Beyonce

[Scarlet Witch 1,642]

Shame at y'all basic b---hes calling King Bey 'basic'.

[Deacon 5]

She looks gorgeous and it's a sweet, simple, and uplifting video. No need for much else.

[RAMROD 109,586]

The TMZ guy doing cameo  

[StrawberryBlond 14,862]

One of the tracks on Beyonce's new album that people are buzzing about is ***Flawless, a song about feminism and women finding their confidence. It starts off with a soundbite from Star Search, the show that Beyonce's first group, Girls Tyme, made their debut. It follows up with the first half of Beyonce's leaked track, Bow Down/I Been On. It then has snippets of a feminist speech made by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie over a beat. Then Beyonce begins her song about being flawless. Finally, we get another soundbite from Star Search which revealed that Girls Tyme lost the contest (suggesting that it was the wrong choice as they went on to have success as Destiny's Child and the group who won disappeared into obscurity).

 

Not only was the track a fan favourite, it was lauded by critics. It was called "insightful" and "pro-woman without being anti-man." But amidst all this, there was one critic who dared to be different - Catherine Traywick of Foreign Policy magazine was critical of the song. She said: "Beyonce is just full of surprises. In the past 24 hours, she dropped an album, joined Weibo, and  to our particular delight  paid tribute to one of Foreign Policy's 2013 Global Thinkers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (...) On a track called 'Flawless', Beyonce samples Adichie's April 2013 Ted Talk, which is a thoughtful, amusing examination of subtle s-xism in everyday life. Beyonce bookends Adichie's words with distinctly less thoughtful lyrics of her own: She shallowly trumpets material wealth and physical beauty and, working in a few lines from her spring single, advises others to 'Bow down, b*****s." She later adds: "Beyonce gives us a heavily-edited, watered-down version of Adichie's speech that aligns with the singer's ba--l brand of beginner feminism: She reduces Adichie's powerful message to an overly simplistic, inoffensive pro-girl anthem that does little to challenge trenchant gender ideals."

 

I have to say, I thoroughly agree with her and I'm relieved to find that I'm not the only one who feels this way because until now, I hadn't heard one complaint about the song. Now, the thing is, I actually like the song. There's flaws (especially that inclusion of Bow Down which infuriates me as I hated that track) which mean I cannot give it a perfect score, but I think it's one of the better songs on the album. But it's more of a fun, guilty pleasure song. It's certainly not something that should be praised as a feminist anthem no more than Run The World (Girls) was. I just listened to Chimamanda's full speech and it was wonderful. What struck me, though, was how much it didn't sound like what Beyonce was singing about, even though the song had snippets from the speech. Also, the phrase "bow down b*****s" went against everything that Chimamanda's speech was about. It was this phrase from Bow Down that caused the most controversy when it leaked and was the driving factor behind why the track got such negative reception. Until now, Beyonce had always been pro-woman and encouraged her female fans to be strong, independent and don't put up with any s**t from a man. It sometimes meant she sounded anti-man at times, but her pro-woman message was at least consistent. But this track was a slap in the face for everyone who had been so inspired by Beyonce's message. Now she was telling women to treat her like a queen and was taking her fans for granted, even calling them names. That snippet had no purpose being on Flawless as it made no sense - one minute, she was telling women to bow down to her, the next she's telling them that they're flawless and they should tell everyone else they're flawless. It seems such a shame that Chimamanda's groundbreaking speech was nullified by Beyonce's run of the mill feminism victory song that doesn't help the cause at all. Ultimately, ***Flawless mixes two brands of feminism that do not work together - a type of feminism which focuses on equal rights and a type of feminism that focuses on women being exalted over men and being overs-xualised and egocentric.

Oh, and it was very bitter to end it all on Girls Tyme losing the contest to some unknown group. It suggested the whole "irrelevant = talentless" BS, didn't take into account the quality of the two bands and seemed an unfair comparison as almost all the members of Girls Tyme were gone by the time they reinvented themselves as Destiny's Child, so it wasn't like Girls Tyme technically went on to succeed.

 

http://youtu.be/Tc8hyBfoBZg

 

So, what do you think? Is ***Flawless just a harmless feminist bop or is it hurting feminism's image?

[No Angel 128]

Beyoncé [to me at least] is a very good role model for young women. I guess some may not relate to her, but to say she isn't a feminist just isn't fair. I read somewhere where someone went as far to call Miley a 'Feminist Role Model,' yet labeled Beyoncé an Anti-Feminist. 

 

Just not fair to Bey. I think she is a good female role model and feminist in general. But when she says "Bow Down Bitches," why do people automatically think she's referring to women? I know she says "I knew when you were little girls...", but still. A feminist doesn't have the right to tell another feminist that she isn't a feminist simply because they don't share the same values in life.

 

This may be a touchy subject, but still.. she should be able to call herself one without being jabbed with allegations that she isn't one. If Miley can be one without and heckling and Beyoncé cannot, then.. 

[Essence 235]

It bothers me a little, but I think it's figurative for all women to tell the rest of the world to bow down to them, not just Beyonce herself.

The way it's executed is a little annoying though.

[Asia 269]

The only thing that bothers me is the *** before Flawless

 

[Chromatica 7,039]

I think it's just for empowerment purposes and it's harmlessly giving people confidence.

Plus Bow Down is flawless() and so you have become less credible to me than The Sun

Also let's reopen the partition thread

BEYONCEHOURLY.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fish 6,123]

this totally true. totally. Anyone with basic knowledge on feminism as a political and historical force in Modern times can call out the contradictions and weaknesses in bey's work... But she surely is not the only one in pop music...

[albert 108]

I don't think your post makes that much sense tbh. Why can't she tell people they're flawless but also tell them to respect her and "bow down b---hes"? I don't see why those have to be mutually exclusive.

[HANZ 4,380]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

omg

[No Angel 128]

The only thing that bothers me is the *** before Flawless

 

 

Apparently the "***" is because in the intro and outro of the track, the girls received Three stars on Star Search and lost to a rock band that received four stars. Lol.

[Asia 269]

Apparently the "***" is because in the intro and outro of the track, the girls received Three stars on Star Search and lost to a rock band that received four stars. Lol.

 

hmmm so artsy

 

[albert 108]

hmmm so artsy

 

when will Gaga  :mistlederp:

[DrewStevens 5,249]

It's just the basic "trap" song on the album. It barely has a meaning.