Beyoncé

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BEYONCÉ



BEYONCÉ An Introduction Pretty Hurts Empower Mrs. Knowles-Carter Le Sexe Why Yoncé? BEYONCÉ References

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AN INTRODUCTION

By Ben Dunbar

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Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is a female pop artist that has had a large impact on a few different social issues. Beyoncé was born on september 4th, 1981 and grew up in Houston, Texas. In the 1990s Beyoncé was the lead singer in Destiny’s Child until the group disbanded. Destiny’s Child was essentially the focus of Beyoncé’s life at the time because her father was the manager for the group and in order to succeed the members of Destiny’s child committed long hours of work to practice and perform their music. Beyoncé also started making music as a solo artist in 2003 with her album Dangerously in Love. Beyoncé has impacted different social issues in that her music has influenced women to feel strong, independent and outgoing. Beyoncé has demonstrated that she not only believes in equality between the genders, but also in encouraging women to embrace their bodies and their sexuality. One of the ways in which Beyoncé helped women embrace their sexuality was by creating a slightly aggressive alter-ego with her third solo album I am ... Sasha Fierce. As the third song in B’day, Bey’s second solo album, “Irreplaceable” was among Beyoncé’s earlier works. This song described a Beyoncé kicking a man out of the house for cheating and being dishonest to his partner. Beyoncé belittles the man by saying, “And it’s my name that’s on that Jag, so go move your bags, let me call you a cab,” while she is kicking him out of the house. These lyrics support Beyoncé’s social motives in two ways: the first of which is that it promotes women to stand up for themselves and the ond


second is that it supports gender equality because in the situation described, the woman had contributed to the possessions the couple had been sharing. Beyoncé further develops her position as a strong and independent role model in the song “Single Ladies”, which became one of the top 10 most popular songs in 2008. In the chorus, “If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it,” Beyoncé describes that a relationship has ended in failure and later on provides evidence that another is forming during a dance at a club: “another brother noticed me, I’m up on him, he up on me”. In this sense the song shows that a woman does not need a man that is afraid of commitment and Beyoncé encourages woman to start over if they find themselves in the position described in the song. Despite the fierce lyrics in “Irreplaceable” and “Single Ladies”, Beyoncé later showed her belief that men and women can be successful partners in her album I am... Sasha Fierce. In this album, Beyoncé released the “Halo”, a love song that encourages relationships to happen. As the singer, Beyoncé describes herself as letting go of inhibitions, “Its the risk that I’m taking, I’m never going to shut you out,” to allow something potentially beautiful to happen. Beyoncé shows her belief that love is powerful and necessary with the lyrics, “Baby I can see your halo, you know you’re my saving grace.” This song in a way foreshadows her support of marriage and motherhood as an adult.

Through the analysis of her work, Beyoncé seems to use four different topics that work together to speak to her audience. The main focus of this project will be to perform a more in depth analysis of how these topics are presented in Beyoncé’s most recent album.The first topic is beauty standards. Beyoncé understands that in today’s culture women are put under a lot of pressure to look good and she wants to help people to keep from feeling overwhelmed by these expectations. Female empowerment is the next topic to be discussed. Beyoncé has described herself as a “modern-day feminist” because of her belief in gender equality. In BEYONCÉ, this “modern-day feminism” is apparent and Beyoncé has also shown

new sense of female pride in her role as a wife and mother. The last two topics are sexuality and Beyoncé’s use of alter-egos. Beyoncé seems to encourage females to embrace the fact that they are sexual beings. While the songs sometimes become explicit and perhaps ill-suited for young audiences, Beyoncé has shown that she believes the topic is important and it is possible that she has included it in her endeavor to empower females. Finally, Beyoncé has also revisited her alter-egos, and it seems as if she has finally blended them into one focused personality.

