Dramacow Kevin Allred - Professor of Beyoncé Studies (no, seriously), arrested for threats to kill Trump voters.

[Cato]

So the very first assigned reading is the biography of a convicted cop killer. Makes sense.

I hadn't checked this thread in a long time, popped in and saw you reference him having "assigned readings" and was worried that some post-secondary institution actually hired this maniac to teach again. Reviewed and saw this was in reference to some bullshit website he created himself and nobody uses. That was a relief.

 

[Kosher Dill]

okay, this was pathetic of me and i hate that i gave this man 5 bucks but curiosity got the best of me and i signed up at Politicizing Beyonce.

not. a. single. soul. has commented in the forums aside from Kevin himself:

It might appear that "monthly syllabus entries" looks active, but that's only because he posts the "assignment" and then posts youtube videos after in separate posts.

Spoiler: Syllabus entry example

To start this party right, we’re gonna discuss “Schoolin’ Life.” An oldie (kinda), but a great and really important track (in Beyoncé’s career trajectory) with lots of associations packed in. Even just the the title points towards deeper analysis, it’s a great introductory jumping off point.

Context (though I’m sure many of you know): “Schoolin’ Life” is a bonus track from the deluxe version of Beyoncé’s fourth album,4, released on June 24, 2011. There’s no formal video for this song, but I’m including YouTube links to both the audio and a live condensed version of the song from Beyoncé’s Live In Atlantic City concert special, packaged as a bonus DVD with the Life Is But A Dream release (November 22, 2013).

Readings for “Schoolin’ Life:”

• Assata Shakur — Assata: An Autobiography (ch. 12)
• Audre Lorde — “Poetry is Not a Luxury”

Both are available through the resources tab here — Shakur’s full autobiography and Lorde’s essay as part of her collection Sister Outsider which is available in full; you can also find Lorde’s stand-alone essay here (though the listed 1985 is not its correct publication year).

Discussion:

This month’s theme is “education” broadly and the way it gets constructed by those in power. What counts as correct education? Whose knowledge counts as important, necessary, worthwhile? Why? How can we challenge those notions? How does Beyoncé? Why do you think Beyoncé includes the various pieces of information she includes in the lyrics?

Additional suggested reading:

• Nell Irvin Painter — Sojourner Truth: A LIfe, A Symbol
• Sojourner Truth (as told to Olive Gilbert) — The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
• Florynce “Flo” Kennedy — Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times
• bell hooks — Teaching To Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

The above books have a lot to say about education, politics, activism, and power in different ways. Truth and Kennedy were activists with differing levels of formal education; while hooks and Painter are educators themselves.

Since you went to all the trouble of frittering away your money, I went to the trouble of following this lesson.
Let's break it down in more detail. First you're supposed to watch this Beyonce song about how she's a freak between the sheets:

Spoiler: Lyrics

This is for them twenty somethings
Time really moves fast, you were just sixteen
This is for them thirty somethings
That didn't turn out exactly how your mom and dad wanted you to be
This is for them forty somethings
Well raise up your glass and laugh like a motherfucker
This is for them fifty somethings
Hell, you're halfway there, baby take it to the head

Mom and dad tried to hide the world
Said, the world is just too big for a little girl
Eyes wide open, can't you see
I had my first heels by the age of thirteen
Mom and dad tried to hide the boys
I swear that just made them want me more
At fourteen they asked me what I wanna be,
I said "Baby twenty one, so I'd get me a drink."

CHORUS:
I'm not a teacher, babe, but
I can teach you something
Not a preacher, but
We can pray if you wanna
Ain't a doctor, but
I can make you feel better
But I'm great at writing physical love letters
I'm a freak, all day, all night ooh
Hot, top, flight, boy out of sight
And I'm crazy, all day, all night
Who needs a degree when you're schoolin' life?

Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh
Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh (schoolin' life)
Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh
Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh (schoolin' life)

This is for them pretty somethings
Living in a fast lane, see you when you crash babe
This is for them sexy somethings
That body ain't gon' always get ya out of everything
This is for them bitter somethings
Stop living in regret, baby, it's not over yet
And this is for them trippin' somethings
That's high on life, baby, put me on your flight

(CHORUS)

You know it costs to be the boss
One day you'll run the town
For now make your life what you decide
Baby, party 'til the fire marshals shut this sucker down

(CHORUS)

There's not a real way to live this
For real
Just remember stay relentless oh yeah, oh yeah
Don't stop running until it's finished, yeah yeah yeah
It's up to you, the rest is unwritten
Yeah yeah yeah

Then, you're supposed to read chapter 12 of this book:
https://ia801008.us.archive.org/19/items/Assata/assata shakur an biography.pdf
By a cop-killer and member of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.
In which she describes going to Manhattan Community College. It starts off with some talk about the black student organizations she encountered, then goes off on a digression about the Afro hairstyle, then another longer digression about the American Civil War and how Abraham Lincoln was "no friend of the blacks". Long story short, most of what she finds worth relating about her "schoolin' life" is the black-militant/revolutionary organizations she fell in with.
Funniest part, on the topic of schoolin':

Notice her use of "creative spelling" - she seldom capitalizes "I" or any entity she disrespects, such as "amerika" or "new jersey". And of course, she was tried for her crimes in a "kourtroom"
Next we have Audre Lorde's "Poetry Is Not a Luxury", in which she says more or less that poetry is the language of feelings, hopes, and dreams, not to mention resistance to The Man. Nothing particularly earthshaking in this one.

Now let's return to our discussion prompt from Kevin:
"What counts as correct education? Whose knowledge counts as important, necessary, worthwhile? Why? How can we challenge those notions? How does Beyoncé?"
Well, Beyonce apparently challenges these notions by "schoolin' life", which means partying with no regrets and blowing your mind in the sack. Shakur proposes Afrocentric, militant, and revolutionary teaching in opposition to what "The Man" was teaching in the 70s, and Lorde puts up feelings and poetry as an alternative to reasoning, which she sees as a dead end. So why did we read all this? What are we supposed to synthesize out of this mess? What is the common thread here?

Spoiler: Academic conclusion

:autism:

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Since you went to all the trouble of frittering away your money, I went to the trouble of following this lesson.
Let's break it down in more detail. First you're supposed to watch this Beyonce song about how she's a freak between the sheets:

Spoiler: Lyrics

This is for them twenty somethings
Time really moves fast, you were just sixteen
This is for them thirty somethings
That didn't turn out exactly how your mom and dad wanted you to be
This is for them forty somethings
Well raise up your glass and laugh like a motherfucker
This is for them fifty somethings
Hell, you're halfway there, baby take it to the head

Mom and dad tried to hide the world
Said, the world is just too big for a little girl
Eyes wide open, can't you see
I had my first heels by the age of thirteen
Mom and dad tried to hide the boys
I swear that just made them want me more
At fourteen they asked me what I wanna be,
I said "Baby twenty one, so I'd get me a drink."

CHORUS:
I'm not a teacher, babe, but
I can teach you something
Not a preacher, but
We can pray if you wanna
Ain't a doctor, but
I can make you feel better
But I'm great at writing physical love letters
I'm a freak, all day, all night ooh
Hot, top, flight, boy out of sight
And I'm crazy, all day, all night
Who needs a degree when you're schoolin' life?

Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh
Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh (schoolin' life)
Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh
Oh-ooh, oh-ooh
Ooh whoah oh oh oh (schoolin' life)

This is for them pretty somethings
Living in a fast lane, see you when you crash babe
This is for them sexy somethings
That body ain't gon' always get ya out of everything
This is for them bitter somethings
Stop living in regret, baby, it's not over yet
And this is for them trippin' somethings
That's high on life, baby, put me on your flight

(CHORUS)

You know it costs to be the boss
One day you'll run the town
For now make your life what you decide
Baby, party 'til the fire marshals shut this sucker down

(CHORUS)

There's not a real way to live this
For real
Just remember stay relentless oh yeah, oh yeah
Don't stop running until it's finished, yeah yeah yeah
It's up to you, the rest is unwritten
Yeah yeah yeah

