ballers” (i.e. modern day mandingos) is as much a sexual coding or signifier as it is a status one which goes with that “wanton” “insatiable sexuality” black women are supposed to have
Love the line Culture is US Hegemony’s goon!!!
a really really great peice
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 10:53 am ¶
Val wrote:
I’ve always found it very interesting that Beyonce is married to a (former) drug dealer. And the really interesting thing about that is everyone seems to think it’s normal that such a successful Black woman would marry a (former) drug dealer.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 11:23 am ¶
Martha wrote:
Fascinating. I would be really interested in reading that paper!!!!
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 11:31 am ¶
Moni wrote:
I look forward to reading your piece. The way you are attempting to connect so many things is inspirational to me as a writer…it pushes me to be even more deliberate in how I show connections in my own work. I do want to add something that I found out about beauty in Brazil. Evidently, the weaves that Afro-Brazilian women wear are called “mega hair” or “the Beyonce”…I was told this, but you may be able to find some documentation on it if interested…
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 11:32 am ¶
AMarie wrote:
I would love to read more of this! Is there any way to post a shorter, modified version of your paper on Racialicious? Or on your personal blog?
The part about East Oakland tugged at my heart most. As a life-long Bay Area resident, I can’t ignore it.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 11:40 am ¶
Met wrote:
Please post your paper when you finish it!! I am facisnated all ready. I know this is a small thing to nit pick about but Beyonce isn’t a 4/6. Don’t get me wrong she is obviously in shape but she aint no 6.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 11:43 am ¶
urban Suburbinite wrote:
This was a great read. I look forward to more!
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 12:14 pm ¶
Erin wrote:
Mary J. – “some” pop play? How about 9 grammys, 8 albums gone multi-platinum? Millions in endorsement deals. Her own label. Face all over the place, even still. Woman is a brand and a force.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 12:34 pm ¶
Rhonda wrote:
Brava! I loved this piece; excellent points!
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 12:39 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
Great piece, tough questions.
Looking at it from the least specific, most universal perspective, Sarah Palin and Beyonce have careers that are viewed almost as magical, fairy tale stories of social mobility… starting at nothing and ending up as the highest royalty (since celebrity is kind of the capitalist version of royalty).
It doesn’t matter that neither really started from nothing, and they actually come from middle-class, fairly normal backgrounds. But that’s the way they seem to interpret their own careers.
Beyonce already made it. But there’s some kind of compulsion ruling her to constantly recreate that story by singing about hitching her wagon to someone else’s star.
With Sarah Palin it’s even more apparent, she doesn’t do anything new at all, she just constantly recreates the story of her journey from Alaska to national attention, and people throw money at her for recreating that story.
Like you say, recreating these highly artificial stories, giving them so much of our mind space, tends to obscure the stories of real women…
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 12:50 pm ¶
CDF wrote:
“But does anyone really listen to the lyrics of Beyonce’s songs or do they just dance and work out to the music?”-Eva
That’s one of the main I ask about much of what is promoted as music these days. As a teen, there were acts that I listened to that I wouldn’t touch these days and one of the only reasons I liked them initially was the music and/or beats.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 12:54 pm ¶
TheAssimilatedNegro wrote:
“make sure he a thug and intelligent too, like a real thoroughbred is …”
I think you’re being too academic and literal-minded for commenting so definitively on people and product immersed in a world of artistic (and capitalist) license.
take Beyonce’s song “Ego”. if you took a militant racial stance, you could say it’s terrible reinforcer of stereotypes about black male genitalia/sexuality etc. but if you take a feminist stance, maybe it’s empowering to have a women boldly declare what she wants, how/why she likes it. but maybe it’s just a fun[ny] song.
as i see it (as a black guy), beyonce is legitimizing a street sensibility/awareness as part of a larger comprehensive alpha-male package. it’s not that she wants a drug dealer, or an ex-con, but someone who can appreciate that part of life. a panoramic perspective. think obama brushing his shoulder off. what lady doesn’t want that, raise her hand…
she’s not writing a thesis/dissertation on socio-racio-gender politics in capitalist america. but she is making songs that straddle those lines, and so far has been pretty successful at it.
jay-z’s kingdom come album was about loving his lady (lost one), getting older (30 something), retirement (beach chair). but it didn’t sell, and was critically panned because it was …. boring.
lady gaga (white) has a song called paper gangsta. it echoes some of these aspirational upwardly-mobile thug themes you attribute to Beyonce Inc. i think the “gangsta” is just commercial song code for authenticity etc. “keeping it real” etc. that’s the difference btwn artistic license and being overly literal. if you had to fit your thesis into 4/4 measures and make it grab someone’s ear, you might need to compromise some of your idealism as well.
