trigger warning: this post contains some critique of beyonce
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i had a convo with some of my friends about beauty, influencers, celebrity, and one of the world's greatest influencers right now-- beyonce. my point was, loosely summarized, "i really wish beyonce would stop doing some of the things shes doing and i think its extremely irresponsible & harmful given her influence with black women specifically". so, as part of that discussion my friend medinah asked "well what would you have beyonce do?"
the question kinda caught me off-guard bc i realized i have spent a lot of time noticing and identifying and speaking on what i think beyonce (and really more generally the ideal(s) beyonce is representing and promoting) is doing wrong.. but i hadn't yet ever really articulated out loud what i would want beyonce to do instead. and i thought it was a great question. so here i am, answering it. this is what i want beyonce --and ultimately all ppl invested in selling imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal ideals-- to do.
i think this answer starts with talking about beyonce and what she represents. i think for most women, especially those in the “beyhive”, beyonce represents empowerment— a very specific version of success that has often felt & been elusive to black women because of all the systemic barriers ensuring black women have to do thrice the work for very little of the benefits and recognition. it would be hard to make a case that beyonce doesn't do thrice the work, and ill make no attempt to do that. and it's also no secret that visually , beyonce is pretty much as close to the status quo american white patriarchal ideal as a black woman can get--she’s not fat, she’s lightskin, she’s even very famously and consistently blonde. the persona she's carefully curated for us models all the values the perfect woman should have-- she’s sexy, but not too sexy, and most sexy for her man. very mindful, very demure. the babies didn’t ruin her figure at all, in fact somehow they made her even better, all-natural of course, as her many of her followers argue strangers and each other about. she’s about her paper but she never lets it get in the way of what really matters-- she loves her man and has since she was a girl. and the crowning jewel of her superpowers is that she can do all this and is still lucky enough & humble enough to call herself mrs. carter. the perfect woman. in so many ways, beyonce represents & is exactly who many of her fans and women in general who are invested in the american dream aspire to be.
and yet, it still hasnt been enough to get her what she wants. so its not surprising that in her latest evolution, beyonce is literally covered in the american flag lol. some defend her as “reclaiming” the american flag and therefore the american dream for.. who exactly? what? some have made the argument that by nature of beyonce being a black woman she’s reclaiming the flag for black people. i just think it’s funny that as beyonce “reclaims” this flag for black people, beyonce is also looking— lets be honest—the whitest she’s ever looked. her hair alone.. i feel like the last few pics of beyonce ive seen her current hair is so far past 613 that it needs a number like 800. beyonce has perfect credit hair lmao. beyonce's hair is PLATINUM. it looks, of course, like everything else beyonce does-great-- but its also a visual statement, and i think this visual is reasonably interpreted as congruent with the rest of her imaging currently-- america, america, america. and who better to make america great again than the greatest entertainer alive?
and that’s the thing. politics and even visuals aside, beyonce is clearly, clearly great at what she does. while my reasonable appreciation for beyonce and her art might look insufficient in comparison to bonafide members of the hive, im also not one of the even wackier ppl who claim beyonce has no talent. and i can imagine how fucking frustrating it might be to know this about yourself and then have to acknowledge part of your success will always be attributed to factors like being conventionally-attractive, factors beyond your control, or acknowledging the ways you have and continue to jump thru the hoops of ppl even more powerful than you. and even worse, i would imagine, is the frustration of knowing that even if you DO jump thru those hoops, and make it look damn good while doing it-- there are levels of success you will never, ever reach, there is an acknowledgement from the ppl in power you will never get because of factors beyond your control. i think this is a feeling women, and specifically black women also know very well— of being capable and overlooked, of being underestimated, of doing thrice the work and still coming up short. so in that way, i think beyonce represents “one of us” winning in this system and showing that black women’s brilliance is, at some point, an undeniable force that DEMANDS to be recognized. and even if those recognitions prove themselves to be paltry half-measures, the “youre good but still not good enough” awards and accolades that are ultimately more about validating white, patriarchal, capitalist ideals than her own brilliance… it’s better than nothing, which is the lived experiences of so many of beyonce’s fans. thrice the work, none of the benefits and recognition.
so i guess what im saying is that the flipside of beyonce representing the american dream for a lot of black women is that beyonce also represents the wound in a lot of black women that tells them nothing they do will matter if it’s not successful in the eyes of the american establishment. and i get that. representation does matter.