Then, you're supposed to read chapter 12 of this book:
https://ia801008.us.archive.org/19/items/Assata/assata shakur an biography.pdf
By a cop-killer and member of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.
In which she describes going to Manhattan Community College. It starts off with some talk about the black student organizations she encountered, then goes off on a digression about the Afro hairstyle, then another longer digression about the American Civil War and how Abraham Lincoln was "no friend of the blacks". Long story short, most of what she finds worth relating about her "schoolin' life" is the black-militant/revolutionary organizations she fell in with.
Funniest part, on the topic of schoolin':
View attachment 415627

Notice her use of "creative spelling" - she seldom capitalizes "I" or any entity she disrespects, such as "amerika" or "new jersey". And of course, she was tried for her crimes in a "kourtroom"
Next we have Audre Lorde's "Poetry Is Not a Luxury", in which she says more or less that poetry is the language of feelings, hopes, and dreams, not to mention resistance to The Man. Nothing particularly earthshaking in this one.

Now let's return to our discussion prompt from Kevin:
"What counts as correct education? Whose knowledge counts as important, necessary, worthwhile? Why? How can we challenge those notions? How does Beyoncé?"
Well, Beyonce apparently challenges these notions by "schoolin' life", which means partying with no regrets and blowing your mind in the sack. Shakur proposes Afrocentric, militant, and revolutionary teaching in opposition to what "The Man" was teaching in the 70s, and Lorde puts up feelings and poetry as an alternative to reasoning, which she sees as a dead end. So why did we read all this? What are we supposed to synthesize out of this mess? What is the common thread here?

Spoiler: Academic conclusion

:autism:

Ugh. Because we all know formal education is oppressive and centres straight white males at the expense of women of colour and there's a magical place called The Street which will teach you everything you need to know.

"Hello there sir, I've been referred to you because I have a brain tumour."

"You've come to the right place. I've no medical qualifications but I did my neurosurgery residence at the University of Life. We'l have you tumour free in a jiffy."

"Oh. Er. If you say so. I say, what are you doing with that Makita cordless drill? Erm... Shouldn't you put me under first? And wh- AARGHGGGGGHHH NO NOT THE HOOVER TOOL BLGLBLGBBBVBCFHBCXRRRTGHHB."

 

[DrJonesHat]

The way he puts Beyonce on a pedestal is disturbing. At some point, she's going to do or say something that doesn't fit with the imaginary image he's created of her, and he's going to go nuclear. Now, she's probably safe, since she has a security team, but think about it. He's a white man indirectly telling a woman (a black woman at that) how to act. I thought the SJW crowd frowned upon that.

 

[Positron]

Kevvie is OFFENDED at the suggestion that niggers are feral animals.

Do it faggot.

So why didn't you spend 5 seconds in that mythical Liberal Arts class?

Hmm... then how come no one praises a gay white man like you?

 

[Kosher Dill]

He's getting freelance work via Twitter? Yeah right.

 

[Peace and Harmony]

So why didn't you spend 5 seconds in that mythical Liberal Arts class?

It continually baffles me that there are some people who honest-to-God think that the mainstream academic milieu is AGAINST leftism, let alone being pro-Trump. The sheer amount of delusional autism you need to have to believe this is staggering.

 

[Stock Image Photographer]

The way he puts Beyonce on a pedestal is disturbing. At some point, she's going to do or say something that doesn't fit with the imaginary image he's created of her, and he's going to go nuclear. Now, she's probably safe, since she has a security team, but think about it. He's a white man indirectly telling a woman (a black woman at that) how to act. I thought the SJW crowd frowned upon that.

I think it's more likely that he'll perform intellectual backflips to justif everything she does. If Beyonce released a statement tomorrow that said, "Trump is the greatest president this country has ever had", Kevin would scramble to find a way to square it with his ideology.

View attachment 415851

Don't tease me like this, Kevin.

 

[melissarendato]

Spoiler: Academic conclusion

:autism:

As I suspected, he just randomly picks the work of black women authors just on the basis of being black women and throws them at a wall, hoping something sticks. when there's actually no rhyme or reason or research involved. All in the name of lookin woke.

