Hall 1121 Spring 2019

I read the article by Hilton Al’s responding to the album “Lemonade” by Beyonce, what came to my mind right after reading the article is that Beyonce wants to show everyone that girls do not need a man to accomplish something in their career. While before reading the article I thought, that the album was going to be about Jay Z being unfaithful to the female singer. Also what I think Beyonce was trying to do in the album was to sort of encourage all females in the world to do more, and not just waiting for other to do so and when bad things happen, just try your best to get over it (Like what she has done after Jay Z cheating on her). What I didn’t understand was why was Beyonce at the end of the video “Formation” sitting on top of a police car. Did she wanted to show a police car to represent the government? This is the only thing I did not understand about the video “Formation”.

After watching Beyonce’s Lemonade video, so many social problems came to light. The writer of Lemonade is saying that women should come together uplift each other. Also saying that Minorities as a whole are still being affected some way in this corrupt society we live in and something should be done about it. Something that confused me was the very end of the video when she drowned with the police car. I didn’t know if she was saying we should fall under that status quo and let the government pulls us down and stay quiet or was she contradicting herself. After reading the the article “Moving Beyond Pain” I learn the real idea of Feminism is mainly to take away all the things that separate men from women and that lemonade is actually the way to contrast life’s bitter but sweet moments. The author is using facts and the past to persuade us in his/her argument. I like that cause it shows the basically two sides. For Example Bell Hooks first talks about how from young girls were taught to get their money and to be independent but later on in the article he says it’s a fantasy of women to get equal pay as men. throughout reading the article it got me thinking of the way it contradicts itself.

While reading Bell Hook’s article on Beyonce’s Lemonade album I noticed that Hook thinks that Beyonce was positively portraying the image of black women as seen in some of her music videos. As stated in the article, “Lemonade positively exploits images of black female bodies-placing them at the center, making them the norm. From this I would assume that Hook thinks that Beyonce wants black women to feel comfortable in their own skin and bodies. Black women are seen to come in all body sizes, shapes, and textures including afros. Also what I got from this article is that Beyonce is trying to move past her pain by loving herself and relying less on a man. Beyonce went through a rough time with Jay Z when she found out that he cheated on her. She made time for herself to get over it and move on. Throughout her Lemonade album it seems as if she’s encouraging woman to be independent and not feel like they need a man to be complete. In Beyonce’s song Freedom she states, “I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up.” This is Beyonce saying that in life she doesn’t allow the sweet or bitter moments to consume her. She just lives life accordingly. Lastly, Beyonce expresses through her album that life shouldn’t be about the ability to endure pain but honoring the ability to move past it.

I read Hilton Als’ response about Beyonce’s Lemonade video is that it is almost like a guideline for female empowerment. On the last page Hilton said ” Instead of diving deeper into her art, Beyonce gives the world formulas”. This leads me to believe that Beyonce is trying to empower women but they can only do that themselves. She is just laying the ground work for them to actually bring about any kind of change. Hilton also kind of brings up how in this current generation it almost seems like we have “forgotten” about our past. On the fourth page, Hilton brings up how Beyonce’s opening in “Formation” is a call back to Messy Mya and how it kind of brings the song back to southern roots. We kind of are moving on in life so past traditions get left behind. Beyonce is trying to grab at those past traditions and bring them back.

Pavel Nunez

Basically  the writer is saying about  how “Lemonade” made use of explaining the black female’s body. The author explains how Beyonce’s album attracts people of black females(and make them the norm) and how the black female body comes in all sizes, shapes, and textures with all manner of big hair and also  to challenge the devaluation and dehumanization of the black female body The writer makes me have an understanding of the picture of a black woman’s life which was interesting. The author also portray black women to always be the victim and explains why.

What I learned from the article is that “Lemonade”  is showing a clear message to the readers of what black female goes through in this time and the history of it .

Also based on their writing, I would like to use the element of meaning in my own writing because in this article it gives more meaning of Beyonce and how black women are portrayed as the victim. One bad thing I wouldn’t add is how long the story is. To me it simply would make me lose interest if  an article has a lot of pages unless it has a good title that is eye catching. Another is 3 different things that relate to each other just like the article, which was Beyonce herself, black women and lemonade.

While reading Hilton Al‘s response to Beyonce “Lemonade”, some things I learned was how Beyonce had advocated for women(feminism) rights, such as saying “Beyonce tells some dude to fuck off” to show that she doesn’t need a male to help her in her career. Another example, Beyonce mentioned about a “black female body  as a message of self empowerment”, advocating the women to embrace their femininity, and not be self conscious of your body. The confusing parts in the response,” she is telling someone to fuck off,though this time he…. is Jay Z”. I did some research and it mentioned as rumors that spread and caused Beyonce to make two songs against Jay Z and the supposedly infidelity,however, “Ring The Alarm” was not about Rihanna and Jay Z claimed byBeyonce’s editor. Another part that was confusing in the article, ” Beyonce…sister…was caught on camera beating Jay Z’s ass in a hotel elevator”. I was confused what had caused the sister to be aggressive and make it sound like its the male(Jay Z) wrong doings without a reason. But in the end, Beyonce as an individual has been treated indifferently by society and I guess is sick of it? This article is a little biased, when arguing for Beyonce’s perspective. Some parts of the article that I would like to include in my own writing, is to have information that has affected the individual, changing who they are later down in the future.

What the writer is saying about “Lemonade” that I find interesting is how it represents the black female’s images. The author explains how Beyonce’s album attracts the audience of black females and how the black female body comes in all sizes, shapes, and textures with all manner of big hair. The writer makes me have an understanding of how the album depicts images of a black woman’s life. There always the victim. What I learned from this article is that Lemonade was basically a message to the world about what the black female goes through. All this time I thought it was just about how Jay-Z allegedly cheated on beyonce, but it’s a deeper meaning to that. Beyonce being the victim which makes her album portrays the black female as always the victim in mostly every situation they go through. What I want to do in my writing that the writer does in theirs use distinctive words and phrases and vocabulary that connect with their reader with what is going on in society today. Also, in my pop culture assignment, I want to explain how the situations the person I chose went through made them the person they are today and how they had a big impact on their audience.

Hi everyone!  For Tuesday, please read and annotate one or the other (or both!) of these two articles about Beyonce’s LEMONADE:

HILTON ALS or bell hooks 

Please write and post a response of approx 200 words answering some or all of these questions — What is this writer saying about “Lemonade” that you find interesting (or confusing/ annoying?)  What did you learn from their article? And what are they doing in their writing that you would or would not like to do in your own writing?

Category: Pop Culture!

Also, please think about what pop culture artifact you would like to write about (or do a creative project about) for your next paper. This “artifact” can be a song, a video, a book, a tv show, a movie, a youtube channel, a video game,  etc… It does need to deal with social issues, but remember, most music these days does this (drugs, money, gender issues, etc…) and television often does too. Nick also mentioned that he wanted to write about issues of gender inequality in gaming– that’s great! The games he’s dealing with may not be ABOUT gender inequality directly, but he will still be able to discuss social issues– so I will accept it! 

You will need to know your artifact for next Thursday’s homework, but don’t worry about what your final paper or project will be yet. We’ll spend some time figuring those things out in class.

By the way, if you’re interested, a friend of mine just posted this story about something we talked about in class: “why white school districts have so much more money” HERE