For a few minutes in Tuesday I thought I was in the Beyonce appreciation class and watching her music video definitely brightened my day. I was one of the few students who had seen the video before and I watched it a few times when I found out the voice in the video was Penn State Reads author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I had never really put much thought into the meaning behind the video but by linking her TED talks and the video together I think the video portrays a pretty strong message revolving around feminism and the empowerment of women.
In her TED talk “We should all be feminists” Adichie re accounts many of her stories from when she was younger and how men gained more recognition than women. In Beyonce’s music video for Flawless, when you look deeper into the color of the video, clothing style, and beginning and end of the video, Beyonce channels Adichie’s message through her music and video.
The first point I want to make is the beginning of the video starts off with an elderly gentleman appearing as the talk show host. This is purposely portrayed as older times, when feminism was more prominent. Women in these times were belittled by men. Women stayed at home during these times and did chores and took care of her children while the men gained the income of the family. As the video progresses, Beyonce is shown and the times are more modern. To current style, her dress, appearance and dance style contrasts with that of the initial scene to show how women these days are stilled viewed as inferior to men.
The color and dress of the video serve to portray how women and men should be viewed as equal. The scenes flash between Beyonce and men in the video, if you look closely, they are dressed the same. Beyonce has on a flannel buttoned to the top and jeans and so do the men. The flannel is buttoned all the way to the top, to make sure not to show any cleavage yet her shorts are still super revealing. During this part of the video the verse is, “Don’t think I’m just his little wife.” This verse correlates to Adichie’s story of the taxi cab and the man thanking the other man even when Adichie was the one who paid, because men earn the money in the household. Beyonce states that her status is just as high as her husband’s (Jay-Z’s) and she is more than his accessory or possession.
The women in the video are seen “fighting”, bouncing around and acting tough to the same extent the men are to stress equality. The whole video is also in black and white, further symbolizing the equality between the sexes. Adichie states, “We teach girls that we cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.” This is also depicted in the video because while the men and women are dressed in the same attire, Beyonce and the other females are more sexual, as they have tape over their breats, cut off shorts, and in many parts of the video the camera focuses on the butts of the females.
The most notorious verse of the song, “Ladies tell them I woke up like this” stresses how women should wake up being confident and powerful to the point where they should not worry about the “outshining” the male. The last scene of the video shows men, over women winning the talent show implying the males won not because of their performance, but because of their gender.
The first time I saw the video I thought about her flannel in relation to equality with men but I never though about how it is buttoned up to the top. Kind of like she can dress like a man and doesn’t have to revel too much just to feel like a girl but at the same time her shorts say ‘im a girl (and the Queen, praise Bey) and I can wear what I want without men telling me to. I also liked how you talked about Jay-Z. All too often when famous people get married, the wife hides behind the man and is there as a supporting role. However with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, they share the stage equally (literally). 10/10 for getting that video on point.
Having never seen the video before Tuesday, I failed to notice many of the details that you point out here. However, they all seem to mean something rather important. The fact that both sexes are dressed “similarly” says a lot, and I’m glad you recognized it! Also, the clip at the beginning and end of the video seemed just like a random thing to me, but your analysis gave me a different perspective. Interesting!
I completely agree with your analysis of the video. I like that you chose to comment on the game show presented at the beginning and end of the video. I think that it is a statement about the past and the its more prevalent mistreatment of women. However, fun fact, the group of girls shown losing to Skeleton Crew in 1993, was Beyoncé’s hip hop group known as Girl’s Tyme. While I do believe this piece is a call to end gender biases, there are many other aspects involved, like Beyoncé’s anger over losing Star Search all of those years ago.