:autism:Audre Lorde is genuinely talented and does not belong with the likes of Bey and that terrorist woman, nor anywhere close to this man's "work":autism:

Anywho, here are more syllabus entries for posterity before I cancel my account with #PoliticizingBeyonce

Spoiler: On The Run

Song(s): “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” and “Part II (On The Run)” // On The Run Tour

Context: As Beyoncé readies her Coachella performance for April and reinvigorated rumors circulate about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s alleged joint album and another joint tour following 2014’s On The Run Tour (dates and pre-sales were released on Ticketmaster only to be taken down minutes later earlier this month), it only makes sense to look at some of Jay and Beyoncé’s joint work this month. Namely, two tracks from Jay-Z albums where Beyoncé is only a featured artist. However, none of the cultural and political work the two songs seek to do would be possible without Beyoncé. Her “featured” roll is an understatement, to be sure.

“’03 Bonnie & Clyde” is from Jay-Z’s 2002 album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, released while the two were dating. It also subsequently appeared on some of the international versions of Beyoncé’s 2003 debut album Dangerously In Love (though remained conspicuously absent from the American proper release). “Part II (On The Run)” appears on Jay-Z’s 2013 Magna Carta Holy Grail. By then, the two were married and parents to Blue Ivy. The two songs serve as the two main texts in a fictitious outlaw story used as metaphor for the complete 2014 On The Run Tour.

Readings:

• • Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde
  • Alice Walker — Meridian

The Lorde/Baldwin conversation is available at the link above and Walker’s novel should available anywhere books are sold. (I couldn’t locate a PDF online.)

Discussion: Remember, The On The Run Tour begins with the caption “THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE” prominently displayed. Placing the actual intricacies of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s relationship aside (of which we don’t know as much as we think we do), what kinds of larger cultural critique does this assertion encourage of the audience? If these are not simply love songs to one another, funneled through an outlaw metaphor, but instead “not real life,” what do they stand for? What do they represent? For Beyoncé and Jay to be “outlaws,” who or what stands in for the “law?” And what does it mean for the audience to be rooting against the law/system in this narrative? What does the symbolism of a heterosexual black outlaw couple wreaking presumable havoc on a system that may not embrace or celebrate them stand in for? What kinds of gender, racial, and sexual dynamics and politics are present, alluded to, or possibly being challenged in the overall On The Run mythology?

Historically, what kinds of gender dynamics have existed in many social movements, particularly the Civil Rights and Black Power movements? Alice Walker’s Meridian is a fictional account of that time period and Lorde and Baldwin’s conversation adds queer inflections to what is still an ongoing fight for freedom. How is On The Run also a performative cinematic fight for freedom? How would you analyze the lyrics to either of these songs and/or the overarching narrative of On The Run through this more political lens?

Additional suggested reading:

• • Ella Baker — Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

Ella Baker was a prominent organizer during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and beyond, often overlooked in favor of famous men noted in history books. Ransby’s careful telling of Baker’s life and work re-centers Baker as a critical architect of the black freedom movement. How does a similar re-centering of Beyoncé through a political lens in the On The Run narrative replay, shift, or attempt to redress what has happened so many times throughout history. Maybe Beyoncé even said it best in a lyric from “Upgrade U” on B’Day — a mid-point in the On The Run story: “I can do for you what Martin did for the people / Ran by the men but the women keep the tempo.” How might reading about Ella Baker inform an analysis of Beyoncé’s character in On The Run?

Spoiler: Superbowl performances

Song(s): Beyoncé at Super Bowl Halftime XLVII (in 2013) & Super Bowl L (in 2016)

(Apologies for delivering the syllabus a week late this month.)

Context: In lieu of particular songs this month, seeing as its Super Bowl season, I wanted to highlight Beyoncé’s own iconic Super Bowl performances from 2013 (as the halftime headliner) and 2016 (as a featured artist during Coldplay’s performance). While the song choices (a career-spanning medley in 2013 and a blistering performance of the only day-old “Formation” at the time in 2016) are important to the politics of each performance, its also useful to think about Beyoncé as a political performer overall and what it means/represents to take those politics to the Super Bowl stage specifically.

