I’ve been carefully watching the progression of negative media centered around Black women. My interest sparked after Steve Harvey wrote a ridiculous book telling women (mostly Black) how to snag a man. Then came the Dateline segment on seemingly perfect but desperately single Black women. Next the CDC released a report stating that half of the Black women that they collected data from had herpes. Somewhere in the middle of all of this was John Mayers’ White supremacist penis.
The next threat is an old one: Beyoncé. Now, I know that Queen Bey has an army of Stans online who are ready to attack at any sideways comment directed at her but the foolishness has to end. Mrs. Carter has put out a new single off of her re-release (I know) of I Am…Sasha Fierce. Along with the single is a new video that is best described as a porno audition tape set to music. What I don’t like most about the video is that I know it will spawn another misguided female anthem.
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100 “Single Ladies” took to a London street to pay homage to Beyonce. |
First, the single is going to perpetuate this trend of unloved/unwanted/unappreciated Black women. Not to mention, it’s really just cheap pandering. I mean, let’s be honest, what women doesn’t feel like their obvious dopeness goes unnoticed. “Why Don’t You Love Me” will become the new anthem of the “Singles Ladies” providing for them the answer that they’re alone only because men just don’t get them. Better yet, because they’re intimidated. That answer that reminds me of when my mother would tell me that the neighborhood bullies were just “jealous” and is just as probable.
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| Her reported $5 mil, 18 carat ring. |
And here comes the tricky part: Beyoncé is a married woman! So she, like Dateline and Steve Harvey, are simply pimping the single Black woman trend for monetary gain. She’s getting her listeners all whipped up into a frenzy about putting a ring on it when she waited 6 years before Jay-Z married her. Listening to Beyoncé is like eating a skinny cook’s food. If that analology doesn’t work then let me remind my female readers of something else and please listen closely. You are not Beyoncé! This is Beyoncé on vacation. This is Beyoncé walking down the street. This is how Beyoncé and her husband enjoy Washington D.C. Yup, that’s a conference room at the White House.
The point is, all of that leotard-wearing and gyrating is pretty entertaining but it’s not real. Even though the radio will make you listen to the song until you love it, please don’t get caught up pondering the ridiculous title.
Article by Donovan X Ramsey
Donovan X. Ramsey is an Associate Researcher at the Identity Orchestration Research Lab at Morehouse College where he is currently engaged in research regarding the expression of Black male identity in contemporary politics. He has served as a writer for elected officials throughout Georgia and is contributor to several publications. For more of his work, please visit www.dynamicstasis.com or his personal blog The Perfect Square.
Donovan X has written 37 article(s) for us.
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I am NOT a Beyonce fan. I enjoy looking at her and watching her dance, but I think she makes shitty music. That said, I think this new video and song is some of her better work and I actually like it. The video is crazy post modern art. and what i got from the lyrics was more irony and depth than what you mention here. while it is true many people will probably see what you saw, i actually think the song was deep. beyonce was an over emotional mess that was tacky and also appeared to have problems cooking. she was not perfect by any means. yet she had the wherewithall to know she was worthy, even if she was a little delluded about exactly how worthy she was. it was good for todays music. any black woman that hears that song should be reminded of their own flaws and maybe could answer their own question by adjusting some of them. maybe. i think people are hating this song for no reason. its good music and the video was very artistic.
First, Beyonce is an entertainer. She is professionally contracted to market what is entertaining. Like most artists of all genres, In addition to writing music herself, Beyonce takes submissions from songwriters and collaborates with her musical peers for added influence. You are seemingly forgetting that these female anthems of Beyonce's are the pen-work of other people. Beyonce is just another woman speaking from the standpoint of women who WANT these things to be said (due to their love lives), she isn't trying to poison the minds of healthy women. Do you know how many women could relate to 'Single ladies'? a lot of women have been waiting for their significant others to be more than just a bed time companion and make a greater commitment. It's so relatable, that 2 men wrote it! Terius Nash and Christopher Stewart, to be exact. You spoke about this new single "Why don't you Love me" claiming that Beyonce's life is contradictory to a song like this, however it clearly isn't contradictory to the life of the woman behind it's lyrics and co-production; her divorced and single-mother sister, Solange! Ne-Yo (Schaffer Smith) wrote 'Irreplacable' for Trey Songz, but her recording of it was decidedly better suited for a woman who is being used and mistreated by her mate and refuses to just play the "i'm gonna cry on the floor and sulk in misery because you don't treat me right" role. She throws him out! What's wrong with that? If when Ne-Yo wrote it, he was going to portray a man taking these actions against a "no good" woman, what's wrong with flipping the story towards a "no good" man? I think women deal with a lot from their men that isn't voiced by the media, and most love songs are portrayed to be unrealistic. Nobody is saying anything when she's on stage belting out how she's dangerously in love, crazy in love, or wants to massage her mans feet and cook for him (Cater to You). Women like to be disillusioned by love, and even more importantly, society likes when women assume the role of being a hopeless romantic: a breed that can repeatedly be mistreated and objectified, yet will consistently live within those degrading parameters, claiming to be blinded by love. Beyonce is simply the front woman for these objections, voiced by other people. You're reading too much into her actions (believing that she is the posionous apple to a relationship's metophorical Eden), when simply she is trying to choose songs that will encourage strength in the weakened women that take so much, and ask so little. Her songs have helped women leave abusive relationships, find the strength to independently stand on their own feet, rid themselves of a man that shows no promise of a future, and so much more. She's helped as many women as you would like to protest that she's hurt.
