2.4. Beyoncé and #BlackLivesMatter Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, known simply as Beyoncé is one of the most popular R&B singers of the last decade. She started her career in the group Destiny’s Child in the 1990s and then went solo in 2003. She is also known for her support of Barack and Michelle Obama, her backlash agains Donald Trump and her support for activist groups. Her albums focused mostly on the topics of love and relationships until the debut in 2016 of her album Lemonade, where she explores the topics of feminism, sorority and racism without forgetting the topic of relationships either. Beyoncé had been involved in political issues before, performing in the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2008, singing the song “At Last”, …show more content…
This definition of beauty can be considered dangerous because it reinforces the idea that it is “her proximity to whiteness” (Griffin 139) what makes her beautiful and “her black blood” (Griffin 139) what makes her a sexual individual. Moreover, “the veneration of mixed race identity may challenge white supremacist hierarchies, but it can also accommodate a continued degradation of blackness” …show more content…
As it was mentioned beforehand, her musical discourse took a turn in 2016 with the release of her album Lemonade. In 2013, Beyoncé, the album, is released. With songs like “Pretty Hurts”, Beyoncé challenges beauty standards and empowers women to live their true selves and find their own beauty. However, it is not an album targeting specifically black population and it does not tackle any political issues. She did, however, honored Trayvon Martin in her concert in Nashville in July 2013 by offering a minute of silence after the verdict of George Zimmerman’s trial was
In 2013, the self-titled visual album BEYONCÉ sold almost eight hundred thirty thousand digitally in the first three days, while her sixth number one and second visual album, Lemonade, only sold four hundred ninety thousand digitally in the first week. Although Beyoncé’s second visual album wasn’t numerically successful, both show a vulnerable, an artistic, and a controversial side of Beyoncé. Both albums have surprising visuals and stunning lyrical content with either an obvious meaning or a meaning we have yet to figure out, such as the famous line, “You better call Becky with the good hair.” (Beyoncé, “Sorry”). BEYONCÉ and Lemonade show that Beyoncé tries to better herself as an artist and make herself more vulnerable.
Whitney Houston is considered to be a legendary singer in the world today. Houston was not just a singer, she was an actress, producer, and model. Even though she is known for her singing voice, Whitney Houston had many ups and downs throughout her life, such as drug and health problems that almost ended her career. Throughout her singing career, she has been honored for her great singing voice. Whitney experienced many things in her personal life from being an outstanding woman, an award winning singer, and an actress and model.
Being aired at the beginning of February, Beyoncé’s hit single Formation served as the 2016 Black History month anthem for numerous reasons. Beyoncé being a long standing musical, entertainment, and fashion icon, her shocking release of this hit shocked the world when she unapologetically portrayed her blackness through the representation of Southern roots. She begins this musical call to action by asking the question of what happened after New Orleans. Foreshadowing a socio-political tone, she begins by paying homage to a New Orleans YouTube activist, Messy Mya who was killed in 2010 and those affected by Hurricane Katrina. In this music video that last approximately five minutes Beyoncé evolves into her self-identified role of a Feminist by exhibiting her call to expressive womanhood and activism by calling discussing the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, Black aesthetics, family lineage, and the culture of the American South.
Confidence is the feeling that one can rely on someone or something (Dictionary). Being confident and being driven comes naturally to someone who wants to meet their goals. Beyonce started performing when she was seven years old, which means she has been using her talent for twenty eight years. Beyonce born and raised in Houston, Texas has performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child and rose to fame in the 1990s. Through these twenty eight years, she has been with the group called, “Destiny’s Child”, went solo, got married to Jay Z, and has a daughter named Blue Ivy. Beyonce has
Over and over again critics write about Nina Simone’s power and charisma throughout the Civil Rights Movement. She sang the words of an entire movement, “All I want is equality/ for my sister, my brother, my people, and me./ Yes, you lied to me all these years”(Simone Mississippi). She sang out for her entire race, and with a “smoky- toned” voice, when four young girls were killed in a church bombing (Lewis). She sang “Will my country fall, stand or fall?/ Is it too late for us all?/ And did Martin Luther King just die in vain? (Simone Why?) after the death of MLK. Nina Simone… a singer with many different voices, a singer who denies categorization, a woman who is genre-less to prove a point.
As it opens with imagery reminiscent of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, an event that devastated the black communities in the areas affected. The delayed assistance in New Orleans by the U.S. government stirred some controversy that led many to question how much America really cares about its black communities. Nonetheless, Beyoncé’s video is full of imagery that is associated with black culture, including historical references to black communities in the south. But what is really important about “Formation” are the lyrics. With lyrics like “My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana, You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas Bama” and “I like my baby hair with baby hair and afros, I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils,” Beyoncé is undoubtedly declaring her pride for her blackness as well as defending her child Blue Ivy who has always been scrutinized for the way her hair looked. Thus, this song is obviously geared toward the Black community which is obvious due to the lyrics and the imagery in the music video. To put it plainly, this song is a proclamation of Black pride and shouldn’t be thought of in any other way. However, after performing it at the Super Bowl people of other ethnicities became aware of the song and became offended by her performance as well as the lyrics. Controversy arose as people pointed out her backup dancers were dressed similarly to the Black Panther
The pursuit and glorification of the “white standard of beauty” (Patton, 2006, p. 24) by African American women in film, highlights the insecurity and stigmatization they face due to their colour. This desire to look like models on billboards and magazines, has drove them to peruse the shelves of beauty products, undergo plastic surgery and skin bleaching in order to have lighter skin. The mismatch between the comparisons of their black physiques against white ideal body shapes, has resu...