Readings to accompany Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance analysis:

• • Paula J. Giddings — When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America
  • Zora Neale Hurston — “How It Feels To Be Colored Me”

Both the above are available through the Resources tab on this site.

Discussion: Michael Jackson reinvented the format of the Super Bowl halftime performance in 1993. Jackson turned the halftime into a prestigious and widely-viewed mini concert more about the entertainer in their own right, not just providing additional cheerleading for the game. The Super Bowl is a cultural touchstone for sports fans, those interested in the new commercials being debuted, and fans of whatever artist is performing that year, making it a must-see pop culture event on many fronts.

Instead of focusing on and dissecting the lyrical content of each song in these performances by Beyoncé, try to zoom out and think about her role as a political performer on a national stage. Especially at the Super Bowl given its “patriotic” politics and a large conservative viewership that possibly diverges from Beyoncé’s fan base. Pay attention to what Beyoncé is trying to convey by the performances themselves, and in the case of 2016, the intense backlash she received in conservative media and across Middle America for the Black Panther styling (both the Super Bowl and the Black Panther Party were celebrating 50th anniversaries in 2016) and the unapologetic Black feminist politics of “Formation.”

As you re-watch Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performances, think about: What are the unspoken statements layered into her performances around race, feminism, empowerment, and even redressing (performatively) historical wrongs? How do Beyoncé’s performances on this particular national stage align with more formally accepted Black female activists, thinkers, writers? Is this a useful/successful means of doing politics? Why or why not? What do reactions to these performances expose about the current political landscape of America?



Additional suggested reading:

• • Daphne Brooks — “‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind:’ Black Female Soul Singing and the Politics of Surrogation in the Age of Catastrophe”
  • Brittney Cooper — Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women

The Brooks reading provides historical contextualization on how and why Beyoncé should correctly be seen as a political singer and performer on deep levels, apart from simply lyrical content. This longer, in-depth piece builds on her “Suga Mama, Politicized” from last month. Cooper’s book, thought through the lens of Beyoncé’s career and placed alongside these Super Bowl performances, might raise questions such as: In what ways is Beyoncé, through performance, herself a public intellectual? What are the similarities and differences between Beyoncé and those included in the traditionally accepted canon of “race women”?

Spoiler: Kitty Cat/Green Light

Context: “Kitty Kat” and “Green Light” are two separate tracks from 2006’s B’Day. They don’t appear next to each other on the album proper (tracks 6 and 8 respectively). As a companion to B’Day, Beyoncé released a video anthology containing a video for every song on the album except “Resentment” (as well as deluxe tracks “Beautiful Liar” with Shakira and “Flaws and All,” not included on the original pressing of B’Day. In the anthology, Beyoncé combines “Kitty Kat” and “Green Light” into one video with one title card naming both together as “Kitty Kat/Green Light.” Seen separately, the two don’t seem to have much to do with one another, but by fusing them together for our consumption (and as the ONLY two songs fused together), Beyoncé is signaling us to look deeper. While not a complete visual album like her later work, B’Day marked the first time she experimented with the genre.

Readings for “Kitty Kat/Green Light:”

• • bell hooks — “Selling Hot Pussy”
  • bell hooks — “Continued Devaluation of Black Womanhood” (chapter 2 in Ain’t I A Woman)
  • Patricia Hill Collins — “The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood” (chapter 6 in Black Feminist Thought)

All the above are available through the Resources tab on this site. You’ll need to locate the second hooks chapter and Hill Collins chapter in the larger books themselves.

Discussion: Beyoncé connects “Kitty Kat” and “Green Light” visually. What reasons can you come up with for why she does this? Think about the lyrics of each song: what do they say about women, sexuality, empowerment, agency? Many people attack Beyoncé for her sexually empowered persona in her work. How does that play in these songs? Does it encourage the viewer to see her performances as either empowering or conversely degrading? Is the performance the same in each of the songs? How do they differ in the lyrics and in the visuals? Do they contradict one another, and if so, why?

