The
Black woman has long been seen as an anomaly of sorts when it pertains to
gender-assignments as well as an object, for lack of a better term, to be
desired, reviled, castigated, and celebrated. There are a plethora of
stereotypes that have been wantonly assigned to, be they egregious or
haphazardly heaped upon, the woman of color in the good ole’ U.S.A. and even
the world. Both Black and white Americans, male and female, have deemed the
Black woman as “strong” and “independent” due to the matriarchal leadership
role(s) they had to assume do to the dehumanizing and degrading experiences of
American slavery. Yes, Black women had to be strong when they were oft times
forced to rear their children, as well as Massa’s children, without the aid and
assistance of a consistent male figure (mainly due to the perpetual state of
unknowing and absence of the Black, and white, male due to the selling and
trading of the Black male body/slave within the institution of slavery and the
absentee fatherism of the white male planter). Yes, they had to try their
damnedest to shield their children, for as long as they could, from the
hardships, both physical and psychological, of Black American enslavement in
the United States—for the most part on their own. Yes, they had to endure the
wrath of a jealous white mistress who hated them because of their (romantic, if
you can call it that) relationships, be them forced or unforced, with their
husbands. Yes, they had to teach their daughters how the ins and outs to avoid
constant harassment from the sadistically grotesque sexual yearnings of their
Massas. And yes, they had to be the burden barer and uplifter of the Black man
when he was perpetually raped of his manhood, fatherhood, personhood, and mere
humanity at the hands and psychologically warping fantasies of the white slave
owner. But even more, she had to be independently strong in combating the
stereotype that she, and all of Black womanhood, was a walking metaphor for
sexual deviancy and licentiousness comparable to the Biblical Jezebel; an
indictment of Black womanhood that fostered the notion that the Black woman was
evil because of her physicality or sensuality which was only a piss-poor excuse
for the white male’s need for dominance, specifically sexual, over a being that
was considered chattel/property, thus making Antebellum era slavery a
sexual-free-for-all for the white male who was “privileged” enough and wealthy
enough to own a Black female slave.
But
what has always been lurking in the mind of America is the perpetual gaze, if
not physical and psychoanalytical gaze of the Black woman---and her aesthetics
seemed to be a source or focal point of admiration and abomination and not
necessarily in that order. From Saartijie "Sara" Baartman to
Josephine Baker to Beyoncé, the Black female body, be it extremely talented-
you know dancing and singing better than the average human- or just
aesthetically different from the physical endowments and make-up of the
prototypical non-colored European woman-- you know, big thighs and buttocks and
a sassy, alluring switch/sway in the walk-- has been on public display, for
gregarious gawking and erotic entertainment, for as long as Modern History can
remember. But, what happens when the Hottentot snatches a page from the
Afrocentric, Back-to-Africa, be proud of the Western Coast of a
huge-ass-continent-of-Africa Negro and proclaims its love of the skin,
appendages, and physical features that were bestowed upon it by the Southern
Hemisphere? Oh, and does it on America's fourth biggest holiday (After
Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day). Well, you have Black Womanist
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter going from Hottentot to Hotep to, even, Black
Nationalist vis-a-vis worldly acclaim, monetary fortune, and international
influence.
Bey
has taken heat from the entire U.S. Pop Culture Brigade (written, visual, and
auditory media outlets). Some criticism has been supportive of her stance while
much, both Black and white, has been negatively critical of either the
aesthetics of the performance, the place or time, and even the 2016
"space"-- you know after, during, and more than likely before a
killing of another Black civilian body at the hands of authoritative police
figures. I believe this is because we, as Americans, both black and white males
and females, have an issue with Eve, the mother of all, who had to have been
black since everyone who has historically been born and raised in that portion
of Africa where the Judeo-Christian Bible tells us the Garden of Eden was
located (Mesopotamia, Iran, or the Persian Gulf, which ain't to far east of the
continent of Africa, so she had to have had a dark tint to her skin which is
the antithesis of our European artistry and illustrations of a Kate
Winslet-looking Eve) , schooling us all the while massively and broadly
disseminating her opinion of Humanity in a holistic manner--at the
mother-fuckin' Super Bowl Half Time Show, I might add. Beyoncé’s deliberate
call for and public display of empathy and sympathy for the fallen Black lives
that should've mattered to the American public, as well as the world, just as
much as those American bodies that are lauded as heroic when dying while
fighting for the supposed freedoms and democratic society of states united in
America via a respect of fatigues, flags, and military follies has disrupted
the comforting narrative of the carefree, “Single Lady” songstress whose
musical persona to date focused on fun times, love relationships and female
empowerment. By adding the veneer of race, and creating an intersectional
perspective (and critique) to her music, Beyoncé the “Happy Black Girl”
entertainer became Beyoncé “Menace to Society.”
Trespassing the boundaries of gender
representation by using the voices of New Orleanians Messy Mya and Big Freedia,
men who were and are comfortable claiming alternative ways of “doing”
masculinity, even pushing the boundaries of femininity, Beyoncé´ reminds the world and acknowledges
how much of popular culture is built on the outliers of gender nonconforming
men…(Madonna’s Vogue, anyone?). Proclaiming a staunch love of self, family, and
blackness vis-à-vis Afros and big noses, she disrupts the fun single lady
persona and presents us with a Black mama determined to receive and give the
love she and her family deserve, and in turn extends that love to all of the
black mamas whose babies have afros and whose men have big noses...this line
makes Formation, in the words of a late 90’s tee shirt “A Black Thang” (You
wouldn’t understand) This intersectional approach, claiming race, and gender is
further complicated by space. Beyoncé brings the entire south, the land
historically (and currently) rooted in Black/African enslavement and
European/White domination as her
homeland, her place of creation. Her
creation has co-opted the old Louisianan notion of Creole as exception and
borne out the most “basic” forms of Blackness…a Texas Bama. Borne of the
shortening of the word Alabama, and used to generally describe a country
bumpkin type character, the Texas Bama that is Beyoncé is anything but
unsophisticated. Indeed she is overly polished. Her genteel deep country lilt
in her speaking voice gives listeners an immediate comfort which is ultimately
disheveled by the business acumen, work ethic, drive for perfectionism and
professionalism that has become synonymous with the Beyoncé brand.
Wrapping her
meaning making into representation by natural haired black women of all skin
tones dressed to mimic the garb of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense is
a direct reclamation of history, power and rebellion. In one fell swoop, she
reclaims beauty standards AND comprehensive Black power, two things which are
often polar opposites and especially not compatible in Eurocentric America’s
viewing of Black women and their bodies. The Super Bowl performance of
Formation forced white American viewers to accept both a failure of the program
to degrade, define and control Black womanhood but also a failure to destroy
the legacy of the Black Panther Party (and with it the continued struggle for
Black liberation) which celebrated the 50th anniversary of its
founding during the week following the performance. In performing the song
Formation, Beyoncé moves not simply from Hottentot to Hotep, but even further
to Black Womanist. Embracing family, community, empowerment and love of self,
layering race, gender, class and political agency, she throws down the gauntlet
for those who made claims to love her and her music while simultaneously daring
them to utter a word of critique. Rejecting the narrative of the tragic black
entertainer, the obnoxious diva and the unappreciated soulful earth mother,
Formation and Beyoncé take us back and bring us forward in one moment. Her
audacious performance yells for a new agenda and rejects all that came before,
including the overarching Eurocentric dictates of what Black womanhood should
be, and shows instead what her Black womanism is.
- Giovanni Dortch & Gee Joyner
