Beyoncé: Disrupting the Erotic Space within the “Queen-Ho” binary

   

 Choi  Yik  Heng  

               

A  term  paper    Submitted  to  the  

Centre  for  English  Language  Communication  National  University  of  Singapore  

in  partial  fulfilment  for  the  undergraduate  module  

IEM2201H Risk & Culture  

           

Cohort  AY2013/2014  S2        

Beyoncé: Disrupting the Erotic Space within the “Queen-Ho” binary

“I’m a grown woman / I can do whatever I want / I can be bad if I want / I can do wrong if I want / I can live fast if I want/ I can go slow all night long1

- Grown Woman, Beyoncé

2

Context

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, popularly known as Beyoncé, is a contemporary

R&B/Hip Hop recording artist, actress and businesswoman. On December 17 2013,

she released her self-titled fifth album, Beyoncé. Her “bootylicious”3 (body-centric)

and girl-power feminism is focused on challenging dominant representations of

female sexuality as invisible, acquiescent and chaste i.e. sexually restrained. Inter-

textual narratives and musical styles serve to explicate Beyoncé’s reinventions of a

multifaceted “grown woman”4 who can “do whatever [she] wants”5. Through bold

and meticulous iconography, her self-portraits are consistently disruptive: ‘at once,

glamorous and down-home, carnal and sweet, “Queen Bey” and a diligent trouper,

                                                                                                               1 Timbaland, The Dream.(2013).Grown Woman[Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records(2012-13).  2 Retrieved from http://cdn.necolebitchie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Beyonce-Haunted-1.jpg 3 “Bootylicious” is a song released by Destiny’s Child championing body positivity , a popular R’n’B girl group Beyoncé was part of before her solo activities. In an interview with Harper’s BAZAAR in 2011, she even stated that she needs to “find a catchy new word for feminism”. Retrieved from: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/beyonce-burqa-egypt-192262 4 Timbaland, The Dream.(2013).Grown Woman[Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records(2012-13). 5 Ibid.

polished and human’6. Unlike commercialized ideals of (white, Eurocentric) beauty

and femininity- Madonna or whore7, the visual album utilisies provocative sexual

politics to denote contesting and lived female experiences that refuse easy

categorization. While some praised her risqué8 lyrics and images as a ‘feminist

manifesto’9, others critique the implicit reinscription of historical sexual violence

against (and objectification of) black women.

Topic Overview

Aisha Durham’s ‘hip hop dualism of the queen and ho’10 is situated between

boundaries of sexual desirability. In Beyoncé, Beyoncé’s feminism destabilises the

“Queen-Ho” binary of ‘respectable, race-loyal queen and the promiscuous, classless

ho’11, which separates women in society based on desirable embodiments of

sexuality. Also, ‘sexualised images of race intersect with norms of women’s

sexuality’12 as the white, Madonna Queen vs. the black, Jezebel13 “Ho” (Appendix

A). Black female slave bodies have ‘historically been considered grotesque,

animalistic and unnatural’14. I argue that Beyoncé deliberately constructs herself as

risky by manipulating racialised stereotypes like black hypersexuality and                                                                                                                6 Pareles, Jon. (2013, Dec 13). A December Surprise, Without Whispers (or Leaks): Beyoncé’s New Album is Steamy and Sleek. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/arts/music/beyonces-new-album-is-steamy-and-sleek.html?_r=0

7  The Madonna/Whore complex has its roots from the Judeo-Christian tradition but is typically defined (and popularly applied) within the Freudian bifurcation of women as ‘either pure saint like creatures or devious, tempting, and promiscuous has informed such depictions of women. Historically women have been either placed upon a pedestal as the unattainable ideal or denigrated as harlots. Such representations have left a void in popular culture for authentic women.’. Sounds of Resistance: The Role of Music in Multicultural Activism 8 The definition of “risqué” is ‘slightly indecent or liable to shock, especially by being sexually suggestive’. It should be differentiated from “raunchy”, defined as ‘energetically earthy and sexually explicit’ in the threshold of boundaries the former titillates and the latter transgresses. This is relevant in analysis of Beyoncé as she reinforces norms only to subvert them. In Oxford Dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/risqué, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/raunchy 9 Ditum, Sarah. (2013, Dec 13). New Album is a Feminist Triumph. NewRepublic. Retrieved from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115935/beyonce-new-album-feminist-triumph 10 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 11 Ibid. 12 James, Robin. “Robo-Diva R&B”: Aesthetics, Politics, and Black Female Robots in Contemporary Popular Music. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 20(4), 412.