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PRETTY HURTS By Sara Fogarty & Nidhi Madhavaiya


Over the past several years, Beyoncé and her music has erupted into an enormous musical sensation worldwide, recognized on an international scale. Greatly praised as well as harshly critiqued throughout her career, Beyoncé has ended up with another hit album, the self-titled BEYONCÉ, and has utilized this power position to redefine and address gender stereotypes. Although never a self-proclaimed ‘feminist’ Beyoncé does stand as the mouthpiece for women who may not fit society’s generally accepted view of beauty. Beyoncé draws extra to this overarching message with the very first song of the album “Pretty Hurts”. This song has received an incredible amount of critical attention, primarily due to the placement in Beyoncé’s album, an album which as a whole has clearly been constructed to be her statement to the world after taking some time off. Co-written by Sia Furler, this song addresses how girls today are being treated as mere reflections of their outer appearance, and raised to be self-conscious and competitive amongst other girls as a norm. The song opens with the verse: “Mama said, “You’re a pretty girl. What’s in your head, it doesn’t matter. Brush your hair, fix your teeth. What you wear is all that matters.” These lyrics paired with a video of Beyoncé struggling in a beauty pageant where her stomach and thighs are slapped by judges, and her ingesting pills make a significant statement. “Perfection is a disease of a nation” is another famous line now, perhaps as Beyoncé’s attempt to voice her frustration

with her own perfectionist tendencies or the pressure from the public on her. The lyrics to this song show how Beyoncé wants to change beauty standards and the way that women feel about themselves. It’s a sort of cry to empower women to think more highly about their bodies, minds, and self-worth. The song as a whole works to reveal the issues behind the way that society has created and dictated standards of beauty for us. It was Beyoncé herself who suggested that her character, Miss Third Ward, lose the beauty competition. She said that they originally had it so that Miss Third Ward won and it meant nothing to her. Eventually, they had an albino woman win. This was another step towards breaking the classic beauty standards. “My message behind this album was finding the beauty in imperfection. I had this image of a trophy and me accepting these awards, and kinda training myself to be this champion and at the end of the day when you go through all of these things, is it worth it?” The trophy theme in this video is meant to demonstrate this, showing how much suffering the contestants go through just to win an award. The question still remains, is it really worth it? “You get this trophy, and you’re like, ‘I basically starved. I have neglected all of the people I love, I conformed to what everybody else thinks I should be. And I have this trophy. What does that mean?’ The trophy represents all of the sacrifices that I made as a kid,” says Beyoncé, “All of the time that I lost being on the road and in

the studios as a child and I just wanna blow that shit up.” Critique of this song has ranged in all directions. Harsh comments include that of Beyoncé simply addressing beauty standards and calling out society, while in the rest of the songs and videos, she looks beautiful and sexual. Some claim that that is a contradiction, with her only weakly attempting to address distorted views of women, while she herself adheres to them. This too can be traced to a later song, “Flawless”, where she repeats that she woke up flawless. Flawless also understood as without the flaws, which should be what makes each individual unique. While most of the critique is tinged with personal bias, there is some validity to the statements. It would be difficult to find this message that seems so strong in the first song later on in the album, where other songs are devoted to love, sexual desires, and strength. However, it was a bold move keeping this as the premier song. In the middle of “***Flawless” Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers a monologue about the double standards for women, which is another bold aspect to this song, and leaves no doubt as to the songwriter’s stance on this issue. Paired with a catchy tune, this album will no doubt leave Beyoncé’s mark as to her view on beauty standards, and with such a message being continually sung by her fans worldwide, it may make a difference that will be seen down the road.