all that said, i think you’re on to something here. beyonce is populist, but also “black”, and reflects a lot of American “isms” in her art and artist persona. but i just think this sample here seems narrow in its perspective. or too earnest in placing the “state of the black woman” on to the shoulders of beyonce (or any other black woman)…
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 1:05 pm ¶
merisunshine36 wrote:
As a dark brown lady, I am very aware of the effects of “pigmentocracy”. But I still love me some Beyonce. Yeah, she’s a pop diva, and she is doing her pop diva thing which involves a good amount of shallow, trashy lyrics. But her ‘hustler’ lyrics aren’t any better or worse than Britney’s “If You Seek Amy”. I know that since Beyonce is black, everything she does is held under twice as much scrutiny. But I do think that within the framework of the industry she works in, she does what she can to get a positive word in.
Instead of being a straight-up endorsement of gangsterism, her songs are an interesting blend of the negative and the positive. For every “Soldier” there is an “If I Were A Boy”, for every “Video Phone” we get “Irreplaceable”. Three years ago, she realized she needed to do more to lift up young female musicians and decided she would have an (amazing, badass) all-female band at her concerts. Furthermore, I have read a lot of criticism of “Single Ladies” in that it promotes socially conservative ideology. Well, so what? At the end of the day, I do not understand why people are so up in arms at the idea that a woman might want to be married to someone who’s got her back. Given the number people I graduated from high school with who are single, never finished college, and are un- or underemployed with multiple children at age 24, I only wish that someone had told them that they needed to “put a ring on it” or have a “soldier” that will take care of them first.
I think it’s easy for us outsiders to sit here and hate on Beyonce, when most of us have personally experienced what is probably and unbelievable degree of evil that goes on behind the doors of a major record studio. I hate the prevalent “light is right” stereotypes, and I do not think that the dominant corporate image of blackness is right or acceptable by any stretch of the imagination. I am eager to see your paper, because it seems to place the blame for the system at Beyonce’s feet rather than with the white men sitting behind the desks. And although her success overshadows ladies like Chrisette and Janelle Monae, (whom I love equally), I don’t see why we have to tear Beyonce down to lift them up. My girl B is doing the best she can!
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 1:07 pm ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
Why are so many black/dark skinned pop divas obsessed with having blonde hair? This includes Indian and South Asians, too!
Ugh, I was dismayed when Rihanna decided to go blonde. Her black hair was much more beautiful and sexy. I love my naturally black hair and I wish more raven-haired women would embrace having black hair.
Don’t get me started on Leona Lewis.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 1:29 pm ¶
pennibrown wrote:
Hi M.Dot – I like where you are going with this.
It is also important to note that most of those songs that are about glamourizing the thug are written by men…Men who are decidedly NOT thugs. So, even non-thugs fantasize about being thugs and then getting the women. (This is kind of the opposite of the chunky jewish nerdy guy that gets the hot girl movie theme that is so prevalent now.)
Upgrade U, Check on It, Soldier, Ring the Alarm, Video Phone I think were all written by Sean Garrett. Single Ladies was done by The Dream. Of course she gets writing credits on these songs, but, isn’t that more of a financial thing than a true depiction of who did what on the song?
All of this does point back to the patriarchy point though. She’s a willing puppet that speaks to and behaves in the way that the puppet master, the men who write the songs and consume the songs (DJs) desire.
This isn’t a new phenom, (see Biggie – Lil Kim, Ike – Tina, etc etc.) I think what is different is the point you make about Bey coming from a stable middle class home. Most of the puppets in the past have been disadvantaged.
Thinking along those lines, you would have to look at Matthew Knowles with the side eye, for basically allowing his child to perpetuate these puppet-ty ideas.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 2:14 pm ¶
Eva wrote:
“I’ve always found it very interesting that Beyonce is married to a (former) drug dealer. And the really interesting thing about that is everyone seems to think it’s normal that such a successful Black woman would marry a (former) drug dealer.”
I have a VERY serious problem with this statement, because I have been in recovery for over 20 years and I’ve seen plenty of successful white women married to men who even served prison time for dealing drugs, and no one thought anything of it because everybody was sober.
Do you count the years a person did the wrong thing, or the years they did the right thing?
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 2:27 pm ¶
6d9s wrote:
Amazing piece and it sounds like it’ll make for a great paper. Though I would argue with the talented assertion (she is but not enough to justify her stardom, looks clearly play a bigger role and technology can do a heck of a lot).