Pay attention the visual imagery and the symbolism behind everything; think about scale and contradiction too. Why is the cat so big in “Kitty Kat”? What is the use of green and red in the lyric/visual of “Green Light” about? How does Beyoncé as a sexually empowered black female performer complicated notions of sex-positive feminism and stereotypes often applied to black women’s bodies? In conjunction with the readings, how does she push the conversation to further take race specifically into account? A later performance by Beyoncé does some of these very same things, in two songs with their own videos but visually linked. “Partition” and “Jealous” from BEYONCÉ move from one to the other across the break in the track. These are the only two instances in all of Beyoncé catalog (not taking into account Lemonade where the entirety of the film is connected) where two videos are joined for a specific purpose. Why? What does reading “Partition” and “Jealous” back onto “Kitty Kat/Green Light” do to help excavate meaning?

Additional suggested reading:

• • Daphne Brooks — “Suga Mama, Politicized”
  • Tamara Winfrey Harris — The Sisters are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, particularly chapter 2, “Sex: Bump and Grind”

The Brooks reading will provide extra context on seeing B’Day overall as a political record that can then impact the way you see “Kitty Kat” and “Green Light.” In fact, Brooks (with this piece and another similar scholarly article) were the foundation for Politicizing Beyoncé to begin with. Tamara Winfrey Harris’s chapter will hopefully draw out more of the connections and intersectional disconnects between sex positive feminism, race, and gender. Taking all that into account, should provide another angle from which to approach these Beyoncé songs/videos.

Spoiler: Life is But a Dream doc

Context: Life Is But A Dream is essentially the first part of Beyoncé’s proper autobiography. Released in 2013 after her Super Bowl headlining show but before the surprise drop of BEYONCÉ, the documentary gives an intimate look at Beyoncé’s life at the very time she was withdrawing from the public eye and instituting strict boundaries around the ways she interacted with her fans and the public at large. Life Is But A Dream serves as a pivot (one of many) in Beyoncé’s career. It’s also overseen by Beyoncé herself — giving the illusion of intimacy while enacting her boundaries simultaneously. As visual biography, it is an extremely interesting artifact in Beyoncé-as-artist’s catalog and should be treated like the rest of her visuals: analyzed for layers, messages, politics, etc.

It’s also the first time the public got a good look at Beyoncé since she had become a mother. And serves as the first time we we allowed to see Blue Ivy.

Readings for Life Is But A Dream:

• Alice Walker — “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens”
• Audre Lorde — Zami: A New Spelling of My Name — A Biomythography

All the above are available through the Resources tab on this site.

Discussion:

There’s a lot to talk about re: Life Is But A Dream and I’ve provided some hints in the “context” above. Overall, how does Beyoncé construct the story of her life? Fact and fiction matter less than the intent of the author in this sense. Beyoncé is telling her own story, cautiously. What actual facts do we learn about her? What general ideas do we take away about Beyoncé? How does Life Is But A Dream line up with other traditional forms of auto/biography? What does Beyoncé WANT us to take away about her? How does the artistic work Beyoncé does through the film fit in with autobiography by black women throughout history and how does Beyoncé invoke her own black womanhood as part of her story in this moment? How is black womanhood important to the story of Life Is But A Dream and why? How does Beyoncé as a mother influence the telling of her own story here too? The documentary is framed around the recording of her 2011 album 4, but also around the fact that she’d become a mom. Why is that significant? How might we also understand Life Is But A Dream as a predecessor to Lemonade?

Additional suggested reading:

• Alice Walker — The Color Purple
• Zora Neale Hurston — Dust Tracks On A Road

These two additional readings provide different contexts. Hurston shows another example of autobiography as storytelling; one where we, the reader, come away, with less than we think we do. Similar to Lorde’s experiment in autobiography above, and just like in Life Is But A Dream. And Walker’s The Color Purple might help zero in on some of the religious aspects/themes in Life Is But A Dream. What kind of religion is it? What kind of spiritual traditions does Beyoncé call on throughout? What’s the purpose of religion in the documentary overall?