EMPOWER

By Mina Nayeri


Beyoncé also directly and obviously addresses the theme of female empowerment within her song “***Flawless,” which has become an anthem for many young women who identify as “feminists.” The song is filled with lyrics that are outrightly feminist, such as:

“I took some time to live my life/But don’t think I’m just his little wife/Don’t get it twisted, get it twisted/This my shit, bow down bitches” “I woke up like this, I woke up like this/We flawless, ladies tell em/Say I, look so good tonight” “Momma taught me good home training/My daddy taught me to love my haters/My sister taught me I should speak my mind/My man made feel so god damn fine” With these lyrics, Beyoncé demands to be taken seriously as an independent woman, mother, wife, and feminist. She continues to stress that women can be independent when they are married and encourages all other women to love and respect themselves, to realize that they are “flawless. Perhaps the most striking lyrics of the song are those spoken by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a prominent author from Nigeria who is featured on “***Flawless.” Beyoncé samples her lecture for TED Talks titled, “We

should all be feminists” in the middle of the song. Adichie makes many powerful statements about gender inequality in the excerpt from her speech that is featured in the song:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man.’ Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices, always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. We raise girls to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think could be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.”

“Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.”

These statements made by Adichie are the crux of the feminist vein that runs through the Visual Album. They are bold and solidify Beyoncé’s status as a powerful feminist figure and role model. They work to create an image of a “feminist” that is free from stigmas and stereotypes. Beyoncé is showing that feminists do not hate men or view women as superior; rather, feminists seek gender equality in every facet of society. This ties in very well with Beyoncé’s refusal to be viewed as a “trophy wife” but rather as an equal to Jay-Z in marriage. The video accompanying the song is raw and fierce. It references the punk movement, as it depicts Beyoncé singing, dancing, and rioting with grungy, hardcore punk enthusiasts in a basement that eventually is engulfed in flames. It is shot in black and white and features many women who challenge typical beauty standards. These women lip-sync the word “flawless” as Beyoncé asks the ladies to “tell em, we flawless.” Furthermore, the choreography is very angular and raw and features a slow-motion brawl as Adichie delivers her speech. Beyoncé has also expressed her connection to the feminist movement by joining the “Ban Bossy” campaign, which encourages girls to embrace ambition and seek leadership roles. “I’m not bossy,” states Beyoncé. “I’m the boss.”

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MRS. KNOWLES-CARTER By Sam Isaacs

Beyoncé, globally recognized for her talent, beauty, and brains, has of late become a wife and a mother within a matter of years. Contrary to popular belief, this has not slowed Queen B down in the slightest. The “Single Ladies” singer is back, bigger and better than ever; strong and secure in her marriage as well as in tip top shape for a mother of a 2-year-old baby girl. As many have criticized, Beyoncé once was a symbol of a woman being single and powerful, but now that she has a ring on her finger, she can no longer be either. Aware of this double standard, Beyoncé took her latest album as an opportunity to claim her femininity, touching on her sexuality, her marriage, and her life as a mother, while also dominating the charts and the whole of music listeners therefore proving herself powerful while in a monogamous relationship. “She claims female pleasure as pure and grown, something dominant that can coexist with monogamy and marriage and her own status as an artist” (White, 1). Her self-titled album’s first single, “Drunk In Love”, in all its glory is the shining beacon of how to be sexy and have fun with your spouse while maintaining equal control within

the relationship. Beyoncé is trying to get across a message that says marriage does not mean the end of sexual freedom or the loss of all individuality, rather the exact opposite. “It’s a song about flirting, about going out and partying, about having fantastic, adventuresome, totally enthralling sex–with your spouse” (Rosenberg, 1). The message of empowerment is conveyed through her pride in being a wife and mother as well as a strong willed individual, her confidence as a sexual being unlike many women today, and her respectable security in who she is. The video for Drunk in Love is a key portrayal of Beyoncé as a confident, sexual, and individualized “trophy wife” who is proud of being a married woman, almost creating a new positive and empowering meaning for the otherwise negative title. Taking a modern and more realistic side of the female empowerment movement, Beyoncé has totally erased the idea of a woman taking her place underneath her husband’s thumb, rather right by his side, equally as powerful, strong, and individual.