@merisunshine36:
I think the big problem with “Single Ladies” is not that it promotes marriage but explicitly implies that the woman has no agency but is just something you “put a ring on” or at least her finger is. There’s no room for the idea that if a woman was willing to marry someone why not bring it up herself? The song implies that the woman would have been receptive to marriage so why not propose or open the discussion herself as oppose to sitting around hoping the man would just “put a ring on it”? The song doesn’t promote marriage so much as it takes away the woman’s agency and reduces her to something to be claimed. It sounds that the last thing the people you described (and anyone else) need is to think that they have no agency in being proactive in the search for a partner. Suggesting to women that they should just wait for a guy they are willing to marry to decide to propose is extremely harmful and reinforces very sexist notions about women and the way “courtship” is suppose to proceed. Had the song been about a man who turned down a proposal from a woman then proceeded to act jealous, it would be entirely different and an empowering concept. Given some of her other music and actions, I am quite surprised and disappointed that she put out a song which reduces women to commodities (something you put a ring on if you like. Seriously?).
Interestingly enough, one of the things I find the most redeemable about her pretty shallow music is also something I find highly annoying: she makes a lot of music that is very much self-absorbed and about how fabulous she is and it isn’t always for the sole purpose of coming across as a good buy to a man. Some of it is generally self-indulging. I think her music is extremely shallow and redundant but her performances of sexuality are actually a great deal better, imo, than much of what is out there. She has a way of making it clear in a lot of songs and videos that her sole purpose is not attracting/pleasing a man despite the fact that some seems to have come to the conclusion her legs are her best feature and that crotch-centric moves show off dancing skills (though given Shakira’s latest video maybe crotch-emphasis is the bank-head bounce).
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 2:39 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
@Val and @Eva:
Ha, I’m married to a former drug dealer. He’s white, and used to sell hippie drugs to other white kids in small-town Georgia. He wasn’t very good at it, and stopped doing it after his last arrest almost two decades ago.
I think there are a huge number of former drug dealers of all races out there. For such an intensely glamorized profession, the day to day reality is that most drug dealers aren’t violent, don’t make much money at it, and don’t do it for very long, if they have any kind of choice in the matter. I think the industry of glamorizing drug dealing is probably a lot more lucrative than the profession itself.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 3:00 pm ¶
hmmm wrote:
@6d9s: How do you know the premise of the song didn’t have a turned down proposal? I think its all about what you project onto it…
I really like this concept but I hope that all lyrics are analyzed and discussed, not just the ones that fit the frame. I would like to read about your take (mdot and anyones really) on songs like if i were a boy, crazy in love, flaws and all, and basically all her songs…Obviously the ones that are number ones should get precedent but if an artist is putting out material then we can’t ignore it to make a point…
I can never decide where I fit into this Beyonce debate. I enjoy some of her songs, I relate to some of her songs, and I am irritated/appalled by some…
I like the sentiment that we dont have to take anything away from Beyonce to give more credit to Jill Scott or janelle Monet…Lets empower ALL women and let them be as different on the spectrum as men…yes?
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 5:44 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:
Eva, ~please note what happened to Tange’s cousin. Drug dealer includes not just the Phish luvin’ hook up, but can get pretty thick (failed drug war discussions aside). I speak from personal experience. Black men are disproportionately locked and for longer sentences…as are the black women that go down with them. This is not something that the black community needs. Whites in recovery are not seen in the way that blacks (who rarely get sent to/can afford rehab) are.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 5:56 pm ¶
G.K. wrote:
I agree with Eva about disagreeing with Val’s statement about Jay-Z—he’s never hidden the fact that he was a drug dealer, but why stick that label on him, considering he left that all behind when he went into rap years and years ago? I don’t see white boys stuck with those kinds of labels on them forever and a day. I also give Jay-Z credit for not really ever having played up or glamorized that fact in his songs. A lot of rappers started out as drug dealers, but as soon as they found out that rap could be a hell of a lot more lucrative (i.e. 50 Cent and Tupac) plus they would live longer—they got the hell out of the game with a quickness.
