Did Beyoncé appropriate LGBT culture?

[nATAH 46,400]

this is as bad as people dragging gaga here for being a good enough ally when she's done the absolute most

[ActualPatient 1,448]

I really cringe at the mental gymnastics some people go through to declare something as 'appropriation'...

Why is Beyonce, or any ally artist for that matter, required to have queer themes in all of their creative output? Even Gaga, who identifies as part of LGBTQ, doesn't do that.

[ActualPatient 1,448]

55 minutes ago, NATAH said:

this is as bad as people dragging gaga here for being a good enough ally when she's done the absolute most

and she's LGBT herself, with no reason for us to declare otherwise

[NCgaga 4,319]

Culture should be shared. 
 

With that being said, I don’t consider what Beyonce did, is “cultural appropriation”. A lot of gay culture comes from the appreciation of all things feminine, which circles back to women anyway and even straight designers anyway. Ball room, Vogue, and house are gay culture, but also, more specifically, Black queer culture- Beyonce is in the entertainment industry which comprises of a lot of Gay people, so her paying homage to the lgbtq is completely appropriate, IMO. 
 

What I don’t like, is the credit Beyonce gets for trends. After all, It was Gaga who put house music in Chromatica, several years before Renaissance was released. Gaga also experimented with Country and Americana on Joanne- wearing Fringe and Cowboy hats, long before Beyonce decided to have her country Era. And to be completely Honest, Madonna experimented with early House and Vogue music in 1990, and was the first Major pop star to do so. Madonna also had her Country-influenced era during her “Music” album era, where cowboy hats, fringe, and experimenting other country influenced pop on “Don’t tell me” in the year 2000. 

 

[NichuuB 43,788]

Yes, and we live for this!

[Future Lovers 6,676]

5 hours ago, Bronco said:

Where as acts like Madonna & P!nk have been using dates in America to actively promote LGBT+ charities, donate books in defiance of bans etc - I don't recall Beyonce doing similar, and I can't find anything on google with a quick search. 

There were queer people all over her show. 

Before the show began, the Progress Pride flag was displayed prominently on the massive LED screen. 

The show featured narration from a prominent LGBTQ+ ballroom figure. 

The concert film featured an ENTIRE segment dedicated entirely to the Queer culture and artists that she turned to for education and inspiration when making the album and designing the show. This segment included allowing the queer creators to tell their story, speak about the homophobia they faced, and explain why their art is such a beautiful defense against the hatred they were forced to endure. 

The show and album itself are tributes to her gay uncle who introduced her not only to the culture, but helped her get her career off the ground. There is an entire segment in the film devoted to this as well as his photograph and impact being displayed on the screen during the show itself.

She has promoted and platform the community from the very first note of this era. 

[Future Lovers 6,676]

4 hours ago, Mr Oak said:

This got me thinking. Can a cis black woman reclaim the music that the queer Black scene evolved, when they were being shunned away even from the Black community? A double exclusion as queer and Black. Can straight Beyonce reclaim that? Did she overtly pay tribute to this music and those before her or is this an assumption based on her "trilogy"?

I am not a fan so I have no idea if she went openly about her paying tribute to the queer Black ballroom scene.

Firstly, yes she was incredibly open with what she was paying tribute to and why. See my post above. 

But secondly...yes she can help to reclaim because she isn't just doing it herself. She has collaborated with the black queer artists of this scene every step of the way be it on the album itself or in the tour. She is not claiming this for her own, she is simply using her star power and celebrity to spread the message of where these things came from and letting it be made clear that it's inherently black no matter what people want to believe. 

Her uncle whom she has spoken at length about over the years was a black queer man. He was one of the most supportive people in her life, he even made costumes for her when she was younger. She didn't just randomly pick up and decide to do this. He had exposed it to her at an early age. She has been a witness to the queer culture her entire life, especially the black queer culture as well as the struggles that came with it. 

She's helped do what the community itself could not because they were not prevalent enough in pop culture enough to do so: spread the message of what this all means and where it originated. And that will be what she does in the next two acts as well. 

[Didymus 34,379]

5 hours ago, Gaga2645 said:

You also can’t appropriate “LGBT culture” unless it’s rooted in Black and Brown culture and you are non-black/Latino

That strikes me as wildly untrue.