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LE SEXE

By Jonathan Corriveau


Black feminist theorists have almost universally described black women’s sexuality, when viewed from the vantage of the dominant discourses, as an absence. In one of the earliest and most compelling discussions of black women’s sexuality, the literary critic Hortense Spillers wrote: ‘black women are the beached whales of the sexual universe, unvoiced, misseen not doing, awaiting their verb’. For writer Toni Morrison, black women’s sexuality is one of the ‘unspeakable things unspoken’, of the African-American Experience. Black women’s sexuality is often described in metaphors of speechlessness, space, or vision, as a ‘void’ or empty space that is simultaneously ever visible and invisible and where black women’s bodies are always already colonized. In addition, this always already colonized black female body has so much sexual potential that it has none at all. Historically, black women have reacted to this repressive force of the hegemonic discourses on race and sex with silence, secrecy, and a partially self chosen invisibility. (Bhavnani 383)

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Beyoncé’s new chart topping self-titled visual album is, to say the least, filthy. In a year filled with many discussions on sexuality, objectification, and culture, this album was a fitting way to end the year. Many of these conversations focused on how the female body is objectified, used simply as an advertisement, sexualized, abused by marketing, yet it seemed no one ever talked about sexuality. Everyone talked about Miley, twerking on a man twice her age, wearing nothing but a latex jumpsuit, but she did it all so sexlessly. She exemplified everything we’ve seen throughout the entire year: that women are sexual objects, yet she calls herself “one of the biggest feminists in the world.” Well, by the years end, Beyoncé was sure to change the way women are viewed in todays’ society. In her new album, Beyoncé takes on race, female empowerment, beauty standards, marriage, motherhood, poverty, sexual objectification, and perhaps most blatantly, sexuality. Having initially sparked outrage amongst parents and critics that slammed this album for being too explicit and essentially objectifying women even further, Beyoncé made clear that she knew what she was doing. This was not a publicity stunt. This was not just another R&B album. This was a highly calculated move that was sure to revolutionize not only the music industry, but society as we know it. This was the beginning of a movement, a step in the right direction, one step closer to gender equality.

Time Magazine states that “Beyoncé has managed to become the biggest female pop star in the world while cultivating her marriage, her role as a mother, and her sexuality. And in doing so, she’s ushering in a new wave of feminism. And again, she wants us to think that you can be both sexy and a feminist.” In a short documentary, “Self-Titled,” released in five segments, Beyoncé addresses the concern of her overly sexual album. In showing her body and expressing her sexuality, Beyoncé is paving the way for African-American women by refusing to remain silent in the way that Bhavnani explained.

“I was very aware of the fact that I was showing my body. I was 195 pounds when I gave birth, I lost 65 pounds. I worked crazily to get my body back. I wanted to show my body. I wanted to show that you can have a child, and you can work hard, and you can get your body back. I know finding my sensuality, getting back into my body, being proud of growing up… it was important to me that I expressed that in my music because I know that there are so many women that feel the same thing after they give birth. You can have your child and you can still have fun and still be sexy and still have dreams and still live for yourself.”

Arguably one of the most controversial songs off of the new album, “Partition” explores the sexual fantasies of a woman, striving to please her man in a world in which all men want is perfection.

Est-ce que tu aimes le sexe? Le sexe, je veaux dire: l’activité physique, le coït. Tu aimes ça? Tu ne t’intéresses pas au sexe? Les hommes pensent que les féministes détestent le sexe mais c’est un activité très stimulante et naturelle ques les femmes adorent. Do you like sex? Sex, I mean : physical activity, coitus. You like it? Are you not interested in sex? Men think that feminists hate sex but it’s an exciting and natural activity that women love. Why is it that women are shamed for being sexual? She argues that to be a feminist, to promote the social, political and economic equality of the sexes does not mean that one has to hate men or hate sex. She addresses her raw, explicit, honest, complicated, fragile and altogether human sexuality.