13 The “Jezebel” image stereotypes black woman as hypersexual, manipulative, animalistic and promiscuous females who cannot be controlled. Oftentimes this stereotype embodies a woman who uses her sexuality to get attention, love and material goods. The Jezebel image has been utilized to justify the rape and exploitation of black women by White men.’ 13 Hooks argues to move beyond ‘the racial dehumanization of blackness to reclaim black life’ where blackness as a sign ‘evokes in the public imagination of white hatred’, victimization and powerlessness. Retrieved from http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/1508/1/Palmer11PhD.pdf 14 Black Female Body Hypervisibility and Invisibility

hypervisibility to achieve riskiness with her feminist brand of sex/body-positive,

‘loving blackness’15. Therefore, I question if she is merely ‘selling hot pussy’16

where “risky” sexual danger only reinscribes racial inequalities.

This essay will interrogate Beyoncé’s deployment of risqué content in the music

videos for “Yoncé/Partition”, “Blow”, “Mine” and “Grown Woman”. These songs

explore different facets of sexual experiences in its corporeality as well as

psychosexuality. I will then explicate bodily notions of excess and control through

her physical body ie. booty and its performance ie. posturing. Popular discourses on

Beyoncé and women in hip-hop have also excluded examinations of performativity

and subsequent emancipatory possibilities of the performer’s hypervisuality 17

through visual representations and strategies.

Risk Theories

Drawing upon Beyoncé’s emphasis on body symbolism, I look at how the

materiality of her body manifests in hypervisual representations that connote the

multiplicity of Ego(s). I look at how erogenous zones in her body i.e. bodily

orifices18 are performed by subverting the control vs. excess dialectic in gazes and

postures. Mary Douglas’ seminar work on Purity & Danger and Deborah Lupton’s

Risk and Otherness will inform my analysis of Beyoncé’s “Queen” and “Ho”

portrayals. The Queen practices risk avoidance in enforcing purity rules of self-

restraint and concealment, while the “Ho” possesses risky sexual danger. Beyoncé’s

constant border transgressions translate into larger social critiques on sexism and

racism. As the Other ‘threatens to blurs boundaries’19, it is ‘often stigmatized as

potentially dangerous, dirty or defiling’20. To further contextualize Beyoncé’s

female embodiment and subjectivity, I will also look at Lupton’s arguments on the

                                                                                                               15 Hooks argues to move beyond ‘the racial dehumanization of blackness to reclaim black life’ where blackness as a sign ‘evokes in the public imagination of white hatred’, victimization and powerlessness. Retrieved from http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/1508/1/Palmer11PhD.pdf 16 hooks, bell. Selling Hot Pussy. In Black Looks. USA: South End Press.  17 Hypervisuality can be defined as an ‘endless repetition of visual selves’ reflective of contemporary society steeped in visual bombardment and what is commonly termed as “visual culture”. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. (2002.).The Visual Cultural Reader. UK: Routledge. 18 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 19 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) External Boundaries. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge. 20 Ibid.

risk-taking individual as ‘self-actual[ising]’21 even if she partakes in self-regulating

activities.

Gaze

The music videos in the visual album are contingent upon Beyoncé’s/the audience’s

gaze. She manipulates sexual desirability by playing the role of the risky, sexual

object in order to overturn as the erotic subject, especially poignant given the

history of the black slave body as Other.

! Backwards Gaze on the “Ho”

The ‘grotesque gesture of displaying the buttocks’22, which is ‘culturally coded as

contaminating and dirty’23, is rampant throughout Beyoncé. Durham criticized

Beyoncé for perpetuating ‘the backwards gaze’24 where the ‘black working class

booty’25 is solely for ‘male erotic pleasure’26. In “Partition”, close-ups of her

“booty” as a ‘high, round…visually marked cleavage’27 seem to strip her sexual

subjectivity (Appendix B). Similarly in “Partition”, Beyoncé transforms into a

Parisian cabaret dancer, her black booty is literally adorned with “handprints and

good grips all on my ass”28 . Since the “booty” is behind, the pornographic

imagination has centered around the (male) backwards gaze. As the fetishised black

booty is posited against ‘the waif-like ideal of white femininity29, this gaze

objectifies the female body into Lupton’s notion of the ‘dangerous, risky Other’30.

The Othered and hypervisible black body is also a ‘mark of shame’31 which she will

                                                                                                               21 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Pleasure. In Risk. UK: Routledge.  22 Pop, Boricua. (2004.). Jennifer's Butt: Valorizing the Puerto Rican Racialized Female Body. USA: NYU Press. 23 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 24 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 http://nordicom02.monoclick-dev.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/321_hirdman.pdf 28 Beyoncé, Timbaland, The Dream, Timberlake, Justin. Harmon, Jerome. Weir, Dwane. Dean, White. (2013). Partition [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records(2012-13). 29 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025)  30 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 31 Ibid.

consider ‘threatening to white people and their purity’32. Their ideal body’s ‘tight,

contained, exerci[se of] full control over its boundaries’33 is threatened by the black,

‘fleshly body’34. Furthermore, sexual desirability is contingent upon the illusion of

accessibility, which is compounded by pornographic imaginary of the black booty

as ‘an ugly sign of inferiority’35. This results in the black woman’s internalization of

her corporeality as ‘victimization and powerlessness’36.

! Self-Possessed Gaze of the “Queen”

In “Yoncé”, the camera zooms in on Joan Smalls37’ butt-cheeks peeking out of her

mini-skirt as she struts down the street. However, the racy undertones of the

‘upskirt’38 cinematography and consequent object position of the “booty” are

subverted with the aggressive lyrics– “the man ain’t never see a booty like this”39.

The risky and dangerous streetwalker- “ho” is framed as “Queen”-like as Beyoncé

reclaims the erotic subject (Appendix C). Her male lover/husband40 is also always

unseen or back-facing the audience, so the camera gaze is never his. The camera

moves from Beyoncé caressing herself to admiring her own reflection in self-

recognition (Appendix D). In “Partition”, she conducts her own sexual fantasy of

seduction that starts with admiring the reflection of her ‘bejeweled corset that

superbly showcases her cleavage’41. She subverts the coyish, voyeuristic gaze by

not just ‘looking at one’s self’42 but also touching herself (Appendix E). In “Grown

Woman”, she ‘checks on her booty- looking over the shoulder and taking pleasure

in its movement’43. Even when her face is unseen, she controls and guides the

audience’s ‘visual objectification’44 (Appendix F). Perhaps this is a statement on the

                                                                                                               32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid.  35 Ibid. 36 hooks, bell. Loving Blackness. In Black Looks. USA: South End Press. 37 Joan Smalls is an African-American supermodel and part of the supermodel troop employed in “Yoncé”. 38 Retrieved from: http://www.style.com/stylefile/2013/12/behind-beyonces-yonce-supermodels-sex-supreme/ 39 Beyoncé, Timbaland, The Dream, Timberlake, Justin. Harmon, Jerome. Weir, Dwane. Dean, White. (2013). Yoncé [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records(2012-13). 40 Beyoncé is famously married to Jay-Z, a prominent black rapper/producer in American hip-hop music. 41 Retrieved from http://www.idolator.com/7507306/the-10-best-moments-of-beyonces-sizzling-partition-video 42 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid.  

pleasure of the erotic object/subject. While she initially projects her body at the car-

a symbol of male desire, she later sashays away with its headlights illuminating her

body. (Appendix G) Hence, she turns the gaze back on the audience.

While the pornographic gaze validates the female object as a desired erotic subject,

Beyoncé’s “come hither” gaze is actually that of self-recognition-“tell me how it’s

looking babe, tell me how I’m looking babe”45, and self-aggrandizing- “circulate the

image every time I come around”46. The gaze- “Brooklyn brim with my eyes sittin’

low”47, complements the boastful lyrics of sexual unattainability- “when he wanna

smash48 I’ll just write another one”49. Rather than reworking an ‘old racial fantasy

of miscegenation’ 50 through inhabiting both object and subject positions; or

‘inverting old imagery [of placing] herself in the role of dominator’51, Beyoncé

presents her subjectivity as more than either “subject” or “object” through the

complexity of sexual experiences and the interplay of sexual attraction.

Positioning

Beyoncé, and what Beyoncé presents, is foremost a performer who performs her

body and is reliant on spectatorship. bell hooks emphasizes an alternate erotic space

that ‘is not directed outward’52, where the ‘autonomous sexual identity of a mature

black woman’53 ‘exult[s] in black female bodies’54. Beyoncé’s ‘sex-positive ass’55

may seem come-hither but is ultimately presented as self-celebratory. Here I will

evoke Douglas’s ‘purity rules’56 as Beyoncé plays between bodily margins of

visibility wherein the concealment and exposure of the female body incites moral

                                                                                                               45 Beyoncé, Timbaland, The Dream, Timberlake, Justin. Harmon, Jerome. Weir, Dwane. Dean, White. (2013). Yoncé [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records (2012-13). 46 Beyoncé, Timbaland, The Dream, Timberlake, Justin. Harmon, Jerome. Weir, Dwane. Dean, White. (2013). Yoncé [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records(2012-13). 47 Ibid. 48 “Smash” refers to every guy wanting to have sexual intercourse with Beyoncé but she will just add his pursuit to her long list of smash hits. 49 Ibid. 50 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 51 hooks, bell. Loving Blackness. In Black Looks. USA: South End Press. 52 Ibid. 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. 55 Crosley, Hilary. (December 16, 2013). “Our Favourite ‘Hell Yeah’ Moments from Beyonce’s New Album”. Accessed Feburary 10, 2013. http://jezebel.com/our-favorite-hell-yeah-moments-from-beyonces-new-alb-1482856438 56 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) External Boundaries. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge.  

injunctions of purity or defilement.

! Queen’s Poised Body

In “Partition” and “Mine”, the opening sequences depict Beyoncé in classical

images of regality where she performs soft body language. In “Partition”, Beyoncé

is in a Parisian chateau and subtly flaunts her assets over the dining table in a

vintage Christian Lacroix embellished corset. Similarly in “Mine”, the classical

mise-en-scène resembles a virginal Madonna as she sits throne-like in white robes.

(Appendix H) Strikingly, she presides over an infantalised, sleeping figure. The

overall sentiment is that of bodily restraint like Lupton’s self-controlled ‘closed

body’ 57 . The Queen practices risk-avoidance in abiding by purity rules of

concealing the body. A recurrent trope in the videos entails Beyoncé teasing her

body’s visibility to the audience as she conceals and unveils her seduction. In

“Partition”, her nude body is veiled in strategically aligned strobe lights, bondage

costumes and dance movements to only reveal moments or allusions of cleavage.

(Appendix I)

! “Ho” Posturing of the Queen

The poised body of Queen Bey literally opens to reveal Beyoncé’s freak body in

“Partition”. Burlesque Beyoncé dances sensuously in a crystal cabaret lingerie only

to disappear into the next scene where she ‘opens her lace cape on the top of a piano

and writhes about whipping her hair’58 (Appendix J). This movement unveils the

‘uncontrolled, sensous and volatile body, open to the world’ 59 . Here, her

destabilization of bodily exposure undercut racialised tensions of European,

bourgeois restraint against African, urban excesses.

Beyoncé conducts such alluring self-portraits only to disrupt them with wild and

distorted body images. Recurrent in her performances of the ‘urban freak body

                                                                                                               57 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 58 Retrieved from http://www.idolator.com/7507306/the-10-best-moments-of-beyonces-sizzling-partition-video 59 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge

popularized by “booty” music from Southern hip hop culture’60, “bootyshaking” is

an integral part of her black performance with ‘stylistic mandates of taut body

positions which could mirror tensely-honed electronic drumbeats’ 61 . It is

symbolically disruptive to the ‘ideal of self-discipline of the body’62 in its disjointed

movements and constant protrusions. In “Mine”, classical dance movements that

emphasise sleek, controlled legwork transition into the up-tempo beat with African

dance. It is a stark contrast to the ‘restraint of the etiquettish ball-room’63 with jerky

and forceful isolations. (Appendix K) The tribal-like dance moves and grotesque

body contortions symbolise the disorderly female body as empowering in her

control of sexuality. Beyoncé’s dancing freak body highlights Lupton’s ‘open

body’64, which infringes Douglas’s purity rules by displaying the ‘disorderly,

dangerous and ugly’65 ‘inside of the body’66. Susan Bordo highlights the Western

active spirit/passive body dichotomy where the body is a savage to be tamed67,

hence the ‘grotesque nature of the open body [in] its excessive physicality’68

displays affronting sexual aggression and agency. These dances portray ‘a physical

statement of pleasure [that is] bound up with political frames of race’69. Through

incorporating African dance as a presentation of Self, Beyoncé reclaims the

otherness of the black female body historically framed as ‘uncontrolled, uncouth,

obscene’70. Perhaps it is here where bell hook’s proposal of loving blackness as a

political resistance71 can occur.

                                                                                                               60 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 61 DeFrantz, F, Thomas. "The Black Beat Made Visible: Body Power in Hip Hop Dance" in Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory, Andre Lepecki, editor, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 64-81. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/people/defrantz/Documents/BlackBeat.PDF

62 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 63 Retrieved from http://blackinamerica.com/content/194562/black-history-moment-the-influence-of-african-american-dance-in-american-culture 64 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 67 Bordo, Susan. (2004). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture & the Body. University of California Press. 68 Ibid. 69 DeFrantz, F, Thomas. "The Black Beat Made Visible: Body Power in Hip Hop Dance" in Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory, Andre Lepecki, editor, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 64-81. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/people/defrantz/Documents/BlackBeat.PDF

70 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 71 hooks, bell. Loving Blackness. In Black Looks. USA: South End Press.

Facial masking (the inscrutable face) is pervasive throughout Beyoncé’s posturing.

Descending from traditional African performances, ‘the cool, hard face works with

the hot, busy body’72. In “Grown Woman’, the Amazonian ‘freak bodies’73 are

plastered with an ‘inscrutable facial mask’74 as a ‘symbol of focused energy’75.

(Appendix L) This is also recurrent in the stripper sequences in “Yoncé/Partition”.

Hence, rather than highlighting bodily concealment, ideals of female embodiment in

excess and restraint collude in Beyoncé. Bordo critiques Beyoncé’s “booty” as an

example of disciplining female bodies and the consequent state of constant self-

assessment ‘not only to avoid social punishments, but also to derive certain kinds of

pleasure’76. She argues that ‘sexy booty is okay, apparently, only if its high and

hard, and other body parts are held firmly in check’77. Beyoncé’s performance of

riskiness is embedded in images of excess which are ultimately well-controlled and

premeditated. This is similar to her African/Caribbean-inspired hip-hop dancing,

where ‘the body is held tight…focused with strong weight and capable of explosive

suddenness’78. This disjunction is crucial to our understanding of her embodiment

of feminine identity, which parallels Lupton’s risk-taking individual who regains

control over his/her own body through self-regulation.

In “Blow”, Beyoncé’s subverts the typical infantalisation of female sexuality as coy

and gormless through animalistic simulations that disrupts the continuity of frames.

Douglas’s demarcation of purity and danger is explicit as Beyoncé is angelic with

doe-like eyes in one scene and snarling defiantly in the next. (Appendix M) In

“Yoncé”, the sensuous, feminine red lips are juxtaposed with “diamond fangs in the

                                                                                                               72 DeFrantz, F, Thomas. "The Black Beat Made Visible: Body Power in Hip Hop Dance" in Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory, Andre Lepecki, editor, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 64-81. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/people/defrantz/Documents/BlackBeat.PDF

73 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025) 74 DeFrantz, F, Thomas. "The Black Beat Made Visible: Body Power in Hip Hop Dance" in Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory, Andre Lepecki, editor, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 64-81. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/people/defrantz/Documents/BlackBeat.PDF

75 Ibid.  76 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Pleasure. In Risk. UK: Routledge 77 Bordo, Susan. (2004). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture & the Body. University of California Press. 78 DeFrantz, F, Thomas. "The Black Beat Made Visible: Body Power in Hip Hop Dance" in Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory, Andre Lepecki, editor, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 64-81. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/people/defrantz/Documents/BlackBeat.PDF

grill”79- a typical status accessory for black male rappers. Beyoncé initially inhabits

poses within the “girl-next-door” framing despite the song’s sexual innuendo of

cunnilingus (female pleasure). For example, the erogenous image of the mouth-

again another ‘potentially defiling’ 80‘bodily orifice’81, is a main visual. But the

mouth also represents an important device for ‘performative oratory’82 which harks

been to traditional African social dances. In “Grown Woman”, the Afrobeat

percussion is accompanied by traditional chantings and Beyoncé’s own incantations

to “go girl”83. The mouth also performs aural disruptions within the lyrical melody

like animalistic shrieks, grunts and clucks. These significations of facial and aural

aggression suggest that Beyoncé rejects passivity in the sexual experience- be it as

an object or subject of pleasure.

The “Ho’s” Freak Body vs. Queen’s Pure Body

Beyoncé’s “sexual being” relies on disrupting bodily boundaries and the ‘continuity

of body image’84 to protest ideals of female desirability. Drawing upon the “Ho’s”

illusion of accessibility, Douglas argues that pollution is transmitted by contact85.

Hence Beyoncé’s sexually ‘open’ 86

booty is a carrier of ‘bodily transmissions’87. She confronts audiences with defiling

images of the black streetwalker/stripper’s “booty” in the Brooklyn streets of

“Yoncé” as well as the Parisian cabaret in “Partition”. Drawing upon Douglas’

arguments on uncleanness as ‘matter out of place’88 and threatening social structure,

connotations of the ‘bad-girl’ stripper include sexually charged undertones of

“dirty”-ness requiring ‘purifying’89. The disorderly booty is also seen as projecting

                                                                                                               79 Beyoncé, Timbaland, The Dream, Timberlake, Justin. Harmon, Jerome. Weir, Dwane. Dean, White. (2013). Yoncé [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records (2012-13). 80 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 81 Ibid. 82 DeFrantz, F, Thomas. "The Black Beat Made Visible: Body Power in Hip Hop Dance" in Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory, Andre Lepecki, editor, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 64-81. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/people/defrantz/Documents/BlackBeat.PDF

83 Timbaland, The Dream.(2013).Grown Woman[Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records(2012-13).  84 Ibid. 85 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) External Boundaries. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge. 86 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 87 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) External Boundaries. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge. 88 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) Secular Defilement. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge. 89 Ibid.

risky, sexual danger. Lupton argues that the ‘grotesque body…was seen to be

unable to control its bodily boundaries’90 and threatens the ‘contained, civilized

body’91 representative of the Queen (Madonna).

Beyoncé takes ownership of her “booty” primarily through naming her sexual

being, Yoncé. She accords Yoncé powerful subjectivity in transcending its

corporeality- “Yoncé filling up the skirt”92 , “Yoncé all over his mouth like

liquor”93. This is most explicit in the lyric, “sneezed on the beat and the beat got

sicker”94 which follows after a dismissal of male desire (for her). Here, the gesture

is both that of protest and retreat95. Ultimately, her riskiness is veiled in an exotic

gaze of the black Other that rewards her sexual danger not with the “slut” label, but

that of a black “Queen”. It is also difficult to dislodge ‘black female visibility and

female empowerment from male erotic pleasure’96.  

“Superpower”97: Afrofuturistic Beyoncé(s)

Beyoncé’s efforts to reiterate her body’s corporeality through hypervisuality-

distorted and excessive body images, are a striking visual strategy. In “Mine”,

Beyoncé introduces a different facet of sexual politics by problematizing the

conflict of Egos and idea of knowing. The allusion to Magritte’s masked lovers98

(Appendix N) signifies the music video as a ‘Lynchian psychosexual fantasy’99

conveying the paradoxical situation of passion (knowledge) and alienation. The

demarcation of bodies as “Mine” or “Yours” (Self or Other) are increasingly

destabilized as the wild and multiple body rhythms generated from the Afrobeat

                                                                                                               90 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 91 Ibid. 92 Beyoncé, Fisher, Diaz, Proctor, Soko, Boots. (2013). Jealous [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records (2012-13). 93 Beyoncé, Timbaland, The Dream, Timberlake, Justin. Harmon, Jerome. Weir, Dwane. Dean, White. (2013). Partition [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records (2012-13). 94 Ibid.  95  Bordo, Susan. (2004). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture & the Body. University of California Press.  96 Durham, Aisha S. (2007). “Check on It”: Beyoncé, Southern Booty, and Black Femininities in Music Video. Homegirl going home: Hip hop feminism and the representational politics of location. Retrieved from UMI Dissertations Publishing. (UMI Number: 3290025)

 97  Beyoncé, Ocean, Boots, Williams. (2013). Superpower [Recorded by Beyoncé ]. On Beyoncé [CD]. New York City, United States: Columbia Records (2012-13). 98 The surrealist painting of masked lovers in a passionate embrace is by Belgian artist, René Magritte . Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/rene-magritte-the-lovers-le-perreux-sur-marne-1928 99 Retrieved from http://www.fuse.tv/2013/12/beyonce-album-track-by-track

percussion translate visually into converging layers of images (busy bodies in

different scenes). (Appendix O) Not only is the dancing increasingly uncontrolled

and impassioned, the clean, classical bodies are smeared in black paint and sand.

(Appendix R) In “Grown Woman”, the cartoon backdrop even provides a

psychedelic and hyperreal dimension to her “bootylicious” bodies. In one scene, her

body is multiplied across the screen in explicit Technicolor fashion. (Appendix P)

This has implications on her feminist message, as if to show a woman’s all-wanting

excessiveness. To further exaggerate bodily incoherence, she uses a deliberately

tacky video-camera style and superimposes herself across (green-screen) locales of

time and space. Furthermore, in “Blow”, the dancing bodies are futuristic; neon

costumed and even engaging in robotic “bootyshaking”. (Appendix Q) In

highlighting the lived distortions within such corporeality as opposed to ‘corporeal

fluidity’100, Beyoncé destabilizes the (white) body aesthetic ideal that ‘attempts to

contain our bodily excesses and deficiencies’101 within a homogenous body image.

In “Mine”, this body refers to the society and structural problems of symbolic

violence against marginalized bodies (represented by the troop of masked dancers).

Here, the unknowable Other is rendered risky and dangerous. The symbolic

whiteness of the cloth and masks seems to critique the failure of racial/cultural

homogeneity where ‘whiteness [and its constituent blindness] is the basis of

liaison’102, only results in alienated “love” for the Other. (Appendix S)

                                                                                                               100 Gordon, R. Lewis. Through the Zone of NonBeing: A reading of Black Skins, White Masks in Celebration of Fanon’s Eightieth Birthday. Retrieved from  http://www.lewisrgordon.com/articles/race--racism/race--racism/zone_of_nonbeing.pdf  101 Lupton, Deborah. (1999.) Risk and Otherness. In Risk. UK: Routledge 102 Gordon, R. Lewis. Through the Zone of NonBeing: A reading of Black Skins, White Masks in Celebration of Fanon’s Eightieth Birthday. Retrieved from http://www.lewisrgordon.com/articles/race--racism/race--racism/zone_of_nonbeing.pdf

“ You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist -- whatever you want to be -- and still be a sexual being. It’s not

mutually exclusive.”103 - Beyoncé

In conclusion, Beyoncé’s ‘bodily pollutions’104 arise from the lack of coherent

definition as “Ho” or Queen. Beyoncé provokes feminist thought in revealing the

situational complexities in often conflicting and difficult lived experiences of

female sexuality. She destabilizes coherent constructions of Ego(s) and body image

but it is necessary to address the problematic presence of male erotic pleasure in her

body of work. While it is through the prism of hypervisuality that Beyoncé ‘site[s]

the quest of sexual difference within the problematic of cultural differences’105, she

needs to address her structural privileges within hip-hop, capitalism and the

heteronormative, monagamous family unit which are all constitutive of the phallic

Ego. However, Douglas warns against the paradoxical search for purity that ‘forces

experiences into logical categories of non-contradiction’106. Beyoncé successfully

demonstrates that “classy” and “nasty” are not mutually exclusive by providing an

erotic space that “intervene[s] and disrupt[s] conventional representations”107 of

“the black woman as [either] sexual[ly] primitive” jezebel/mammy or the white

Madonna purity ideal. Her control over representations of disorder and body

fragmentation works both ways as celebrating inherent contradictions as well as

conforming to the self-regulated white ideal of femininity and female sexuality. It is

perhaps apt to end with Bordo’s provocative statement, ‘female slenderness … has a

wide range of sometimes contradictory meanings … suggesting powerlessness … in

one context, autonomy and freedom in the next’108.

(2992 words)

                                                                                                               103 Bahadur, Nina. (2014, April 8). Beyoncé: ‘Women should Own their Sexuality’. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/08/beyonce-quote-out-magazine-women-sexuality_n_5110478.html 104 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) External Boundaries. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge. 105 Retrieved from http://www.blacklooks.org/2012/12/fanon-the-representations-of-black-beauty-in-popular-culture/

106 Douglas, Mary. (1966.) External Boundaries. In Purity & Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo. UK: Routledge.  107  hooks, bell. Loving Blackness. In Black Looks. USA: South End Press.  108  Bordo, Susan. (2004). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture & the Body. University of California Press.  

Appendix: A

This photo depicts a still from “Mine” where Beyoncé is Madonna-like. Retrieved April 18,

2013 from http://hiphop-n-more.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/bey-mine.jpg

This picture depicts a still from “Partition” where Beyoncé is vixen-like. Retrieved April

18, 2014 from http://s1360.photobucket.com/user/RunwayMandi/media/beyonce-knowles-

partition-music-video-pic152483_zpsdfd96475.jpg.html

B

This is a still from “Partition” when Beyoncé engages in a cabaret sequence where she (and

her back-up dancers) touches herself sensuously. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

http://littleguurrl.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/ku-xlarge.jpg

C

This picture depicts a still from “Yonce” where the black supermodel “strippers” sashay

down the streets of Brooklyn. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://rodeo.net/just-

nu/files/2014/03/YONCE.jpg

This picture depicts a still from “Yonce” where Beyoncé claps to/commands the beat while

checking on her booty/bootyshaking. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

http://24.media.tumblr.com/718618bcf3c855806e75dc810207aa98/tumblr_myhmoqWQGn

1qbh0eio1_500.gif

This picture depicts a still from “Yonce” where Beyoncé subverts typical images of the

streetwalker soliciting by the streets with her self-possessed gaze.

Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2013/12/24/yonce-video.jpg

D

This picture shows Beyoncé admiring her own reflection in “Partition”.

Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-

GWX64al8qEY/UxFLMgCPT2I/AAAAAAAAErw/cPrg9cCjXOs/s1600/Beyoncé+-

+Partition+(Explicit+Video)+02.jpg

E

This picture shows Beyonce touching her own booty and reveling in it in “Yonce”.

Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--kYi62Gr-

3g/Urj7msydrSI/AAAAAAAAIZA/rfwzID-0eNI/s1600/beyoncedsweetboxyonce.jpg

F

This picture shows a still from “Partition” where Beyoncé guides her male lover/Jay-Z’s

hands down her body. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-

yEvqHdb0P1g/UxFLQbQSD3I/AAAAAAAAEtM/gt2RNY9FKGM/s1600/Beyoncé+-

+Partition+(Explicit+Video)+13.jpg

G

These stills are from “Partition”. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from screenshots of personal

copy of visual album.

H

This picture depicts a still from “Mine” where Beyoncé presides over the sleeping figure.

Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/458/080/458080636_640.jpg

I

This picture shows a still from “Partition” which includes many similar scenes that rely on

strategically placed strobe lights and projected images to give of the illusion of costumed

bodies. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://macproblog.com/wp-

content/uploads/2014/01/maxresdefault1.jpg

J

These stills depict the concurrent scenes from “Partition” when disappears and then

reappears in movements of concealment and exposure. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

screenshots of personal copy of visual album.

K

This picture shows the classical dancers in “Mine” in a series of graceful movements prior

to Beyoncé putting on the “white mask”. Thereafter body movements become more “street”

and jerky. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://cdn.pigeonsandplanes.com/wp-

content/uploads/2013/12/fjjfj-591x400.jpg

In the Dessert scene, the classical bodies are infused with the Afrobeat tempo and become

more animalistic, engaging in what seems like “krumping” and movements that focus on

the lower torso i.e. knees to signify collision and the open, freak body. Retrieved April 18,

2014 from http://edgecast.metatube-

files.buscafs.com/uploads/videos/image/image_214232_2.jpg

L

This still is from “Grown Woman” and shows Beyoncé ‘s classic facial expression and

posture. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from https://encrypted-

tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSnlhjHrtd7i_u5GFM9a1e0Z7kIdaHryyHtPY37M

mTqgts6VYoc

This still is also from “Grown Woman” and shows the restrained face vs. busy body

movement. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

http://www.downvids.net/video/bestimages/img-beyonce-grown-woman-official-video-

201.jpg

This picture show a still from “Mine” when Beyoncé puts on a white mask of her own face.

Retrieved April 18, 2014 from screenshot of personal copy of visual album.

M

These stills from “Blow” show how Beyoncé disrupts her seemingly coy poses with defiant

gestures, in this case it is a snarl. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from screenshots of personal

copy of visual album.

N

This picture shows a comparison of Magritte’s famous masked lovers painting and

Beyoncé’s allusion in her “Mine” video. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

http://24.media.tumblr.com/3414b3f608b36d2a7bf0a4fe813e0b0e/tumblr_mxqgapQeCh1r8

gntgo1_1280.png

O

This picture is from “Mine” and shows the converging layers of scenes and the

representative bodies involved which complements the increasing beat of the music. The

jerky and disjointed scene transitions lack corporeal fluidity. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

screenshot of personal copy of visual album.

P

This still from “Grown Woman” shows one of the many psychedelic, futuristic visual

manipulations of Beyoncé’s dancing body(ies).

Retrieved April 18, 2014 from https://encrypted-

tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnQ8YQ750Iqi5WUpwLbFZHk0vW-

xLB3xe1wCjRcdQ08GLn5b2Y

Q

This still is from “Blow” and portrays the neon, robotic bodies. This is perhaps a comment

on the self-control of sexuality Beyoncé tries to champion. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from

http://assets-s3.usmagazine.com/uploads/assets/article_photos/beyonce-new-video-

dayglow.jpg

R

This still is from “Mine” where the initial “clean” bodies are increasingly smeared and

dirtied. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://www.ihiphopmusic.com/wp-

content/uploads/2013/12/Beyonce-Mine-feat-432.jpg

Similarly from “Mine”, this still shows breakdancers making visual disturbances/

explosions in the sand and “wild”. Retrieved April 18, 2014 from http://yadda-life.com/wp-

content/uploads/2013/12/Beyonce-ft-Drake-Mine-official-Music-Video-11.png

S

These stills are from “Mine” and show the collusion of black and white bodies, yet the

white robe is overpowering and restricting, which prevents true contact and “love”.

Retrieved from screenshots of personal copy of visual album.