Oh, and yes, I'm a songwriter
Admittedly, I am a Beyonce stan. I can watch B'Day experience all day everyday, according to my iTunes, Halo, Diva, Single Ladies, Get Me Bodied & Upgrade U have been played over 300 something times EACH, and while playing the latter four songs of hers, I can't do so without doing the appropriate dances. However, I'm one of those rare stans that feels when Beyonce is on, she's on and when she's off…well. Yeah (I haven't watched Videophone and Telephone more than once and you can constantly find me engaged in convos accusing Bey of being in the Illuminati. Yes I think she has mind control over me. lol)
All that to say, I don't think Beyonce should be taken so seriously on either sides of the spectrum."Beyonce's Plot Against Black Women," is ridiculous. For the most part, I believe people gravitate towards music that matches their already existent mindset, be it Beyonce or Gucci Mane. Then there are people who just like the beat and don't take it seriously at all. It's funny cause the one picture you used not of Beyonce shows white women tooting their ass to Single Ladies, not Black women. When Beyonce performed Single Ladies on the MTV Awards, she told the ladies to "take yo hand and put it in his face," and the camera panned in on a white woman in the audience doing that to her man.
So her influence, negative or positive, should not just be marginalized to us. Even more ironic, Steve Harvey and Dateline discuss what Black women do wrong that makes them single, and then when we go talking about what we do right or any variation, in defense of why we shouldn't be single, we're told "You ain't Beyonce." It's like dang, why I gotta wear lacefronts, glittered onesies, and nude stockings to get a lil love? Quite the conundrum.
Not glittered onesies? LOL!
Agreed. Next thing we know Beyonce is going to get blamed for global warming and military-industrial complex. She is not alone in the bad sterotypes that go into pop music but why is it that we blame her so much? Seriously, who does more damage? I think Beyonce's influence on black women is marginal at best especially when you compare it countless hip-hop artist.
Why does it have to be that Beyonce was 'waiting' for Jay-Z to propose to her. Hmm? Perhaps _she_ was waiting to be sure he was The One. Or maybe after a particular incident or when certain personal/career goals were reached, they BOTH knew it was time to get married.
Your article comes off as sexist and resentful and kind of silly, to be honest. It's well written, I'll give you that, but unfounded.
Sure, she appears to bash men on some degree in her songs, but most women realize this and just live out the fantasy anyway. That's what it is; music is a fantasy, a release, a way to take you away. And, Beyonce's music/lyrics wouldn't be so appealing if they had no truth in them.
She's a good artist. One of the best singers and performers, she's classy in public, respectful in interviews, and kind to fans. She's Beyonce.
You can dislike, just don't Hate.
I don't understand why some black people have a tendency to come down on black women for showing feminity and sexuality. It seems like those are concepts are some kind of dirty words to the black community. I never hear articles written by black men or women that tell Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Charlize Theron, etc…that they need to cover up in movies. All of them have done several nude and sex scenes. They're considered respected actresses. I've seen white models do actual nude or revealing pictures in many women fashion magazines. We know it's as many white singers that flash, just as much if not more skin than Beyonce. But it's never much a debate by writers on black or white blogs about white women and other non-black women. Black women want our beauty on display also. We don't have to feel dirty about it because of what happened in the past. We've a right to be recognized in our full womanhood, too, like any other woman.
Beyonce in this video is referencing 50's pinup imagery and a movie like Valley of the Dolls. It even has some overtones of Mad Men with the Betty Draper character. Beyonce's costumes and dancing aren't anymore revealing than what 50s pinup Bettie Page did. You can find her on YouTube for proof of that. So I'm saying if Page did this in the 50s, and Beyonce isn't going any further than that in this video. What is so extreme about it? To me, Beyonce keeps it more classy than most singers out there while still being sexy. Beyonce is so beautiful and reminds me so much of these 50s bombshells, let the girl show it off some. She normally reels it in for a song like Halo or Flaws and Alls. She doesn't go too much one way or another. She keeps a balance. I actually think that young black girls and black women to a point need to see these images of ourselves as sex symbols. We do use that as a modeling tool to base our own feminity off of, especially growing up.
Why this song got to be about single black women? Because Beyonce is black. It's not clear from the video if she's single or married. What's clear is that she's in a relationship in which she doesn't feel appreciated in. She's trying to find some self-validation. Then, she realizes at the end that if the guy doesn't give her the love that she deserves he isn't the one. Because he's not smart enough to realize what he's got. Of course, Beyonce has got to sing it from a woman's point of view. But men should be able to relate if they've ever had their heart broken by a woman because the woman didn't value the qualities that he had.