“I don’t at all have any shame about being sexual and I’m not embarrassed about it and I don’t feel like I have to protect that side of me because I do believe that sexuality is a power that we all have.” Beyoncé addresses this commonly controversial issue in such an honest, pure way that it teaches women that they should not be ashamed to be sexual. Her album, though clearly sexual, is not about having sex. It’s a body of work of pure honesty, sung to her husband, with songs sung from the heart about making love. Beyoncé values her marriage and role as a woman and a wife and a mother. Timbaland, one of the co-writers of “Rocket”, tells Beyoncé “Only a mother can talk like that. And only a wife can talk like that. That’s your strength. When does a mother and a wife do that? I mean you set women free.” (Timbaland) Beyoncé tells women that it is okay to be sexual. It is okay to be proud of your body, to show it off, and to be confident with yourself. Beyoncé shows us herself in a pure, unairbrushed form with all of her beauty and all of her imperfections, telling women to just be themselves, even if that means getting a little filthy.

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WHY YONCÉ? By Miranda Lundberg

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Beyoncé Knowles has introduced several alter egos during her career to embody the character of her specific albums. In her latest album BEYONCÉ, we finally meet Yoncé. In her third studio album I am… Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé sings through her alter ego Sasha Fierce. She says, “I turn into Sasha. I wouldn’t like Sasha if I met her off stage. She’s too aggressive, too strong, too sassy, and too sexy! I’m not like her in real life at all. I’m not flirtatious and super-confident and fearless like her.” Beyoncé created her alter egos in an effort to separate her own shy personality from her stage persona and give her the courage to be free and sexy while performing. Then she grew up. She “kills” Sasha and launches a world tour on stage as the lovely Mrs. Carter. Maybe it’s wrong to call this an alter ego, perhaps it’s more like an emphasis on a part of the real Beyoncé: being Mrs. Carter, a wife and mother of African American power couple that rules the music industry, demonstrating that you can be a wife and a mother and still be Bombshell Beyoncé.


In her fifth studio album entitled BEYONCÉ, her latest alter ego Yoncé is introduced. While her past alter egos have been somewhat censored in some ways, Yoncé is raw and uncensored. Forget the unbearably sexual videos. “Drunk in Love” is not the tension-filled club scene that precedes drunk sex, the kind of thing we hear all the time. It’s about the love she shares with her husband. As a couple, the two are entirely dedicated to each other and their daughter Blue Ivy. Bey forgoes pretending to feel bad about having sex with her husband or blaming it on the alcohol, and there are absolutely no apologies on this record. Maybe you could say that Yoncé is not really an alter ego, but more like an evolution of her as an artist. Sasha Fierce and Mrs. Carter are not dead; they’re all part of the hybrid that is Yoncé, but she’s not pretending this time, its honest. Spicy Mrs. Carter and Mommy Carter are not afraid to express their sexuality. The sexual aspects of the album and of Yoncé

are the most progressive parts of not only the album, but also of feminism. Women are not only objects for men. Women are humans with as much lust and sexual drive as anyone else. Women have been taught to be shy and prude, always take a step back; otherwise we’re seen as “bossy, bitchy, and sluts,” words often used to describe women who are simply powerful. Beyoncé was also a product of what society has taught us to believe. She had to use alter egos because she simply didn’t dare to be that “open” with herself or the world, so she needed a mask to hide behind. We have been taught that women aren’t simply sexual beings as men and that is how its always been, why should Beyoncé change this now. People have said that she has been objectifying herself in the album and been a bad role model for young women, but what is wrong is society’s perception of what is right or wrong. Beyoncé is the best role model for future generations because she teaches kids that genders are equally allowed to express

whatever they feel and sets really important moral ground stones. No brand of feminism is perfect, especially in music, but as long as we’re worshipping Yoncé, this is worth our consideration.

