Beyonce's Lemonade

Sunday was the first time that I had seen the whole of Lemonade and while I was watching it, I didn’t pick up on some of the subtle feminist moments, such as her destroying of phallic symbols in Hold Up. I did however notice the very obvious reappropriation of the plantation house, and the woman power in Formation. To me, Beyonce has always been a feminist icon. Not in the way that she preaches feminism, but in the way that she is a very powerful, successful, strong woman.

I learned about Freud’s Madonna/whore complex for the first time this week on Monday night. I think that the idea of it is very strange but it’s really obvious how even self proclaimed feminists conform to the ideal. I’ve heard a lot of girls around me refer to other girls as sluts or as prudes but no woman is one or the other, women are more than their body and what they choose to do with it. I loved how in Lemonade, Beyonce very clearly was both, showing how she can be a doting mother to her children, while also wearing what she choses and performing how she wants.

I think Beyonce did a great job of reappropriating things that have oppressed her throughout her life. Dr. Nardone mentioned the quote by Audre Lorde “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Meaning that you can’t change a culture that is oppressive by continuing to participate in the things that oppress you (example: the n word or the b word). I agree to a point but I also think that oppressors get power from fear, and if those who are oppressed show less fear, it takes some of the power away. Beyonce portrayed herself as a mistress in a plantation house, an angry black woman and other stereotypes used to oppress her as a black woman. By taking back the things that oppressed her, she takes power away from those who tell her she has to be a certain way, and I think that’s the best thing a feminist icon can do.