@atlasien
Yeah, that is true about the drug profession–for all the glamorization of the game, not too many people in it even love long enough to make to the Scarface level. I knew a brother some years back who said he started selling weed out of his home in Detroit, but he said he actually had to quit because it got to be too much work–people knocking at his door day and night–he didn’t have anyone to help him really get his business together. Even Judge Greg Mathis ( a former Detroiter) said in an interview in JET magazine earlier this year that drug selling, when you got down to it, was simply a job just like anything else, and he broke down exactly how much work it took to keep a drug-selling business afloat. So, yeah, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be—it’s just hype, mainly.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 6:16 pm ¶
G.K. wrote:
I mean to say not too many people in the hardcore drug profession even live long enough to make to the top level of dealers. About my girl Beyonce—-I think that’ s too much of a burden to hang on one person for representing patriarcal norms and instutionalizing them through her songs–being a women in this society, even Beyonce got indoctrinated with those sexist norms just like everybody else—she didn’t invent them, and even if she stopped writing songs with those messages today and went totally stone cold feminist and put out only songs along those lines, they would still be being out there by somebody else. She does co-write and co-produce some of her songs, so I would hardly call her anybody’s puppet–she’s out there getting paid to do what she loves, and I’ve always liked her from the Destiny’s Child on up, so I ain’t hating on her or her hustle. I’d buy all of her CDs before I would touch anything by Britney Spears, who never and still can’t sing worth a damn.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 6:26 pm ¶
G.K. wrote:
Now Amel Larrieux (whom I’ve liked since her Groove Theory days) is light-skinned and within the 6-8 size range—at least I think she is, but I think she’s not better known simply because she refuses to put herself out there as a sex object (a la Beyonce and Ciara and practically every other pop singer out today) and showing numerous amounts of skin. If she or India Arie or even Corinne Bailey Rae got around to doing this, I guarantee they’d all get more of the airplay they deserve, but they’re all chosen not to, and they get mad respect from me for doing just that.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 6:31 pm ¶
merisunshine36 wrote:
@6d9s
I am going to have respectfully disagree with you on that front! Primarily in that the average listener doesn’t go into it that deep. My uneducated guesstimate is that the vast majority of people don’t listen past “If you liked it /then you shoulda put a ring on it”. But even if we are doing a close text reading, I see:
“Don’t treat me to these things of the world/
I’m not that kind of girl/Your love is what I prefer, what I deserve ”
Where is the lack of agency in that? Where is the waiting? Where is the passivity? If you are referring specifically to the reduction to the use of “it”, I would say that refers specifically to her finger and not herself as a woman. This is the last song I would think of that embodies ideas of traditional, waiting by the phone courtship.
And in response to “she makes a lot of music that is very much self-absorbed and about how fabulous she is”–You know what? I can’t hate on her for that. I wish every black woman on the planet had the confidence to stand up and say “I am fabulous, beautiful, and a diva and if you can’t deal with it, haters to the left!!” I know that I have an extra switch in my walk when I am walking down the street listening to “Get Me Bodied”. And if exposure to Beyonce’s hyper-ego is what it takes for the little girl on the street to feel a fraction of that, then I say good going and God bless.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 6:34 pm ¶
6d9s wrote:
@merisunshine36: I specifically said that the fact she makes that kind of music is what I find redeemable especially as it is usually thought of as almost exclusively for the realm of men to talk about how wonderful they are in a manner that is not specifically for the attraction of a partner. And while there may be redeeming lyrics it doesn’t change who is suppose to do the proposing. Clearly she states she was with him for three years, she left when he didn’t propose, but seriously…3 years?
And that the majority of people probably won’t listen past the chorus is the problem. A close reading makes the song somewhat redeemable b/c she does make a stand in leaving him then ignoring him. But the main part of the song, the one constantly sung and stuck in heads is the part that reinforces the notion that she was just waiting for a proposal and despite his other faults had he proposed all would have been okay. Being upset that someone who made you miserable for three years didn’t propose just sounds sad and actually sends a somewhat conflicting message. Sounds like she dodged a bullet.
@22, the only way you can read in turned down proposal on his part is to disregard the lyrics. They are pretty clear that she was with him, he didn’t propose, so she left. You can make an argument that it was somehow empowering to leave but trying to suggest that a turned down proposal comes across in the song has no lyrical basis. And seriously, “just cried my tears, for three good years” makes it quite explicit the song had as it’s premise she was with him for three years, and unhappy, then left cause he “wouldn’t put a ring on it.” Doesn’t sound like she did any proposing (for one b/c the lyrics probably would have revolved around him turning down a ring/proposal) only boo-hooing for 3 yrs before finally leaving.
Like I said, I think Beyonce’s performance of sexuality is one of the more positively constructed ones within the framework she’s given to work within, but that doesn’t mean she gets any slack for when she does reinforce certain norms. Credit where credit is due but even in “Get me Bodied” ( a song I like) the dances she gives out specifically to the women:
“drop don low sweep the floor with it (looks bad on the knees)
the oh oh
wind it back
drop to your knees hunch your back, shake shake it like that alley cat
shake your diary air”
Really? And I’m letting “pat your weave” slide only b/c I think of it as not dependent on actually having weave (like the Halley Berry is not dependent on applying make-up). But these are dances given specifically to the women and they all fit into the box of sexual performance for the titillation of someone else ( otherwise why not have them performed by all sexes?).