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BEYONCÉ By Eric Holland

The pseudonym Yoncé was introduced on the new album, released in late 2013. The sound design and vocals of the songs that include Yoncé are significantly different than the rest of the album. The three songs that feature her (‘Yoncé’, ‘Partition’, and ‘Jealous’) are notably more bass-heavy and have many provocative lyrics rapped or stated rather than sung, perhaps a homage to her husband Jay-Z. Appearances on the Album The songs ‘Yoncé’ and “Partition” are the most prominent examples of Yoncé and its ramifications for Beyoncé’s sexuality, as well as her sound and message in the album. The song begins with a self-identification, as Beyoncé solicits the crowd to “Say Hey, Mrs. Carter!”. Immediately, the listener is reminded that Yoncé and what it represents are fully parts of her, just like her identity as Mrs. Carter is. It is not an alter ego, but a part of her own life. The hook elicits a throwback to “Cater 2 U” from her early career, as she calls on Jay-Z to “tell [her] how it’s looking” so that she knows that she is pleasing her man. The song continues in the second verse by accentuating Beyoncé’s success as going against the general direction of popular music like EDM (“Radio say “speed it up”, I just go slower”) and her ability to seemingly generate a chart-topping hit at will, as well as a double entrende about sex (“Cuz when he wanna smash I’ll just write

another one”). The song ends with repetition of the lyric “Yoncé all on his mouth like liquor”, a lyric that confirms the idea of Yoncé as a wilder version of herself that challenges the “invisibility of black women as the unvoiced” (Bhavnani 383). ‘Yoncé’ transitions into ‘Partition’, a racy look at a night out gone wrong. Yoncé is the only name that is mentioned in the song. Heavy bass accentuates the cadence of the lyrics, as Beyoncé pleads with the driver to “Roll up the partition please, I don’t need you seeing ‘Yoncé on her knees”. When most listeners imagine a married women having a night out with their husband, they think of a candlelight dinner. Beyoncé’s night revolves around a steamy hookup in a limo before they reach the club. Her makeup is ruined from the encounter, and her husband wants to go all the way with her. This hyper-sexual night with her husband is consistent with Yoncé’s association with arousal and sexuality. Yoncé is also name-dropped during “Jealous” (“Yoncé filling out this skirt, I look damn good I ain’t lost it”). Yoncé is synonymous with Beyoncé’s personal sexual desires and socially unacceptable feelings. These emotions are not usually associated with a married woman, much less a married mother. And it’s not a thoughtless mistake that a few tracks later comes “*Flawless,” which features Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talking about how girls are taught to “aspire to marriage” and not “be sexual beings in the way that boys are.” Then ‘Yoncé