and because of that, i think that beyonce actually has, even inadvertently and despite herself at times, helped advance women in important ways. after going thru a very uncharacteristic level of public mess regarding some still somewhat murky cheating allegations.. breaking here to say beyonce’s level of control over her public image is the stuff of dreams& nightmares lmao. to the point where honestly im not even sure that the mess that DID make it to the public, like the elevator video, weren’t shrewd business-minded manipulations on her end to—at the very least—get in front of a situation she wanted control over. anyway whether any intention on her part or not, that situation and the resulting album addressing it “lemonade” represented an unprecedented level of perceived access and vulnerability as she shared with her fans & followers very familiar pains— infidelity, being cheated on, feeling betrayed for a “becky” with “good hair” by the man you held up as the standard— these are all pain points that are relatable to many, many black women and that was evidenced by how fucking popular and loved and pivotal “lemonade” is considered amongst her fans. and while i think she shouldve left that man in the dust, i do recognize that publicly facing that reality and choosing to transmute it into a message that resonated with so many women and essentially helped shatter the myth that there's a level of "good enough" you can achieve as a woman that will protect you from being a victim...i think that even if she didn't choose that for herself, opening herself up even that much helped disrupt that myth, and was ultimately a helpful step in healing. beyonce showed women that once again, doing thrice the work and still coming up short, publicly embarrassed by the man she was so gracious to let tag along and bask in her brilliance.. she could STILL turn that into something beautiful. lemonade. so loved and cherished by so many of her fans. and then to have that work of art then "snubbed" for album of the year-- that shit hurt and seemed to very much be received by her fans-- similar to jay-z's message to beyonce when cheating on her with becky--as white america's message to beyonce: a painful reminder that even when you’re doing it all, even when you’re singing the songs and doing the dances and your hair is always perfect and youre a devoted wife& mom and you’re always sexy... you can literally be fucking beyonce and you can still get cheated, and cheated on.
and if you can be beyonce, who is clearly better than all the rest of us, and still not be good enough… then truly, what hope is there for the rest of us?
so yeah. i do believe this is what beyonce represents for a lot of women. a very complicated relationship with ourselves, our ideals, and the reality of living in the environment that shaped most of us. the pain of knowing you’ll never be fully-seen, no matter how hard you try. the frustration of desiring validation from an entity-- whether a husband or an institution-- that is hurting you.
so with that considered, i actually have hope for beyonce. because i do see her, like all women, as deeply-powerful beings who have the misfortune of existing in a time when power in women is punished. i believe beyonce is a victim of grooming in so many senses of the word and at the hands of some of the people closest to her. and i have seen women break out of that for themselves, and reflect it back out into the world. i believe beyonce knows exactly who the fuck she is and i think that it’s clear to everybody, even those she threatens— and wants validation from— the most.
but she seems to be doubling-down.
and so thats my disappointment in all that shit. i find the reinvestment into these ideals, knowing theyre not only hurting you personally but ultimately your fans and beyond, disappointing, and something i would hope to see change. and bc i feel like bc representation does matter, i wish she would stop trying so fucking hard to be one of them. they’re never going to acknowledge the totality of her greatness and i want her to decide she doesn’t need it. i want her to change her mind. i want her to see that her people, her actual people, love her and see her for the generational talent she is--
EDIT: so i wrote the bulk of this little blog post like three weeks ago prior to her winning album of the year for cowboy carter, and i feel like this is the closest shes gonna get to the validation she’s been craving from the establishment. i could go into a whole thing about how her winning for this album, which ive heard is.. not her best work, and how i really think this is still the establishment saying “now you’re good enough because you’ve made real art” . while her win is, of course, being thrown up as proof that she's finally great enough to be acknowledged by her "peers" what this win really says is that she finally played the game the right enough way. its not beyonce they're acknowledging as great, its what she represents-- a black woman who has truly made herself fit into the american dream. i dont have time for all that right now but suffice to say beyonce has been running around with nazi-blonde hair draped in the american flag for a year now -- she produced the exact kind of work she needed to to get what she felt she needed, and i hope she can rest that part of herself now. she jumped thru the hoops and they gave her the bone. and i feel like now having gotten that win under the belt, it sets the stage even moreso for her to implement the things id like to see beyonce do.
first, i want beyonce to know she has enough.
i want her to stop chasing every nickel and dime she can (when i tell yall i was truly done with beyonce’s shenanigans when she charged ppl $1.29 for a REMIX to cuff it LMAO and yes, i know it’s not “fair” because elon musk and the government and the white man and everybody else gets to be evil capitalists so why are we picking on beyonce— im not picking on beyonce and i think ALL of them should fucking stop it too. but im talking about beyonce because beyonce is extremely important to a lot of black women for the reasons i mentioned above. and because beyonce represents our very complicated relationship with america and american ideals, i think she’s in a unique position to influence the trajectory of thought and action for a very very influential group of people away from those ideals. and i believe in and have witnessed the transformative power and capacity of women, especially black women.) but yeah. i want everybody, including beyonce, to abandon this capitalist pursuit of more and more and more and more. i want beyonce to publicly say, in words or action, “actually, i have enough.” i want her to influence and lead her followers to new schools of thought, one more in line with decolonized, indigenous, holistic, communal, sustainable ideologies. i want her to do shit like she did when she decided she was vegan for 21 days lmao. like it's silly but it's not when you have the capacity to influence the consciousness of literally millions (billions?) of people and i feel like if beyonce was to really open herself up to transformation she could very directly like.. help save the world. dramatic, but im not exaggerating lmao.