To me, it's a great song and video. Totally relatable.
They don’t call it “ENTERTAINMENT” for nothing. If you want something more “real” then you need to blame the industry, not Beyonce. We have always had our entertainers who have beauty and bank on it. Diana Ross is a good example. Beyonce is beautiful black woman but also has heaps of talent, and by that alone she is showing young girls that anything is possible. However, Beyonce’s choice to be the artist that she is and create the entertainment that she does is her choice and one that seems to be making her a lot of money. Back in the 1990′s or even 6 or 7 years ago… there were many more R and B artist who were had more popularity like, Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu who gave an alternate look at “reality”, but again its not Beyonce’s fault that these artist aren’t as prominent. I don’t think what Beyonce does is wrong or sends the wrong message. I think your real argument is that young black women need more variety. As long as the girls have a good home and a head on their shoulders they can be positively influenced by Beyonce but still smart enough to know the difference between entertainment and reality.
I just wanted to say this song is relatable to black and white people. The theme is universal.
I wasn't with you at first because sometimes I think we have a tendency to overanalyze everything that the public likes in mainstream culture, but when you made this point: "Beyoncé is a married woman! So she, like Dateline and Steve Harvey, are simply pimping the single Black woman trend for monetary gain," I had to applaud. That was always my initial reaction to Single Ladies…so when you get a rock on your hand 6 yrs later, you start a revolution amongst the 43% (or whatever the latest stat is) of unmarried women who are actually single?! I'm not a fan.
I think the Why Don't You Love Me video is terrible, but I actually like the song. As someone here stated, the issue of feeling unloved is universal, but somehow coming from Beyonce it just doesn't feel geniune. I couldn't help but feel like had the tempo been slowed or if it was say Mary J. Blige or Alicia Keys singing more heartfelt, the song would've been received totally differently.
I think Beyonce may call herself counteracting the single black female hysteria and I think that's fine if it makes said women feel confident and proud of who they are independent of male companionship, but there is something a tad sketch coming from a married woman who, in my eyes, is totally unrelateable.
Well perhaps if more black women were like Beyonce and had a man put a ring on it before spreading their legs and getting knocked up by some fool who had no intentions on marrying them in the first place, there wouldn't be an issue. As far as I'm concerned, Beyonce is a role model who did things the right way.
Us black have no self-esteem whatsoever and are so brainwashed by the white media into think Beyonce somehow (from a Creole/French/African-American background) represents black. Thankfully, am able to see this ploy to water down our race, or forced to take what given. Some blacks have the guts to claim Beyonce is a full black woman when CLEARLY she’s a mulatto. WTF is wrong with you? Don’t you know what a black is anymore? Have they so much confused you that your black starts from Tina Knowles’ complexion and all REAL black is not black but “dark-skinned”? C’mon there is no dark-skinned black, “dark-skins” are the real blacks not Beyonce high yellow having ass. Come on get real.
I won’t start this by directly attacking your commentary. Everyone has a right to voice their opinion, and by voicing your distaste for Beyonce’s work, and image, it is simply your perspective, that others may, or may not agree with.
Regarding the video, you described as porno, I actually felt it was a different, and very unique approach. The theme was retro, and unlike other videos that have re-used this idea countless times, they fashioned Beyonce in the likeness of the legendary cult icon pin up girl/ burlesque dancer Bettie Paige. Bettie Page’s notoriety, and appeal, is highly praised by both men and women today, because of her daringly provocative images, many involving bondage, that were deemed vulgar, and obscene. When actually, they expressed a woman playfully embracing her sexuality, rather than flee from it. The music they incorporated was 70s blaxploitation, although deemed now comical and tasteless. For the time, it was when black women were captured as fully empowered, strong, as well as sexy and desirable. They took two important eras for black and white women and virtually combined them, with a burlesque vibe… A pretty original idea for a pop video, regardless if it matched with the meaning behind the song. It was upbeat, flirty, and fun …
Now the song itself, just because it’s a new release, doesn’t mean it reflects Beyonce’s life now, it could have been motivated from feelings she’s had in previous relationships and past experiences dating other men. Who can really say it points directly to Jay-z. Before she married him she was a highly successful artist, her work doesn’t have to involve her personal life just because she’s married to someone equally as famous, and successful.
Also, when you think back to contemporaries of R&B and Soul, like aretha franklin , glady’s knight, hell even etta james, how many songs have they’ve released that could be considered pleading for love, and vying for the affection of men.It’s easy to criticize beyonce because as popular, and well received as she is, she isn’t considered very credible.
lastly, keep in mind, it’s a MUSIC VIDEO, fo a POP SONG virtually, it was meant to be light, and even though it seems to have a message , ultimately the fun was meant to be FUN SO LIGHTEN UP !!