Posts

“Moving Beyond Pain” Analysis -Edward

Posted by Edward Mendoza on

In the article, the author talks about Beyonce’s visual album “Lemonade” and what she sees in it after analyzing it. What the author sees is a product made for the world of business making that focuses on and idolizes black bodies and women of all color. She goes on to provide examples to her analysis, like how the exhibit places black female bodies at the center of the action which, in her words, makes them the “norm” and how it puts these regular black women in front of beautiful and lavish backdrops that contrast with the everyday women taking up their forefront. She also credits the exhibit with displaying and representing a sense of black sisterhood that remains indivisible and outspoken, like when she points to how it radically changes our view of black women. To me, I also see what the author states, as I can see the themes that she references in her articles in the piece. I can see the idolization of everyday black women and the strength within black sisterhood that she talks about. What I also see are very powerful images that speak to the everyday women about life and how one should take the world by the reigns and charge forward full of confidence and power. What I also notice is the symbolism contained in the exhibit, like for example how the women are put in front of elegant backgrounds to represent how special and unique they are, no matter race, color or socio economic background and that while they might think they aren’t as powerful, in reality they are extremely powerful and a force to be reckoned with.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

Edward Mendoza

https://engl21001.commons.gc.cuny.edu/author/emendoz001/

Comments ( 3 )

  1. Tyara De Jesus
    I also agree, Hook goes onto acknowledging the fact in Beyonce's album her potrayal of black women is beautiful and powerful. She includes women of all shapes, textures, and sizes. Hook also goes onto shedding light on the parts she feels Beyonce did not do so great on. For example, Beyonce has a street scene in one of her videos in the album in which she smashes a car. She represented violent as "sexy", but in a world where black women are viewed violent, her representation of that was just fake. Black women are put into boxes, and Beyonce Incorporated beautiful black women but didn't do her best in representing the real stuff.
  2. Michelle Ortiz
    I agree with you and Tyara. Hooks does a very well job at analyzing how the female body was presented or portrayed. Hooks mentions how black females are portrayed with power and strength. However, she does mention that Lemonade shows how women of all color are a constant victim of a man's betrayal and how their response is always anger and violence. I found this very interesting because I did not really notice or viewed it in this manner. Maybe Beyonce was trying to express her anger through this video and she thought other women can relate as well. Although, it would have been interesting if she expressed her anger towards a man's betrayal in a different way and not through violence. Great analysis.
  3. Ali Husain
    In your response to the article you mention the use of symbolism "women are put in front of elegant backgrounds to represent how special and unique they are". This was something that I also noticed and wrote about. Agreeing with Michelle and Tyara the author does a great job at analyzing the music video and how the Black female bodies were shown. I liked how you also showed the idolization of everyday women and the strength they had with in their sisterhood because I feel like not many people would have picked that up while reading it the first time. For me I had to read the article a second time to get a more deeper meaning of what the article was saying.

View Comments (3) ...
Skip to toolbar