Destiny's Child - Independent Women
Seven years later, Beyonce released "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" which caused an international sensation-- even Obama was doing the dance. Beyonce is an impeccably groomed superstar, and that rarest of breeds who has never had a public meldown or even a career misstep, and this is arguably her biggest hit to date.
Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) [Official Video]
In the span of seven years, Beyonce has changed her tune from having power in the relationship ("I only ring your celly when I'm feeling lonely", "Try to control me boy you get dismissed/ Pay my own fun, oh and I pay my own bills/Always 50/50 in relationships) to a sort of passive helplessness ("pull me into your arms, say I'm the one you own" and of course the refrain, "If you like it then you should have put a ring on it"). Beyonce goes from buying her own rings to asking for one from a man who failed to fully appreciate her.
A huge fan of top 40 radio at age fifteen, I was undenaibly influenced by Beyonce's brand of female empowerment; "Independent Women" absolutely helped to prop up my own sense of self as a person, a woman, and what I should or could be in relation to men. She completely refused to spout the "no but yes" drivel of her poppier contemporaries Britney and Christina, who made careers out of perfecting and exploiting the most marketable of all female archetypes: the virgin/whore two-for-one variety pack. Those fake blondes existed only as responses to the men they formed their identities around; for a brief moment, Beyonce existed completely independent of everything but her own power as an individual. Beyonce is obviously still miles ahead of the rest of the class of 2001, but I only regret that young girls listening to Beyonce's latest radio hits --or anyone else's-- will be left wanting for a truly empowering anthem of their own.
I can't help but wonder if the "Independent Woman" of 2001 has gone out of fashion as our national culture has become increasingly macho and militarized over the better part of the last decade. In post-Bush America, we like our men in charge and our women asking for things rather than demanding them as we attempt to restore "American values" and prosperity to our country, whatever those mean today. The left looks to Obama as a talisman of progress in order to quell fears that we're collapsing into a nation of dogmatic Palin-enthusiasts, but the very current war on abortion rights is a war on women, and specficially the powerful, independent woman that Beyonce lauded and proudly self-identified as earlier this decade. In addition, women are often the first to suffer in recessions, and are more likely to turn to work in the sex industry as a last resort to pay the bills. Is the power of being an "independent woman" in America a luxury that we've sacrificed as our country is waging futile wars across the globe and against the rights of its own citizens to return America to what we falsely believe it once was?
In 2009, we now know that Beyonce was a little bit clairvoyant in "Independent Women": "Ladies, it ain't easy bein' independent."
2 comments:
"A huge fan of top 40 radio at age fifteen, I was undeniably influenced by Beyonce's brand of female empowerment; "Independent Women" absolutely helped to prop up my own sense of self as a person, a woman, and what I should or could be in relation to men."
UR SICK.
this is awesome. plz feed me more mainstream musick critiques, miz bangs.
yeah, i thought that claim seemed a little incriminating, but I mean COME ON. It's true. I may not be proud of it, but that's what happens when you're a teen in American suburbs in 2001. You can go a few routes, and sadly in the little x/y point I was in, top 40 etc was closest to preventing social suicide. At least Beyonce was a pretty good nail to step on, all things considering. Although I HATED "Survivor" and everything that came after it. Terrible.
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