(and honestly, if she simply can't let go of the money shit, at least sell the right ideals. i know i keep going back to the american flag shit but its really just... disturbing. at least go back to cosplaying with black power imagery lol. i feel like she headed down that path, so i wonder if the white patriarchs very much were like "get back in line" and had her kinda shook. or maybe she was ready to resume her spot as perfect wife and family and it was time to move on from the cheating shit. or maybe she genuinely was experimenting with new ideals and just hit a plateau or regression in service of maintaining her family and career or.. who knows lol)
secondly, i want beyonce to finally know she is enough.
i want beyonce to leave jay-z. and rebrand herself as like.. the sexiest divorcee ever. and given the very scary allegations picking up traction against jay-z, there’s no better time than the present! what a powerful message that would send, to take a stand against patriarchy and sexual violence and say "this is not acceptable." that would be my dream. short of that, i would LOVE if we could throw very public cheating back scandal in there.
it would be even better if she actually very publicly cheated on jay-z with a man who is somewhat on her level (let’s be honest, no man will ever deserve beyonce but she at least deserves somebody attractive and not an alleged sexual predator for a change) in some long passionate affair where she has a disgraced jay z groveling at her feet to try (unsuccessfully, naturally) win her back. but again, thats just a dream. i would also settle for a classy, hush-hush divorce in which she doesn’t ask him for a single thing except for what is rightfully hers which even further embarrasses him bc everybody knows this patriarch of the black community just lost his bottom bitch, his ride or die, the bonnie to his clyde, his wife, and they cant even say she was with him for the money. i want beyonce to make leaving your man sexy just like she made getting cheated on and coming out even stronger sexy, like she did with lemonade. i want her to show us what it looks like to leave your man just the same way she showed us what its like to stay with your man and overcome “ups and downs”. i want her to show us what it looks like to become a stronger woman instead of becoming a stronger couple. i want beyonce to take the flag off. i want beyonce to realize it doesn’t matter if you get as close to looking like becky as you physically can, it doesn’t matter how good your hair is.. acknowledging your actual greatness is antithetical to everything the united states of america represents, acknowledging your actual greatness is antithetical to everything the patriarchy represents, and to do so would ensure their undoing. it will literally kill them to say you’re the best lol. you have to know that for yourself and you have to focus on the people who reflect your truth back to you. i want beyonce to know the only thing between her and her true final form is fucking jay z and i want her virgo ass to get over the image of it all and give us a new image. you got played and cheated by this fucked system. it happens to literally the best of us, which is indeed you, beyonce! we know it! i swear to goddess.
which brings me to my last request. lastly, i want beyonce to do what she does best—
i want her to sell an image of ideals and make it look the best anybody’s ever made that shit look. i want her to sell better ideals than the white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist ideals she’s invested in so heavily in her quest for validation and just like.. way too much money. god i hope this cowboy carter win is a turning point for her. i want her to invest in new ideals. i want her to make leaving your man look good. i want her to make sustainability look good. i want her to publicly denounce and even clown american "ideals". i want her to stop being mrs. carter.i noticed in one of those forbes-type lists lately she was listed as beyonce knowles, no carter recently. i hope that's a sign of what's to come. i want her to decide that actually, healing those parts of yourself that crave validation from people who will never be your equal is the new wave. i want her to use her celebrity and influence to bring a whole generation of black women into more holisitic, sustainable, women-centered ways of living. i want her how to show women how to use their power in service of a better world instead of trying to prove she can win at the shitty one. and given that she has made very intentional effort to do the opposite of all these things, i dont think its asking for "too much" for her to just.. not, anymore.
and while i dont expect my opinion to reach or impact beyonce herself, my hope for her is ultimately my hope for any and all women- i hope that we acknowledge the ways we've been scammed into jumping thru hoops for validation from our lessers, i want us to consider the ways we are invested in these ideals and ways we can invest in better ones, too. i want us to stop defending the harmful ones. i want us to look at the ways we are still seeking validation from those systems, and then start to undo that where we can. i want us to question why we are still aspiring to bt the american dream as we come into higher consciousness about what the american dream actually is, a nightmare. and i want beyonce and all women to finally know we are exactly who the fuck we knew we were all along, and use the gifts we were given to make things right, instead of in service to the american nightmare.