Beyonce Essay Example

Beyoncé is a world-renowned singer-songwriter and actress with 223 million followers on social media and an extremely successful career. She is largely influential with her audience from all over the world and was the most-nominated female artist in Grammy history. Beyoncé consistently supports female empowerment, embraces her heritage, and presents herself as a positive role model. Beyoncé uses her large platform and her music to send messages to her listeners and push the boundaries of music with social justice. She focuses her influence on social justice issues related to race, gender, and queer identity. Musicians, like Beyonce, are better equipped than athletes to get their message out to their audience because they have a more universal platform, and their art form can serve as a direct form of protest. 

The book I read, Beyoncé in the World: Making Meaning with Queen Bey in Troubled Times, highlights how she uses her prominence as an entertainer to disrupt racial and political boundaries. She uses her influence to fight for issues relating to race by asserting a Black identity while also trying to expand that so that more people will have an understanding of the culture. Her main involvement regarding gender issues is the organization she co-founded with Gucci, Chime for Change. It empowers women and girls through education, health, and justice. Similar to others with large platforms, Beyoncé has used her’s to protest against racial violence and injustice, as well as supporting the feminist movement and the LGBTQ+ community. While she uses social media as a tool to get her message across, like other prominent figures, she also uses other strategies to effectively advocate for her beliefs. 

In contrast to athletes, artists like Beyoncé can use their art forms as a more effective means of protest. This is because music is an audio art form, and is commonly accompanied by visual art in the form of music videos, both of which can express a message. She uses her large social media platform to constitute creative control and construct her public voice, similar to athletes. However, the main way she expresses her protest is through her music. This is partly because of how well-known she is as a public figure, where her presence has the ability to draw away from the issue at hand. Beyoncé and her husband, Jay Z, had attended a Trayvon Martin rally, but their appearance distracted from the rally. Due to this, she is required to rely more on her lyrics and symbolism drawn out in music videos to show her support against racial and gender inequality issues. One thing that she works into her music is the word “slay”, which might just be thought of as a slang term, however, there is a deeper meaning behind it. “For Black women, the act of slaying has built into itself contestation, resistance, healing, and remaking.” (Baade and McGee 35). She uses this term to connect to the African American queer community and empower women as well, which is one of the main purposes of her music. Beyoncé also makes a point to add African American culture into her music. For example, she was the first Black woman to headline Coachella and for her performance, she brought in cultural references and performed the Black national anthem. The most revolutionary way she had used her music was through Lemonade, specifically the visual album. The book described it as, “Lemonade’s view into very personal struggles around infidelity, self-worth, and reclamation can also be understood as a metaphor for African American women’s complicated relationship with America.” (Baade and McGee 37). This connects to two of the main issues she fights for, the feminist movement and protesting racial injustice. The reason that the way musicians, like Beyoncé, protest is more effective than athletes is that their talent can be used as a protest. The very thing that they’re recognized for can make a difference, as opposed to the idea of “shut up and play” when referring to athletes. While athletes can use the platform their talent has given them to protest through social media, they can’t actively protest while playing. This means that musicians have more time where they can actively fight for their beliefs, making it more impactful.

The use of art for protest reaches more people because music is more universal than sports. Sports are indeed played all over the world, but they differ based on the country and may not be as easily accessible in some. However, music is listened to and easily accessible everywhere. Beyoncé tours and performs worldwide, and while she does this she builds her international fandom. This means that more people are listening to her music, so it’s reaching multiple countries and groups of people. She works very hard to bring local issues to a global scale. Her music “demonstrates Beyoncé’s tireless efforts to connect the local with the global and to celebrate Blackness everywhere, especially in the commercialized spaces she has accessed (2019a).” (Baade and McGee XIV). Her platform has allowed her to not only have influence as a musician but also as an actress. This particular quote focused on how she made an album to accompany her involvement in the live-action Lion King, which helps embrace African culture. Both movies and music have the ability to reach a wider audience, however, sports don’t necessarily have the same effect. In the US, we see a lot of activism in the NFL, like when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the anthem. While this is important in our country, it can’t reach other countries as much. This is due to the fact that while football is an extremely popular sport in the US, it isn’t very popular in other countries, so people don’t have as much of an interest in it. This means that they most likely won’t be paying as much attention to the issues these football players are trying to draw attention to. 

While there are a lot of differences between musicians and athletes, there are multiple ways that their social activism is similar. The main similarity is the use of social media between them. Beyoncé and athletes both use social media as a way to express themselves and what they stand for. It’s a large form of protest for them because it allows them to get their message across to a large number of people. They also both receive backlash for the social justice work they do. There were “... earlier criticisms of feminists who accused the pop star of usurping, and thereby deradicalizing, their political message, perhaps best exemplified when she stood in front of a “FEMINIST” sign at MTV’S Video Music Awards show in 2014 after performing a provocative pole dance.” (Baade and McGee XV). People who agreed with the message she intended disagreed with the way she did it. This relates to the way Kaepernick kneeled for the anthem and faced a lot of backlash for it. People didn’t agree with the way he had gone about protesting. One athlete that I thought was particularly similar to Beyoncé was Serena Williams. They use their platforms to fight for the same issues, like female rights, race, and LGBTQ+ rights. Both are also often commented on for their bodies, Serena for not being super skinny, and Beyoncé is often sexualized. In response to this, both of them have used their platforms to build confidence in African American women. However, Beyoncé has a larger platform, especially since tennis isn’t a super popular sport so some may not be as familiar with Williams as they are with Beyoncé. This allows her to be better equipped to get her message across to her audience. 

Overall, Beyoncé and other musicians have a better platform to raise awareness on social issues. They can reach more people and express their message in a way that everyone could understand because it comes from interpreting lyrics and visual cues in music and is relatable, so musicians reach a larger audience and are able to impact more people. This allows them to be better equipped as activists and gives them a better chance to make an impact.