[compassionhills 94]

i dont think so. renaissance act 1 was a homage to her gay uncle who helped design a lot of her costumes in the early days of her career, and he was alive and present for ballroom culture etc. the point of renaissance is reclaiming music that black people created which is why she is now doing country

[dberrin 895]

22 hours ago, Reject False Icons said:

But hasn’t she been in the LGBT culture for decades, her public and her influences, her team, her dancers, her aesthetics haven’t all of these been in the circles of LGBT people since almost her beginning

I remember there was a controversy around 2003 where some magazine claimed she was homophobic but she clarified it and everyone moved on 

Not really, she used to only have female dancers until a few years ago. 
although I was more shocked that she did a show in Dubai.

i love Beyonce she is an amazing performer, she has taken multiple engagement in the past 10 years. Starting with feminism back in 2010, racial inequalities and black queer community with Renaissance. I have no idea if she is doing it for the money or no. And I actually realized that I don’t care, she just has an incredible cultural impact and I do prefer this rather than basic love songs. Also she seems genuinely kind whenever she talks

[Ziggy 11,356]

I don’t see it that way, personally. Because during the era she went DEEP to platform and raise up icons of the culture historically and present day. I think if she hadn’t done that then there’d be more merit to it but I think as is it’s fine. As for the “hard pivot”, is it? She was in cowboy garb through so much of Renaissance, for one, but more importantly, I think the intention of the whole era needs to be in mind. Renaissance isn’t an era in a silo, it speaks in conversation with the other two albums to come. It’s a 3 act story being told of reclamation! I think if they were 3 eras in isolation it might be different. But in the context of her intentions as an artist, I think what she’s doing, more or less, is showing immense appreciation for the Black musical legacy which is inclusive of not exclusively about Black queer dance music  

[Ziggy 11,356]

12 minutes ago, dberrin said:

Not really, she used to only have female dancers until a few years ago. 
although I was more shocked that she did a show in Dubai.

i love Beyonce she is an amazing performer, she has taken multiple engagement in the past 10 years. Starting with feminism back in 2010, racial inequalities and black queer community with Renaissance. I have no idea if she is doing it for the money or no. And I actually realized that I don’t care, she just has an incredible cultural impact and I do prefer this rather than basic love songs. Also she seems genuinely kind whenever she talks

See that’s the thing for me, too. It could be selfish of her and obviously she is getting money off of this but on a larger cultural scale, her paying this close attention to marginalized groups or stories not often told does legitimately give back. It does make a difference 

[Ziggy 11,356]

17 hours ago, NCgaga said:

Culture should be shared. 
 

With that being said, I don’t consider what Beyonce did, is “cultural appropriation”. A lot of gay culture comes from the appreciation of all things feminine, which circles back to women anyway and even straight designers anyway. Ball room, Vogue, and house are gay culture, but also, more specifically, Black queer culture- Beyonce is in the entertainment industry which comprises of a lot of Gay people, so her paying homage to the lgbtq is completely appropriate, IMO. 
 

What I don’t like, is the credit Beyonce gets for trends. After all, It was Gaga who put house music in Chromatica, several years before Renaissance was released. Gaga also experimented with Country and Americana on Joanne- wearing Fringe and Cowboy hats, long before Beyonce decided to have her country Era. And to be completely Honest, Madonna experimented with early House and Vogue music in 1990, and was the first Major pop star to do so. Madonna also had her Country-influenced era during her “Music” album era, where cowboy hats, fringe, and experimenting other country influenced pop on “Don’t tell me” in the year 2000. 

 

Eh dua lipa did house before Gaga did if we wanna go there and Madonna did countryish before Gaga. Nothing is new lol I think beyonce is getting credit, not because of the music, but bc of how she’s uplifting the community and conversations around it—something chromatica just didn’t do. No shade but nowhere was Gaga talking about ballroom or the origins of house. She doesn’t have to. It wasn’t the point of chromatica, but it was the point of Renaissance and is the point of this project. It’s about more than just the music whereas chromatica was mostly about the music. I think Beyoncé has gotten the credit she’s been due for for Renaissance and nothing more imo

[chathonnete 649]

I believe supporting a minority also means explicitly supporting it with non capitalistic related actions. We'll see with the next elections if Beyonce is truly a supporter of the black LGBT culture, as Donal Trump is an enemy to that culture. In my opinion if she doesn't say anything against him, or make any statement to support someone against him, it means she only takes the opportunistic side of the support. Because currently the best influencial pop stars could do for the LGBT culture in America and worldwide is to protect us from conservatives.