What starts off as a great song about someone just going out with their friends and “doing them” has to end on those notes? Beyonce is quite the mega-star and while I think she does do some things positively, it’s a very mixed bag that includes a lot of reinforcing and in the case of “Get Me Bodied” reinforcing that is completely unnecessary to the song. I mean it begins as a great song but apparently can’t be ended without telling women (and specifying women only in lyrics and representation in the video) that they should abuse their knees by dropping down so their butts sweep the floor with their legs spread open bouncing up in down and they should bend over and shake it like an alley cat. I’m certain Beyonce is smart enough to know when she is reinforcing certain norms and expectations and don’t think that she does all that someone in her position could to combat them. Unfortunately, a lot of the empowering she does offers empowerment conditional on a certain degree of conformity.
I think “Video Phone” is a great song and great video.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 8:25 pm ¶
Pockysmama wrote:
Beyonce makes my little feminist heart cringe.
First, Beyonce’s makeup and lighting over the years have made her appear “lighter” than she actually is.
Second, I have nearly always had a problem with her lyrics but damn if she doesn’t have excellent beats and total “dancebility” in her songs and I struggle with it constantly. There are a couple of songs that I simply will not play by her, “Cater to You” springs to mind first. Most times I just turn off my brain and dance.
I noticed repeated references to the whole hustler/baller thing a few years back with Destiny’s Child before B. went solo. It seemed to be the group narrative in the music which was largely chosen by their management, her father. Who was instrumental and quite successful in “crossing” them/her over with such little fanfare, I’m still slightly amazed. There has been a slight maturation of that view since she’s gone solo but she still presents a very conservative, traditionally gendered view. Lately, the narrative in her music is less concerned with the occupation of the provider, i.e., ballers/hustlers, and more concerned with simply the necessity of being a “provider”, even as she paradoxically claims in the same breath that everything is either hers, or bought by her or, that “he” is nothing without “her”. I had hoped for a bigger change in her music once her father had less influence over her career but she’s just moved a smidgen to the left and wears a little less clothing.
Having said that, having lived in close proximity to where she grew up for the last decade, it is a fairly common view of the women I meet here. They avidly diavow holding any feminist principles, insist on very traditional gender roles even though they aren’t actually “traditional” in any real sense and are actively negative toward ANY suggestion that they are feminists, especially middle- and upper-middle class black women. And while it makes me grind my teeth, I get it. For 350 years, black women were never the women exalted or put on a pedestal. Black women’s femininity was actively degraded while white women’s was elevated. For the last 50 years, things have changed rapidly in not only the “black” community but the larger community. Black women never were concerned with whether THEY could work, they were expected to. Black women in this country never got to stay home and be housewives and now, for the first time in 400 years, for some of us, those opportunities now present themselves. Why shouldn’t we have what is considered a white woman’s right, and a high standard of femininity now that some of us can? And for those in the lower classes, being with a hustler/baller allows you to live the sort of life many of black women have never had, that is why it is such “popular” narrative in “urban” music. Under the principles I hold, I can condemn, but I understand and that is where I have difficulty.
Posted 09 Dec 2009 at 10:55 pm ¶
Super Amanda wrote:
Beyonce is not a size 4/6. at least give her props for having a normal body, bottom heavy body without implants. Maybe a size 10 at the smallest, that is not negative.
Posted 10 Dec 2009 at 2:58 am ¶
ashlynn wrote:
From a feminist perspective, would “Ego” be about boldly declaring what she wants, or being dick whipped?
From the song,
“I like to think that I was created for a special purpose
You know, what’s more special than you?”
Out of context, it may seem very earnest, but withing the content of the song, damnit if she wasn’t put on this Earth to do nothing more than worship his outsized package.
Re: Single Ladies: Why does she need a ring- and most likely an uber-expensive, gaudy one- to validate their bond and relationship? If his love is what she prefers, then why is she bugging over a trip to Zales?
Not to mention, she addresses ALL the Single Ladies, as if ALL the Single Ladies WANT or NEED to be married.
And for those who feel like Beyonce’s being singled out, its Beyonce that wants to slap her name on songs that aren’t even written by her.
To whoever said no one wants to hear about Jay being married: CORRECT. Kingdom Come was lyrical milquetoast- though I will say, the beat to Beach Chair is beautifully chilling (brb looking for that song now).
M.Dot, the connection you made is on point! I don’t take Beyonce seriously at all. I am well aware that her job is to represent that “lady in the streets, freak in the sheets” aesthetic. I am well aware that, at least for the moment, Palin’s job is to represent that Middle America by perpetuating All-American values; to be a fierce female presence, yet add just a subtle hint of sexuality, or rather the promise or possibility of it, to keep the men focused. It’s the writers, the stylists, the management that I take issue with, in that they are perpetuating some awful stuff that I can’t even get into right now, or I’d be here all day. It’s the people who wholeheartedly would fight tooth and nail for these chicks and their message yet don’t even know the half.