Spoiler: Scared of Lonely

Context: “Scared of Lonely” is the last track from the Sasha Fierce side of 2008’s I Am…Sasha Fierce. As such, the performance should be read through the lens of Beyoncé’s alter-ego Sasha Fierce herself, which complicated the simple love song. Further, later live performances changed meaning even further. “Scared of Lonely” is interesting to analyze on two different fronts: the lyrical content itself and the way Beyoncé’s manipulates her own vocals during live performances to convey and/or change meaning.

Readings for “Scared of Lonely:”

• Angela Davis — “When A Woman Loves A Man: Social Implications of Billie Holiday’s Love Songs” (from Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday)
• Cheryl Clarke — “Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance”

Clarke’s piece is available online through the resources tab. Unfortunately, Davis’ piece is not. You can email me for a PDF if you aren’t able to access the book.

Discussion:

Re: Vocal Strategy — Comparing the studio version with the live version, how does Beyoncé use her voice to change meaning while lyrics stay the same? Why might she be doing it? How does Beyoncé’s strategy compare to the way Billie Holiday used her voice to inject meaning in her own love songs? How do performance tactics complement the vocal manipulations?

Re: Content — Is this a simple love song? Does the meaning change when we consider Sasha Fierce the performer as opposed to Beyoncé herself? How does the concept of being “scared OF lonely” vs. “scared AND lonely” (a commonly misheard lyric) complicate a simple love song reading?

Additional suggested reading:

• Angela Davis — Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (full book)
• Billie Holiday (with William Dufty) — Lady Sings the Blues
• Nina Simone (with Stephen Cleary) — I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone

Reading Davis’ full text and Holiday and Simone in their own words brings out themes of how black female artists used their voices to create and alter meaning in lyrics that they often weren’t writing themselves. Injecting politics as vocal strategy is something that can be applied to Beyoncé on all her albums as well.

Spoiler: Don't hurt yourself

Context: “Don’t Hurt Yourself” is the 3rd track from Lemonade and it corresponds to “Anger” in the larger overall journey. When read as part of a relationship/cheating narrative it has certain meaning on a personal level, but there are also clues in the song that encourage analysis of larger systems.

Readings for “Don’t Hurt Yourself:”

• Kimberlé Crenshaw — “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”
• Audre Lorde — “The Uses of Anger”

Both are available through the resources tab. Lorde’s essay is again part of her Sister Outsider.

Discussion:

What are the pieces of the song that you think point us towards analysis beyond merely the personal register (re: Beyoncé’s personal life) of the lyrics? Think about Jack White’s presence in the song too. What messages/layers does he add? What can we extrapolate from “Don’t Hurt Yourself” about larger systems of oppression in the U.S.? How can a focus and embrace of anger help challenge dominant stereotypical narratives of the U.S.?

Additional suggested reading:

• June Jordan — “Civil Wars”
• Kimberlé Crenshaw — “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color”
• bell hooks — “Killing Rage”

Looking at anger next to the foundational readings by Kimberlé Crenshaw on “intersectionality” create interesting links between what is considered “polite behavior” and social change. These additional readings will further flesh out those links.

Lemonade was literally entirely about Jay-Z cheating on her. the ONLY political song is Formation. I think even Beyonce would agree to that assessment lol. But keep tryin it Kev

 

[Kosher Dill]

Anywho, here are more syllabus entries for posterity before I cancel my account with #PoliticizingBeyonce

Yeah, just about all the rest of this is more of the same, a Beyonce song plus some random splatterings from the "Encyclopedia of Wokeness" that share a few words in the title.
Anyone who cites Kimberle Crenshaw or Bell Hooks for the merits of their arguments is, of course, a lolcow.

However in the interest of fairness there was one assignment with a kernel of merit to it:

There’s a lot to talk about re: Life Is But A Dream and I’ve provided some hints in the “context” above. Overall, how does Beyoncé construct the story of her life? Fact and fiction matter less than the intent of the author in this sense. Beyoncé is telling her own story, cautiously. What actual facts do we learn about her? What general ideas do we take away about Beyoncé? How does Life Is But A Dream line up with other traditional forms of auto/biography? What does Beyoncé WANT us to take away about her? How does the artistic work Beyoncé does through the film fit in with autobiography by black women throughout history and how does Beyoncé invoke her own black womanhood as part of her story in this moment?

