A fellow blogger named Soltrane has written up a post on how Beyonce is pushing a neocon 1950s housewife agenda via her hetero-normative traditionalist lyrics. The writing is fab but the thoughts are not. Says Soltrane:
Beyonce is like the feds when it comes to promoting a conservative social agenda. She alone is policing social behavior like bill o’reilly is paying her do it. The whole time I’m getting down to her jams I’m just like “dang b! thats jacked up!” The messages in her songs almost always encourage patriarchy, female subservience, and heteronormativity like a mug! –pretty much conformity overall (including gender conformity) to the socially conservative status quo.
Says Ande: This is what happens when you allow people to major in “cultural studies”. Everything becomes an artifact that requires some weighty analysis. Sigh. Deconstructing Beyonce is like philosophizing about the Hills. Both are functionally retarded. Don’t get me wrong, Beyonce can sing and dance like nobody’s business - but stringing together coherent sentences to form original thoughts and worldly observations is not really her thing. Nor should it be. Beyonce doesn’t think twice about the words some overpaid song writer is putting in front of her mic. She sings them and looks pretty while doing it. Had she Been around in 1997, Beyonce would not have been added to the Lilith Fair line up. And that’s fine.
When we’re drunk at the ghey (2k8 spelling) club and a Beyonce song comes on, the last thing we want to do is dissect her words. We just want to get our jam on. And sometimes, that’s perfectly okay. And also, why the fuck not slap a ring on that shit!? Lord knows we gave up our adolescent asses to many a gentleman suitor without demanding the type of commitment or respect we deserved or wanted. While we aren’t pushing marriage or something serious, we’d rather ask a guy to slap a ring on it then be all “Oh hey, No that’s cool, you don’t need to call me back. No strings attached and all, right? But I’ll see you tomorrow night, right? RIGHT?! HELLO?!?!”
As for an impressionable thirteen year old girl listening with great admiration to her icon spouting about “put a ring on it”, we were once a thirteen year old girl and can pretty much guarantee those thirteen year olds are spending more time picking food out of their braces and dousing their faces in Sea Breeze than deconstructed Beyonce lyrics.
As for Jordin Sparks and her whole non-fucking promise ring:( reference point! Jordan seyz: “It’s not bad to wear a promise ring ‘cuz not everybody, guy or a girl, wants to be a slut, OK?”) I can’t wait till Obama is president and the Christian extremists crawl back to their mega churches and are not given a voice to spew their dogmatic propaganda all over the rest of us non-believing, un-Americans. Singing about being a wife is okay. Preaching to a mainstream audience composed of people from all different religious affiliations about saving it for Jesus or whatever is not. Ever. OK??
“Don’t get me wrong, Beyonce can sing and dance like nobody’s business - but stringing together coherent sentences to form original thoughts and worldly observations is not really her thing. Nor should it be. Beyonce doesn’t think twice about the words some overpaid song writer is putting in front of her mic. She sings them and looks pretty while doing it.”
Um…she got most of the songwriting credits for Destiny’s Child (especially their later stuff) and she writes most if not all of her solo stuff.
“I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly. I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.” FTW.
You’ve really got to read Sasha Frere-Jones’ take on her lyrics, though. Key translation:
“Bootylicious”: If you are more experienced than your partner, make sure to be explicit about your needs and expectations. Direct questions will save time and decrease anxiety. (Comfortable jelly levels, for example, should be established early on in any relationship.)
Comfortable jelly levels FTW!
Wow, never in my days did I think I’d see two comments on one post that refer to winning jelly. That, friends, is the magic of Beyonce.
The jelly meme STARTS HERE.
I wouldn’t throw Beyonce into the functionally retarded category. Maybe that’s where we differ.
“When we’re drunk at the ghey (2k8 spelling) club and a Beyonce song comes on, the last thing we want to do is dissect her words. We just want to get our jam on. And sometimes, that’s perfectly okay.”
You’re right, it is.. It seems as though you’ve chosen the wrong person to accuse of being an uptight and overzealous “cultural studies” major who wants to deconstruct BET Uncut. I’m not one of those people standing still at the club when Lil Wayne comes on nor am i petitioning to get ‘death music’ off the radio. however, i don’t see the big problem with being like ‘yo, that’s messed up’. especially considering that young girls AND boys are listening to AND internalizing these messages that make it seem like marriage will solve all their worries, or that the way to support your man is to be his subservient concubine. It seems like your argument is that it’s essentially OK (or that it has no bearing). which I disagree with.
“Lord knows we gave up our adolescent asses to many a gentleman suitor without demanding the type of commitment or respect we deserved or wanted. While we aren’t pushing marriage or something serious, we’d rather ask a guy to slap a ring on it then be all “Oh hey, No that’s cool, you don’t need to call me back. No strings attached and all, right? But I’ll see you tomorrow night, right? RIGHT?! HELLO?!?!””
I hope that you do not ACTUALLY consider that the only alternative to slapping a ring on “it”.
“Singing about being a wife is okay. Preaching to a mainstream audience composed of people from all different religious affiliations about saving it for Jesus or whatever is not.”
How is preaching to a mainstream audience from ‘all different religious affiliations’ about religion any different from preaching to the same people–who not only have different gender identities and sexual habits, but who also do not necessarily have the option of “being a wife”–about the magic of marriage? I don’t see the difference. And I think it’s okay for both to exist. But not without some critical analysis and acknowledgment that people have different lived experiences (that don’t include the neoconservative ideals of beyonce, dick cheney, and friends).
Says Ande: This is what happens when you allow people to major in “cultural studies”. Everything becomes an artifact that requires some weighty analysis. Sigh. Deconstructing Beyonce is like philosophizing about the Hills.
As my friend Taja so nicely put it, “So all pop culture is off-limits?” You’re suggesting that everything without the deliberate aim of engaging us in what? an “intellectual” or “academic” conversation is unworthy of dissecting.
The biggest frustration I have with this is that it undermines all of us who consider ourselves critical thinkers and activists. As people who want change to make world more livable, we have to take it upon ourselves to really get into widespread images and ideas presented to us in the media, as well as those that are misrepresented, underrepresented or downright ignored.
Why are we having this conversation? Why not? It doesn’t detract from her songs’ dance-ability, from her sexiness, whatever it is that you may like about her. It’s not about taking away from all that she has to offer. It’s about adding something more, pushing the limit to include and empower individuals, to acknowledge and appreciate a number of kinds of expression and ideas. Beyonce, as pop music’s number one gal, has a lot of power and influence. She and all the people who work to put “Beyonce” the act, the beauty line, the clothing line, etc. together could use that very influence to do much different things (although they would meet resistance). C’mon, the ideas that her team presents are nothing that challenges any kind of hegemonic, conservative ideology. It reinforces all the same old shit, the same systems that oppress people on the daily.
It’s important to deconstruct Beyonce (and she’s but one example) to understand what it is we’re working with, what’s valued in our society, what sells, and more significantly what we can do about it.
I feel you (ande). Sometimes, you do just bob your head along without really paying attention to the lyrics. That’s your jam, after all! LOL! But I think that to someone who has listened to a song at least 50 times (and this isn’t counting hearing it on the radio), is a stan. And stans will stop and pay attention and try to decipher what a singer is really saying. So everyone has the potetnial to be a cultural critic, regardless of wheter or not they have taken cultural studies. It’s the great thing about cultural studies, anyone can become a cultural critic when they take the time to stop and reflect upon different symbols, icons, etc in their culture.
Peace.