Posted 10 Dec 2009 at 3:49 am ¶
SAL wrote:
I would do a little more research on Beyonce’s class background. She’s not from a middle class background; her parents were focused, hardworking blue-collar hustlers who made it big thanks to their little Bee. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and Jay-Z are from similar backgrounds (sans las drogas).
Posted 10 Dec 2009 at 7:43 am ¶
Edna wrote:
I am so happy you are thinking and writing and formulating about this issue. My sister I think has been struck with this hustler’s lady lifestyle. It has given her nothing but pain.
I always knew I never had it in me to be a hustlers chick. I like Beyonce’s music because of the power fantasy it creates for me, but I hate all the implications in it. It’s sad that these are the only images of black women Americans and the world are really allowed to see.
Posted 10 Dec 2009 at 9:33 am ¶
Orville wrote:
I agree with the author of this piece that unfortuately in order to make it in the music industry a “black woman” actually has to be mixed race these days. Rihanna and Beyonce are mixed race despite what their fans say. Beyonce and Rihanna are not JUST BLACK. Leona Lewis and Alicia Keys are also mixed race.
I think part of the reason Lewis, Keys, Beyonce, and Rihanna are so popular is because in North America darker skinned black women are not viewed as the ideal form of “black beauty”. In fact, I argue black men are a part of the problem. If you read some black American male publications they focus a lot of attention on mixed race or light skinned women. The mainstream American marketplace is racist and sexist.
The ideology is a mixed race woman can cross more marketing boundaries and is more palatable to a white audience.
And that’s the reason part of the reason Lewis, Keys, Beyonce, and Rihanna are so popular they fit this paradigm. Beyonce wears the blonde weave to fit into Euro American standards of beauty. Even Mary J Blige wears a blonde weave and although I like Mary J I just think she looks so ludicrous wearing that blonde weave.
Posted 10 Dec 2009 at 10:24 am ¶
Orville wrote:
Actually, the author should know Beyonce was not middle class I believe she has an upper middle class background. Beyonce’s mother owned a beauty salon in Houston and it was very successful. Beyonce’s father was salesman pulling in six digits a year, they lived in a huge house in Houston.
Posted 10 Dec 2009 at 10:26 am ¶
m.dot wrote:
Thank you for all of your kind words. I cannot respond the way that would like to, normally, because I am busy working on the aforementioned paper. However I will try and present/give Latoya a shortened version, the long one is going to the Ethnic Studies Conference, I hope.
Grad school is real isolating so it is nice to hear from people who have critiques, kind words and who are just excited about this idea. I feel that I have bitten off more than I can chew, but that has been my life story.
As you can see, I write from my heart. I am being trained to ground my ideas in theory.
I was not prepared for how much of a lightening rod Beyonce is.
I will take your comments about her songs and her image into consideration as I write this.
The notion of reconciling how the dope game is reflected in Rap and R&B is material to me, as my city, Oakland, CA, and my family was destroyed, in many ways, by the crack epidemic.
@Eva, that new Sade almost wrote my paper for me. I mean, the first sentences are about LOVE and vulnerability, WHAT?
I am NOT a big Sade fan. However, ONE listen to THAT song, and I concluded that it will be the soundtrack to the 2010 paradigm shift.
@Moni Keeping all these connections is HARD work, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I will look for Brazilian links re-Beyonce hair.
Keep writing love and find a community share with. I get better each time I share my work.
@TAN Beyonce made $87M in 2007-08.
She earned this because the her most popular music serves the interests of the people who maintain control of society.
You can call me “academic” for the purposes of being dismissive, but I am East Oakland on mine, all day. Meaning that, I have a vested interested in talking about the ways in which people get rich normalizing Fucked up shit about Black folks. Be they beautiful, be they entertaining, be they both.
Posted 11 Dec 2009 at 12:52 am ¶
ashlynn wrote:
Uhm, hold on- Beyonce was DEFINITELY well off. She grew up in a Houston suburb, and possibly attended a magnet-type school for a short while. Even if she weren’t her upbringing would be nowhere near Jay’s…which makes me wonder now: had Beyonce never showed up, or come from a similar background as he /been a few shades darker, would he have wifed that?
Posted 11 Dec 2009 at 3:03 am ¶
Westerly wrote:
Merrysunshine36 wrote:
For every “Soldier” there is an “If I Were A Boy”, for every “Video Phone” we get “Irreplaceable”
Uh – no. Beyonce’s catalogue runs *far* more towards the “Soldier/Video Phone/Get Me Bodied/Naughty Girl/Single Ladies/Diva/Check Up on it/Ring the Alarm/Ego/Baby Boy/Crazy in Love/Lose My Breath/Bills” (ad infinitum) end of the spectrum – than slightly more thoughtful anomalies like “Me, Myself and I”, “Halo”, “Irreplaceable” and “If I were a Boy”.
