She really is something

I just don't get it. I was living out of the country when she got popular.

Like this.

I just wonder why the press treats her like royalty.
Thanks for the comment.

it is more like she demands respect, therefore doesn't get asked questions about her weight, how she can be a super star and a good mom every time she does an interview. IOW she gets asked the same questions male celebs do.

She is 100% in control of her image and if a pothog releases a pic in an effort to diminish her, she will shut them down and no more access.

Last edited Wed Feb 11, 2015, 01:14 PM - Edit history (3)

Of course MTV is happy about this -- they invented the auto-tuned video pop tart genre with Madonna. An "end times" when women (and their record labels) decide to stop following in her footsteps would be an end times for them as well.

There's more to "saving feminism" than wearing a costume. Oh, and here's the context.


rocktivity

- i.e. the sexualized image presented most often - that she's "colluding in the construction of herself as a slave”?

Beyonce is playing both sides like a consummate politician.

She wins, though.

More power to her.

Of course most feminists here would disagree with us, though.

I'm still curious about what our visitor thinks of the material she shared here.

And I have to hope there's no connection between what rocktivity said is the context for the OP and this commentary from bell hooks, because framing hooks as an anti-feminist is fucking stupid as hell.

Is a powerful black woman, and like Madonna 30 years ago, she is trying to own her game pieces. I got what Hooks was saying, but Beyoncé intrigues me. I don't listen to her music, but if she is spreading a message of self autonomy, the ability to empower oneself to especially black girls with her image, ( what I have heard of her music isn't always impressive) which shivers and changes whenever she feels like it, I do admire that.


Still, Playing the pop music game, women are required to sell their sexuality. Period. Trying to completely own it is admirable, but not possible.

Last edited Thu Feb 24, 2022, 02:01 PM - Edit history (9)

at the same time.

Unfortunately, Hooks made her very legitimate argument a casualty of her own rhetorical overkill. Are you really "controlling your sexualization" if you wouldn't have a musical career without it -- that is, if you really DID have to rely on your musical talents for a living?

You see, I had this argument over thirty years ago about Madonna. I distinctly remember hearing Shining Star on the radio and wondering, "How the hell did SHE get a record contract?" My neighborhood wouldn't be wired for cable for a few more years, so the first time I actually laid eyes on her, she was on the cover of Time magazine -- with the headline "Why She's Hot."

She was hot because her male fans wanted her, while her female fans wanted to be her because males wanted her. They all said, "But it's different with her -- sure she has more sex appeal than talent, but it's HER sex appeal! Doesn't that make her a feminist?" I said, "No -- it makes her a pimp. And being your own pimp doesn't make you any less of a whore."

Beyonce isn't doing anything that Madonna through Miley Cyrus haven't -- including trying to pass it off it as feminism. If you sift through the ashes of Hooks's "friendly fire," you'll find that she mentioned "capitalist patriarchy." That's what Beyonce and her video pop tart "ancestors" have enslaved themselves to -- and it is most certainly NOT a "black thing."

More


rocktivity

I don't know why she used the word 'terrorist' but it certainly distracted from her message here.

and speak to this.

I don't think it is a black thing either but, I hesitate to speak in their behalf.

I never liked her music either-- but I feel she was far more manipulative than Beyoncé, and she is a white woman, to deconstruct what being black and female means in the music world requires the input of black women. I can't stand on the outside looking in as a white woman, and say this is what's it's like-- I have no point of reference. Hooks does, but Beyoncé also has her admirers among black feminists

Also, and more to the point, like Madonna before her she is creating conversation and controversy. The problem here, as you infer, is we already live in a world were women are sexualized by virtue of being born. But what are women supposed to do? The pop music system is already set up that way, my hope is she grows and changes and starts speaking out. I've never heard that she responded to Hooks, but it had to sting.

What's sad is the post RedQueen just put up about educating on feminism-- outlining how far we haven't come, despite certain victories, we are losing ground in reproductive rights, the perception of 'whose fault it is' for rape, the attacks on vocal women on-line on and on. We lose a little, then gain some.

You really need to explain your comment here.