In an excerpt from Janell Hobson’s “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture” Hobson argues that the “image of black women’s bodies in culture are distorted in a way resembling the morphing of a person’s figure in a carnival mirror,” a term she coins as “un-mirroring.” She continues this metaphor by saying black women artists must “fight against this process by challenging dominant culture’s representation of black women’s bodies as being grotesque and changing the discourse to being one of beauty.” One may argue that black women are too diverse to be represented by one image, rather that they should fight to be regarded as individuals devoid of stereotypes and negative historical connotations. Stereotypes, which are too broad to be accurate, have negatively affected the image of the black female body in culture. To change the trajectory of this idea in the future, the discussion must be aimed towards persuading society that stereotypes are superficial judgments, and that black women should be regarded as a diverse group of individuals, not individual elements of a stereotype.
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
bell hooks is trying to convince her readers that the display of black female bodies in Beyonce’s Lemonade does not aid in shifting or masking the sexist narratives and construction of black female identity (page 3).
Society, especially western, tends to conceptualize beauty through the use of publicity and cinema. We are under constant bombardment from consumer related magazine ads, billboards, television commercials, and movies about what “beautiful” people look like and how we should imitate them. This standard is overwhelmingly portrayed as a white beauty standard. Starting from a very young age this standard of beauty is created in our minds. We want to look like these actors and models; we want to be thin, fit, youthful looking, a symmetrical face and even have a particular race. We accept this beauty standard; we notice our various faults among ourselves and self-critique. We try to emulate the models as best we can; we forget that these standards are not reality. Publicity models and the most popular actors do not represent the majority of us and it is a foolish and unattainable dream to attempt to change ourselves to their beauty. The pressure society puts on us can cause low self-esteem and diseases such as anorexia. But we must look at the antithesis of society’s conception of this white standard, our minorities. Portraying this beauty standard to the polar opposites is more than racist. It is destructive to the minority community in that it creates resentment, low self-esteem, and a perverse hierarchy where minorities judge themselves and others on their proximity to the white beauty standard. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison critiques the white beauty standard that causes the black minority to feel a destructive self-hatred towards themselves and their fellow blacks because their self-perception is an unrealistic and unattainable beauty seen in publicity and films. This research paper’s aim is to present the influence of ...
Before, Beyoncé can be perceived as a feminist or not, first a person must ask and understand what a feminist is. Many people may have an image in their head of a feminist, as a reflection of the Miss America Protest of 1968; this was the second wave of feminism, where hundreds of liberal women protested against pageant and what it stood for (Napikoski, n.d.). “The second wave was increasingly theoretical, based on a fusion of neo-Marxism and psycho-analytical theory, and began to associate the subjugation of women with broader critiques of patriarchy, capita...
In Alice Munro`s short story “Dimensions”, the main character Doree has married Lloyd and wishes of ending with “happy ever after”, but ends up getting her three children killed by daring husband. Lloyd first appears in the beginning of the story with a very favorable impression. Even though he is only few years younger than Doree`s mother, he marries Doree and gets two daughter and one son. However, Lloyd`s image of nice fatherhood falls apart in the early stage of the story. Although Lloyd treats Doree kindly at first, but it is obvious that Lloyd is controlling Doree as the story advances. In fact, Doree is caught in Lloyd’s traps in order to control Doree which makes her loyal to him, but the relation between them breaks at the end.
It has been played in many other countries and is listed in many major hit charts in those countries. It became one of her best-selling singles. Beyoncé has been singing about women’s independence since she was in the hit group “Destiny’s Child”. Many of her songs support women’s lifestyle and keep cheering up girls with her powerful and expressive vocals (Armstrong). In addition to her songs and lyrics, her beautiful appearance fascinates many female audiences and influences from teenagers to grown-ups as if she was a role model. A negative side of the video is that the video gives the impression that men are always to be blamed and women are always “victims” of the relationships, which is not
Her album Invasion of Privacy broke record for longest female rap album of the Billboard in 2019 that the album The Miseducation of Ms. Lauryn Hill held previously since 1998. One song from her album is I Like It Like That, the beat is catchy and danceable. The lyrics only highlight one thing, the rappers’ enjoyment of the luxuries at her disposal. Most of the album lyrically is this way along with the glorification of hyper sexualization and promiscuous lifestyle choices of the Rapper.