Interestingly enough, when I heard “If I were a Boy” I didn’t *like* it but I appreciated the sentiment and the fact that it was a refreshing, even surprising change of pace (for a Beyonce song). For once I found myself actually paying attention to the lyrics, unlike her previous songs…
Which is no great surprise considering that “If I were a Boy” was a song that her management team brought off the manager of an 18 year-old girl (the manager and the girl shared co-writing credits on it, yet he unilaterally sold the song…)
Yes, I agree with Pennybrown that in the main writers are men, and Beyonce is involved in the usual ventriloquy of female performance of male-penned lyrics (:think Cee-Lo Green writing “Crazy” – for himself – then “Dontcha”… for the Pussycat Dolls.)
Then again, Dionne Warwick sang all of those Burt Bacharach songs, while Avril Lavigne apparently wrote her monster hit ‘Girlfriend’. *shrugs* So while gender is an issue, so is the quality of the actual lyrics.
I take no issue with singers who aren’t Nina Simone or even Sade (who also writes her own lyrics). There is nothing wrong with being an interpreter which is an art in itself.
However Beyonce’s attempts to claim writing credits for songs she did not write (all in line with her desire to project herself as an “independent woman” in control of her career yadda yadda) is a highly problematic (and under-discussed) issue in my view.
Colourism/pigmentocracy exists – no doubt – and it is powerful, but like Beyonce Sade, Amiel Larrieux, Goapele are all ‘light-skinned’ and regarded as “attractive”/beautiful as well. So is Erica Badu. And so was Aaliyah who was the closest to being an actual contemporary of Beyonce. Corrine Bailey Rae isn’t exactly dark-skinned either.
Yet you have a range of images, talents and degrees of success there. It’s just not as simple as light-skinned = starlet or sex symbol although it helps in terms of positioning yourself as such.
The funny thing though is that the more Beyonce positions herself as a sex *object*, the less sexy she is. I’ve seen more genuine sensuality in a Sade, Erykah, or Aaliyah video than in *anything* that the machinic Beyonce has ever produced.
Posted 11 Dec 2009 at 12:56 pm ¶
andrea wrote:
Good luck on the paper!
Personally, I think that the highly-produced media package that is Beyonce, just as much the highly produced media package that is Britney Spears, and all the rest of what comprises the best selling female-targeted popular music/media stars, they all predominantly recreate and peddle conservative notions femininity and exhort the virtues of hard-working, paper-making male courtiers even if the package includes a sprinkling of “I can get it my own self” ethos.
Its the best formula to sell to today’s economic independent woman (and the women who aspire to be): you may well be your own, powerful, self, but you will feel gorgeous, fabulous, and complete only when you’ve the loyalty of the big protective man, the one only you can tame. Shakira, too.
All of these female media packages tell us that we women can, and should, be fit and trim, lingerie wearing, financial successful and independent, and coquettish so that we may attract, and keep, the man of our dreams. And we buy it. Because its all set to really fun to dance to beats.
Posted 11 Dec 2009 at 3:59 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
*sigh* You can add TLC to that list.
*I always wonder how Aaliyah would have fared in this music scene.
*Cee Lo…wrote…Dontcha? Excuse me while I weep.
*Notice how Beyonce came out with If I Were a Boy right after Ciara’s Like A Boy? A song which I thought was infinitely cooler for not even trying to beat around the bush, unlike Beyonce’s simpering/whining. Not that Ciara gets a pass- I’m not a fan, but I would definitely take Goodies Ciara than “Let me contort my limbs around this dance bar and call it Love, Sex and Magic” Ciara.
Posted 12 Dec 2009 at 5:42 am ¶
m.dot wrote:
Andrea,
First of all, I am totally going to quote you.
Consent requested.
The two things that you leave out IS
the ways in which THEY MAKE SO MUCH MONEY making this music.
They are packaged AND they are willful actors in the packaging, not victims who sing against their will. That willfulness must be accounted for.
However, I would caution to not minimize the differences. They are similar, but Britney operates in a different space from the other two, by virtue of being white.
However, I was type peeved when Shakira went blond, I was like DAGGUMIT, she look like The Yonce now.
As an undergrad, I worked at a Britney Spears concert, 4th of July, during the Baby Hit Me One More Time era.
I think I was up for 24 hours straight working as a PA.
Girl, let me tell you, that concert was a family affair. White men with their 6 year old daughters on their shoulders, both of them singing along to Britney. My understanding of pop culture and the family shifted that day.
