I am going to try to be quick about this letter on Yahoo that has circled through my Facebook feed for a while. I am tired, a little frustrated, and annoyed that I saw this when I was tired and a little frustrated. Read the article and then read my outline of my thoughts for I don’t feel like writing a complete essay but do want to put my two cents in. I will probably end up writing an essay. Sorry. I am not a fan of Beyoncé but don’t think she deserves this much criticism. I also don’t think Michelle was trying to tell people that she wants her daughters to be sex symbols either.
1. I get it. This isn’t good for those women who are being taken advantage for for their bodies. I understand. I cry for them. I pray for them. I don’t feel their pain but I feel their pain, their sorrow, their despair, their loss of trying, their feeling of worthlessness etc. etc. etc. It is there. Sex trafficking is rampant. I am not trying to diminish its presence or the horrible effect it has on young American women (and men) today. What I am saying though is that Beyoncé did not cause this. Beyoncé is not perpetuating this motive, this filth that is trafficking. It is indirect you say. People want to dress like her. They want to be sexy like Beyoncé. They want to sleep with a Beyoncé. They want to have power over a Beyoncé. Yes, men will want to screw someone with sex appeal or with breasts, hips, and thighs. They will want to take advantage of them to validate their own masculinity and soothe their insecurities. To be cynical, some men will always want that. Beyoncé alone will not solve the trafficking problem. That needs serious personal initiative, government initiative, community initiative;it needs a collective tsunami of force to weed out and save our women. Beyoncé can’t perpetuate this horrible culture alone and she can’t cure it either. This is a distraction from the true issue at hand. Don’t bash Beyoncé thinking that will help. Get up and get out and volunteer. Start something. Get off your ass. Write letters to Congress. I don’t know. Don’t destructively criticize. Criticize and provide an alternative.
2. I think it is funny when people criticize women who show their bodies. Now, I totally understand this. It is a distraction, it is demoralizing, women are more than their bodies blah blah blah. I think it is funny how we don’t criticize men in muscle shirts or why we don’t freak out when men are shirtless. Rough comparison, I know, but it works. Men don’t have curves. They don’t have breasts. They don’t have hips. It is an automatically uneven comparison. Women are automatically treated different because, well, we are. (But we shouldn’t be treated differently for things we have in common with men like the brain) We definitely don’t break men down when they strip. No. We make Blockbusters out of it and hire them for bachelorette parties. I bet if your fiancé got a female stripper it would be a whole other ball game, eh? Boobs are boobs. Ass is ass. Hips are hips. Beyoncé has them. She shows the world that she is prideful in her sexuality. Beyoncé is woman. Yes, goodies do bring boys to the yard. Sorry. We (yes, girls and boys) are programmed that way. I am so sorry to be crass but no one can screw a brain. It is needed for the total appeal but appearance catches the eye and attraction (at times) first. “COVER IT UP!” you say. Why? Is she 13 and too young to understand or easily taken advantage of? No? Then I think that is alright. Is she selling her body? Um physically no, but she sure is using it and why the hell not? Some sex appeal ain’t hurt nobody. We don’t freak out when Justin Bieber strips at a concert to PRETEENS. *shudders* We don’t freak out when our favorite boy bands hump and grind the air. Oh haha! Boys will be boys! No, you don’t have to show your goodies to be famous. You don’t, but she wanted to and it is a free country sorta kinda right? She owns her sexuality. There are some days she wants to demand, some days she wants to tease and other days where she wants to cater. I bet there are some days where you would do that too for your man. I bet ya. I bet ya he would love it too MHMMM.
3. “She already has a brilliant voice. She doesn’t need to sell her body or sell sex.” What if she wants to? What if she wants to be sexy? She is trying to appeal to the population and to her fans! I mean good boogly woogly she isn’t saying “eff me in the ass!”. In this day and age we need to be entertained. She is trying to make a living! She is in this industry that nearly demands it. Does that make it right? No. How can we change that? Well, we could start by listening to Adele. LOL. I love her but seriously nobody’s perfect. We can start by not listening to every song that talks about sex. Now that’s realllllly hard. We can stop with those crazy short shorts. Like those are honestly just bad. We can boycott Victoria Secret and their push up bras (Guys come on. I love their stuff). We can stop slut shaming. Good Lord we need to stop that. Annnd I don’t care to type about this anymore because you probably haven’t gotten this far down.
4. PARENTING. If y’all are so scared about your girls idolizing this horrible, sexualized human being teach your girls what you want them to know. It isn’t up to the entertainment industry to teach your children. It is up to YOU. You don’t like Beyoncé because you don’t like what she stands for and you think that women should be thought of for their brains. Well, GIVE THEM SOMONE TO LOOK UP TO. Look at yourself. Are you a good role model? Yes? No? Show them professors, deans, doctors, engineers, artists who just happen to women. Try and be your best you for them! Tell them that it is okay to love your body, but you must respect it for boys or for girls. If I had a daughter who wanted to have low cleavage and shorts up her crack I wouldn’t be happy but I would totally tell her that that is unflattering and so not attractive. Like, we are animals. When stuff hangs and sits up and stuff, our sexual nature just comes out. So, calm that down so we can do normal human stuff since we are so superior to every other animal species. There is (in my opinion) a better way to display your sexuality and your beautiful body. If I had a son who happened to get a six pack, knew he was hot, and decided to sleep around I would be livid. I would tell him that he is not living up to his potential. Just like his sister/fellow woman, he has a brain and that it is what should be prized. He would then need to put his dick back in his pants and learn how to respect himself, his fellow boys, and women for promiscuity is lack of control. Lack of control is lack of maturity. Controlled chaos is the best medium. HAHA. I must be tired. This is starting to make no sense. Oh well. Just teach your kids what you want them to know and love without it hurting anyone else because that just isn’t cool. That isn’t the government’s responsibility. It isn’t any industry’s responsibility. It is yours. Buck up.
-FIN-