After the release of Beyonce's new "Lemonade," there has been plenty of discussion over the meaning of the album and the representations within that. Azealia Banks, rapper, tweated out after the HBO special that "This heartbroken black female narrative you keep trying to push is the Antithesis of what feminism is," as well as others. Though I do feel that conversations about feminism, what it is and isn't, it something that is important to discuss in the public sphere (like what we talked about in class, how social media allows the non elite to set the agenda as far as what is talked about), I think that Azealia misses some of the complexity in "Lemonade" and what feminism is in general. "Lemonade," though driven by the story line of what it is like to be cheated on, actually exclusively explores Beyonce's personal journey to self love and self healing through her homosocial relationships with women (i.e. how most of the characters in her video are black women, the spoken word between songs are exclusively about the woman experience, including birth and menstration, and the actual title "Lemonade" coming from inspiration from her grandmother and her grandmothers strength). I think there is something to be said for just expressing what you feel, and I do think that a disturbance in a marriage this great can be rattling, but to say that this album doesn't in any way resemble feminism is missing the point. Living in patriarchy means that sometimes artists need to talk about it, but the way that Beyonce resolves her broken heart is one that is feminist, she didn't focus on getting his attention again, she figured her life out through her relationships with other women. Sounds pretty feminist to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment