Queen B

Lately I have become somewhat obsessed (in a healthy way) with Beyonce. I started to really like her when I watched her HBO special on her life a year ago, she came off really down to earth. Then I was shown her and Jay-Z' On The Run Tour on HBO and to say that I have watched it a few times would be an understatement. I should go to AA meetings for how many times I've watched it. It is my "Dirty Dancing" movie like Jess on New Girl. I have always loved Beyonce and Jay-Z as a couple because they are both incredibly talented and independent apart, but together....they are a powerhouse couple, and you know OF them but NEVER hear about their personal lives. Every girl should be dreaming of a Bey and Jay love story, minus him selling rocks and her sister beating the shit out of him in an elevator, but hey every family has their issues. And as she says, "Of course sometimes shit go down when its a billion dollars on an elevator."

 I digress, two songs of Bey's new self titled album Beyonce I think need to be talked about because they not only show the type of artist she is but they also highlight serious issues in society and for that I like her even more. The first song is called "Flawless" 

The song discusses how women are expected to be flawless at well, all times. And even features Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Chimamanda is known for her speech titled "We Should All be Feminists," and parts of that speech are featured in the song. You will see those below...

When I heard this song, no doubt this part was my favorite part. Everything Chimamanda says rings so true in our society. Girls are raised to believe that their most important job they will have in their life will be to be a wife and a mother. A woman is seen as different or odd if she chooses not to marry or have children, seen as if something is wrong with her. Women are held to different standards then men, if a woman sleeps around she is promiscuous but if a man does, he is celebrated with his friends. Men are taught to be successful but women are taught to be somewhat successful but look for that man who will be her husband and father of her children. UNLESS, you grew up with a badass mom like mine who told me never to depend on a man. Based on this description of a Feminist I would proudly call myself one, would you? This song made me like Beyonce even more because she is a mom and a wife, a wife to a very successful man, but that doesn't stop her from building her own empire and from continuing to find her own success regardless of being a female, a mother and a wife. OK next song... Pretty Hurts....

This song I think every female can relate to on some level. Never being thin enough, having big enough boobs, or pretty enough face, or teeth or whatever it is. This song hits that and drives the point home that perfection is a disease of society.  The song is about a girl who is told by her mother that nothing about her matters except for how she looks, and she carries this with her through her life and it destroys her on the inside. Magazines nowadays tell us how to be thinner, have crash diets and ways to look better but no one discusses what this does to you on the inside. No one discusses the pain that pills and surgeries and diets don't take away. The self loathing, the negative self talk, how it feels to be rejected by peers or boys. In the beginning of the song Beyonce is asked what her aspiration is and she says 

That should be something so easy to be yet it seems so hard to achieve in this day and age because of all of society's expectations. The lyrics, "Ain't no doctor or pill that can take the pain away. The pain's inside and nobody frees you from your body. It's the soul, it's the soul that needs surgery," hits home for me and I am sure it does for many other females too. I think for someone like Beyonce to make a song like this and put it out there that this type of thinking isn't OK shows the type of role model she is for young girls. She doesn't sing about getting high or drunk in her music she sings about stuff that matters, stuff that needs to be talked about, stuff that young and older women can relate to. 

If you have a chance and have HBO watch the On The Run Tour with Jay-Z and Beyonce, you might be able to find it on youtube if you don't have HBO, but it's worth seeing. These two are an awesome couple and Beyonce has really shown her true colors this past year with her music.