Savanna Wingard
Money and Ucker
WMS 2000-92
13 March 2015
Beyoncé is one of many celebrities who have joined the
feminist movement. She mainly expresses her feminist ideas and beliefs through
her music, but sometimes she expresses it in her performances or in interviews.
Examples of her feminist music include songs such as “Flawless,” “Run the World
(Girls),” “Listen,” “Me, myself, and I,” and “Diva.” “Flawless” is definitely
the most feminist of her songs. In the middle of the song, Beyoncé quotes
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from her 2013 TEDx Talk titled, “We Should All Be
Feminists.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “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. Now marriage can be a source of joy, and love, and
mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don't
teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors; not for
jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can 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.” To me, this quote is very powerful. It opened
my eyes a little more and made me think, “Oh wow. She’s right.” I also think
that the definition of feminism is a great thing to have put in there. It reminds
people what a feminist actually is. Sure, there are radicals, or people who are
very hardcore feminists, but with this definition, I think it makes people
realize that, in a way, many people are feminists, and without this definition,
they would have never thought so. While Beyoncé is not a radical or hardcore feminist
(or so it seems), she does make anywhere from subtle to bold, hard to miss
statements in some of her performances. In the 2013 Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé
performed with an all-female band and all-female dancers. She even performed
with the other two members of Destiny’s Child, the group with which she got her
start in the music industry. I actually did not notice the all-female casting
until it was pointed out to me in, “Beyoncé: Feminist Icon?” by Sophie Weiner.
After reading about it, I logged onto YouTube, where I rewatched the halftime
show. Weiner was right: I did not spot one male in the show. An example of when
she can be up in your face about it is during her performance in the 2014 Video
Music Awards (VMAs), when “FEMINIST” popped up on the display behind her. It
took her a while to actually call herself a feminist, but when she did, as she
told The Daily Mail, it was not
something that she “consciously decided to be.” I think we all are at least
slightly feminists. “Feminist: the person who believes in the social,
political, and economic equality of the sexes.”
Duca, Lauren. “Beyonce Gave You The Definition
Of Feminism, Now Use It.” The Huffington
Post. 25 August 2014. Web. 13 March 2015.
Hare, Breeanna. “Beyonce opens up on
feminism, fame and marriage.” CNN. 12
December 2014. Web. 13 March 2015.
Here is Beyonce's amazing Super Bowl performance.
Also, I found this, and wanted to share it since it went along with the theme of this post.
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