Posted 12 Dec 2009 at 10:48 am ¶
Fatima wrote:
The thing I don’t like about the light skinned/dark skinned debate is that it always ends up sounding like the lighter skinned people have done something wrong by being famous. I totally agree that emphasis is placed on them, but is it fair to blame Beyonce and Alicia for being talented and of lighter complexion. I’m so tired of Beyonce being a pariah.
Posted 12 Dec 2009 at 5:03 pm ¶
reality wrote:
I think the paper idea is genius. All the best with the writing process. And thanks for that Sarah Palin book signing video. I was amazed. Can’t believe I went to school in Columbus, OH. Were all those people drunk?
Posted 14 Dec 2009 at 5:56 am ¶
Ilana wrote:
Meshell Ndegeocello, Ursula Rucker, Erykah Badu, Zap Mama… it’s a long list.
Posted 14 Dec 2009 at 8:13 pm ¶
Westerly wrote:
Ashylnn – regarding Aaliyah – who knows? I always liked the way that she walked the tightrope between popular and experimental and it seemed to me that she while she spearheaded the Missy/Timbaland sound when it was innovative, she was also starting to move away from it.
If she didn’t shift over to film thanks to the r ‘n’ b market becoming less and less diverse maybe she would have worked with Trent Reznor after all…
And yeah – I saw the jacking of “Like a Boy” too. Not a Ciara fan (though I really like that particular video of hers) and the imitation was too blatant not to notice.
Fatima wrote:
I totally agree that emphasis is placed on them, but is it fair to blame Beyonce and Alicia for being talented and of lighter complexion. I’m so tired of Beyonce being a pariah.
Huh? Who is knocking Alicia Keys for being light-skinned and talented?
The reason why Beyonce draws so much adverse attention is that the industry has pretty much propped her up as a specific, restrictive prototype for how r ‘n’ b starlets *ought* to look and behave if they want to be successful.
Sade is lighter-skinned and according to many, quite beautiful but she’s not a commercial prototype used to mould and discipline the sound and image of younger artists. She comes across as being an individual artist, and very much her own woman. No-one can tell Sade when to put out an album, whereas Beyonce keeps frantically churning out singles like a run-away train, afraid to stop for fear that it might all vanish.
And Beyonce flagrantly trades on her lightness and conforms to a very safe, conventional, and white notion of beauty in a way that is less apparent at least, in the likes of Sade, Alicia Keys, Amiel Larrieux, Corrine Bayley Rae, Goapele and hey let’s throw Kelis in there too. And all of them are ‘light’.
These women may be light-skinned but they don’t consciously fetishise their own lightness (long blonde wigs – which and of itself is fine but is then combined with nose jobs, increasingly light foundation and strategic lighting to hint at whiteness.)
It has nothing to do with light-skinned people doing something ‘wrong’ by being famous, but I don’t think it hurts to look at the way various artists (Beyonce, J-Lo, Shakira etc. consciously conform to and trade on the white beauty standard in order to secure success, and to question why this seems to be one of the few paths to success for contemporary POC artists.)
Posted 15 Dec 2009 at 2:15 am ¶
Tamara wrote:
Wow.
Awesome topic and discussion everyone. I’ve not much to add, but would like to quote something Westerly said:
The funny thing though is that the more Beyonce positions herself as a sex *object*, the less sexy she is. I’ve seen more genuine sensuality in a Sade, Erykah, or Aaliyah video than in *anything* that the machinic Beyonce has ever produced.
I feel you on this so, so much. And maybe that’s part of Bey’s schtick to overdo the ’sexy’ (especially that whole robotic/animatronic/metropolis sex-object) as a way to represent her sexual independence…but as many have pointed out, her image combined with her songs and their lyrics, well, it just doesn’t always (if seldom) hit the mark. I applaud her efforts…and enjoy those songs that do, but of her whole catalog there are very few tracks I like.
Someone also mentioned “Cater 2 U”. To this day that song makes me CRINGE, especially after it came on the heels of “Independent Women” and other D.C. songs…it just makes me crazy. I HATE that song and I hate “Soldier”, but let me not go further.
Beyonce’s sexy is so FORCED that I don’t see her as sexy. I think she’s pretty. I don’t even see her as ‘beautiful’…just pretty when she’s not all dolled up (or drag-queened out with the makeup). She doesn’t exude sensuality, but a hollow, forced, surface-level sexuality.
And I so eagerly await the new Sade release. Look at this album cover:
http://talkinstuff.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/soldier_of_love.jpg
SENSUAL and sexual; not to mention mysterious, poignant, there’s a certain calm to it as well as a trepidation, tenuous, of what’s to come.
Posted 16 Dec 2009 at 11:19 am ¶
Tza wrote:
lovelovelove
I hope you post your paper…. I am very curious to read it!
Posted 18 Dec 2009 at 4:22 pm ¶