If you strip out all the Beyonce worship, you have an assignment to analyze a work and compare it to other works in the same genre. That would actually be a legitimate assignment to give the sort of college freshmen he used to teach before he got himself fired, to introduce them to engaging with material (even unlikely material) academically.

 

[Apteryx Owenii]

The way he puts Beyonce on a pedestal is disturbing. At some point, she's going to do or say something that doesn't fit with the imaginary image he's created of her, and he's going to go nuclear. Now, she's probably safe, since she has a security team, but think about it. He's a white man indirectly telling a woman (a black woman at that) how to act. I thought the SJW crowd frowned upon that.

I doubt it. At this point if Beyonce were to say she was voting for Trump and believed that Hitler did nothing wrong, Kevy would be all over it. He might rationalize it as being some sort of performance art, but I don't think there is anything she can do that he wouldn't fawn over.

 

[Positron]

I postulate the reason to be fact that you've posted thousands of words about Roseanne, Kevvie. But then I'm not a professor.

I'm surprised Kevvie actually listens to white female singers -- and "country" music to boot -- but he has to gay up everything with politics and mah representaysshhon.

You know how do we tell our country is doomed? People don't recognize Britney Spears!!

 

[Medicated]

This man seems certifiably insane, shouldn't he be committed? Because if he's not he will be soon.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm surprised Kevvie actually listens to white female singers -- and "country" music to boot -- but he has to gay up everything with politics and mah representaysshhon.

He listens to them because it is his duty to hate them. But he furiously rams an unlubed black dildo up his ass and takes the #analrips for the good of humanity, just so that if you ever listen to these things, you have a vicarious pain in your anus because he has so totally gayed up anything he experiences that it rubs off on the rest of humanity.

Well, it doesn't, really, but that must be what he's trying to do.

 

[Stock Image Photographer]

View attachment 417512

1. It would be super easy to use Kevin's progressive beliefs against him here, since it's incredibly classist to assume that a liberal arts education is necessary for critical thinking, and even then a wide variety of marginalized groups don't have the resources to get a liberal arts education.
2. Kevin, Politicizing Beyonce is one of the best examples of "elitist bullshit with no practical application." No one in the work force is going to ask you to analyze song lyrics for deep cultural meanings outside of niche parts of academia, and having money to blow on that stupid course indicates at least some level of privilege. The course does not teach or encourage critical thinking, since it asks you to unquestioningly accept the premise that Beyonce's songs are political masterpieces in order to grapple with the material.

 

[Positron]

"Everyone stop watching that show! It's EVIL!"
"Oh I'll still watch it, for, you know, critique!"

 

[Red Hood]

View attachment 417510

I postulate the reason to be fact that you've posted thousands of words about Roseanne, Kevvie. But then I'm not a professor.

I'm surprised Kevvie actually listens to white female singers -- and "country" music to boot -- but he has to gay up everything with politics and mah representaysshhon.

View attachment 417511

You know how do we tell our country is doomed? People don't recognize Britney Spears!!

View attachment 417512

Well, Kevin, actual academic disciplines like history and the western canon have real applications. But Beyonce studies are not and never will be a real field. All the humanities aren't tarded. Just the ones you and your ilk insist upon.

 

[Kosher Dill]

The course does not teach or encourage critical thinking, since it asks you to unquestioningly accept the premise that Beyonce's songs are political masterpieces in order to grapple with the material.

More than that, it asks you to accept the premise that Beyonce's songs are Beyonce's rather than having been created by committee.

 

[Positron]

TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!!!!!!

Even from the lyrics he cites it is clear the two songs talk about different things: Father John Misty sings about virtual sex; Kayne West sings about real sex. But no, it has to be RACISM!!!!!! So much for critical thinking; your "five seconds" in Liberal Arts class doesn't serve you well Kevvie.

Also Kevvie suddenly becomes an expert in LGBT "country" music, vomited out two dozen names. This is supremely boring so I'll spare you that.

 

[Red Hood]

Kevin's image needs to replace Sam Hyde's as the automatic scapegoat whenever there's a tragedy. Although, Kevin tweeting is always a minor tragedy in itself.