instructs ladies to “tell ‘em I woke up like this.” She’s not suggesting that her beauty to “step out of [her]self” and reveal a new facet of her personality to her fans. Sasha doesn’t take effort (see: “Pretty Hurts”). She wants women to own it, whatever it is Fierce gave Beyoncé the courage to be free and sexual during performances. Beyoncé and however they got it. If you got it, flaunt it and get nasty in the car if you want to. created Sasha to protect her true personality and self from her onstage persona. In 2010, Beyoncé admitted that she no longer had any use for Sasha Fierce, statMessage and Significance ing, “I don’t need Sasha Fierce anymore, because I’ve grown and now I’m able to merge the These sexual feelings challenge the traditional view of married women. Mar- two [herself and Sasha Fierce].” Yoncé and Sasha Fierce both express more sexual, agried women are often thought to have little to no sex drive and focus on the household gressive emotions, but Yoncé is a part of Beyoncé’s personality rather than a full-fledged instead of their career and public life. Yoncé is a resounding rejection of these ideas alter ego. This is the fundamental difference in the development of Yoncé, and why Yoncé by emphasizing Beyoncé’s desires that would normally not be attached to a grown is a part of Beyoncé’s true self while Sasha Fierce is a stage name. Beyoncé was formerly woman. Songs that mention Yoncé’ are much more likely to focus on sex or taboo limited to expressing her sensual passions and emotions through a disembodied Sasha subjects concerning a relationship between a married couple. This idea is seen in the Fierce, an alter ego that she publicly stated was not her.In her self-titled album Beyoncé, Blow outro, when Beyoncé serenades her husband about her sexual desires, singing she addresses her sexual desires and wants as her own, not those of her alter ego. This “I can’t wait ‘till I get home so you can tear that cherry out (tear that cherry out)”. empowerment is about her being able to express all of her feelings about motherhood, This type of line would not be expected from Beyoncé if the stereotypes about mar- sex, and intimate relationships without projecting them first onto an alter ego. ried women were to be believed. More striking still is Beyoncé turning the traditional Yoncé’ is the spiritual successor to Sasha Fierce, but this transformation is husband/wife ideal on its head. Instead of Jay coming home to her sitting on the indicative of Beyoncé’s overall growth. As Beyoncé has grown older, she has started to couch patiently waiting for him, Beyoncé can’t wait until she gets home from work be more comfortable with herself, her music, and the emotions that she would not have so she can get it on with Jay, challenging the idea that a woman cannot have a career put into her songs in the past. There were critics of BEYONCÈ that believed the album and a fulfilling sex life. Beyoncé voiced her concerns about this in an interview after represented a disturbing new direction for Bey, that she was becoming too sexual. This she released her new album, simply stating, “I refuse to let anyone put me in a box.” view encapsulates the stereotype that married women are supposed to be tamer and more submissive. Beyoncé countered that assumption, asserting her emotions as legitimate Similarities to Sasha Fierce and demanding respect (“Bow down bitches” from *Flawless). She no longer feels the Yoncé shares some clear similarities with Sasha Fierce, another that pseud- need to use an alter ego to “protect [her] true self” because she is confident in herself onym that Beyoncé introduced in 2008 with her album I Am...Sasha Fierce. Sasha and her sexual desires, dismissing the “culture of silence” by black women on the issue Fierce was an alter ego that BeYoncé created while performing Crazy in Love. Be- of their sexuality (Bhavnani 383) . This leaves some room to wonder if Beyoncé’s original yoncé stated in 2008 that “Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, idea for Sasha Fierce was closer to Yoncé but was changed to appeal to a broader base in more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and 2008. In addition, Yoncé was released through an album that had no hype or marketing when I’m onstage.” Sasha is an “aggressive, sensual alter ego” that allowed Beyoncé blitz behind it, allowing Beyoncé’s original idea for Yoncé to stay in the album.


BOW DOWN


REFERENCES

Arenofsky, Janice. Beyoncé Knowles: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2009. Print. Battan, Carrie. “Beyoncé.” Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media Inc, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. <http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18821-beyonce-beyonce/>. Bhavnani, Kum-Kum, comp. Feminism and “Race.” New York City: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print. Blacklow, Jeremy. “Beyonce Calls Herself ‘A Modern-Day Feminist’” Yahoo Celebrity. Yahoo, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Dockterman, Eliana. “Flawless: 5 Lessons in Modern Feminism From Beyoncé.” Time. Time Magazine, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. <http://time.com/1851/flawless-5-lessons-in-modern-feminism-from-beyonce/>. Knowles, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, A. “Big Boi” Patton, and Sean Paul. Dangerously in Love. Sony Music Entertainment, 2003. CD. Knowles, Beyoncé, Bun B, Rich Harrison, Jay Z, Slim Thug, and Swizz Beatz. B’day. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, 2006. CD. Knowles, Beyoncé. I Am ... Sasha Fierce. Sony BMG, 2008. CD. Rosenberg, Alyssa. “At the Grammys, Beyoncé and Jay-Z Made the Case for Marriage That Conservatives Can’t.” Think Progress. N.p., 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. <http:// thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/01/27/3206571/beyonce-jay-grammys-drunk-love/>. “Self Titled” Part 1. The Visual Album. Dir. Beyoncé Knowles. YouTube. YouTube LLC, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcN6Ke2V-rQ>.


#SURFBOARD PRODUCED BY

JONATHAN CORRIVEAU. BENJAMIN DUNBAR. SARA FOGARTY. ERIC HOLLAND. SAMANTHA ISAACS. MIRANDA LUNDBERG. NIDHI MADHAVAIYA. MINA NAYERI.


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