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Beyonce Sells: Song Analysis

Decent Essays

On December 13th, 2013, Beyoncé Knowles dropped her self-titled visual album. It included 14 new songs and 17 music videos. No one was expecting it, as she had no prior press. Within the first 17 days of its release, the album had sold 1.3 million copies. Upon listening to her album, it is no doubt that Beyoncé is a visionary. The music videos were aesthetically pleasing and incredibly story-based. Her voice was on point. But that was all expected; Beyoncé has been entertaining audiences since the late 1990’s and has racked up 17 Grammy awards. However, this album was different. Of course it still had the same sledgehammering dance beats and spunky attitude that we all expect from Bey, but this album was different than her others. Beyoncé’s …show more content…

Beyoncé owns her feminism by talking about one of the biggest taboo topics for women: sex. She argues that sexual pleasure should be a two way street. In her song “Blow”, she uses many metaphors for oral sex. Male rappers often rap about oral sex (with them being on the receiving end) in very degrading ways towards women. Finally, Beyoncé performs a song that lets women know that they should be getting theirs too. This addresses the double standards we see in society. Men can have lots of sex and be seen as “studs”. If a woman has the same amount of sex, she’s a “slut”. Beyoncé wants to level the playing field for the sexes, thus making her an advocate for women’s sexual rights. In addition to her message about women’s sexual pleasure being as important as men’s, Beyoncé interestingly argues that pleasing and wanting to be sexy for men is feminist. In her song “Partition”, Beyoncé sings “I just wanna be the girl you like” and other lyrics referring to submission during sex. In the early stages of the feminist movement, women believed solely that it was not feminist to be a housewife, be passive with men, or serve any men who expected you to do so. I’m sure the lyrics “Driver roll up the partition please/I don’t want you seeing ‘yoncé on her knees” would make Mary Wollstonecraft roll over in her grave. However, it is possible to be an independent woman who also wants to be desirable towards men. Beyoncé also adds dialogue (in …show more content…

She is using this platform to show girls that it’s okay to be independent, girly, tomboy, sexy, sassy, a woman. Pop culture is arguably an important part of our everyday lives, whether you choose to participate in it or not. The mere process of combining feminism with pop culture is revolutionary! Since feminism can be often a taboo topic, it is normally not talked about openly. The fact that Beyoncé is spreading the word of feminism to pop culture audiences (which is most of the world) is a tremendous step forward towards gender equality. It is also so important that Beyoncé is a proud, black female being successful in the public eye. The power of representation for females, specifically black women, gives us a positive outlook and portrayal of women around the world, in contrast to societies stereotypes for

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