Throughout the article “Moving Beyond Pain” the author criticizes and analyzes Beyonce’s album Lemonade. In the album Lemonade the author Hooks talks about some positive aspects of the album by mentioning how there are  “positively exploits images of black female bodies—placing them at the center, making them the norm.” There are diverse visual representations of ordinary black females who are portrayed as if they are royals, but Beyonce was seen with a casual sports clothes which confused me a bit because if the other black females were seen as royals, then why wasn’t she. Hooks goes on by talking about negative aspects of Lemonade since it portrays black females as always being the “victim” which is not completely true in my cases. Adding on, there is also a portrayal of black females being violent when they are betrayed by their men. Hooks criticizes Beyonce for this and mentions how in general, violence is never the answer to “seize power and create self-love and self-esteem through violent acts”, but Beyonce fails to showcase this among black females. Instead there is a scene in Lemonade where Beyonce’s character immediate response to her man’s betrayal is rage in which the character destroys cars with a bat and destroys with “no shame”.

Something that I agree with Hooks is how the scene in Lemonade made violence look sexy and eroticized and how it is not a way to “undercut the prevailing cultural sentiment that it is acceptable to use violence to reinforce domination, especially in relations between men and women. Violence does not create positive change.” Violence is never the answer for relationships, there should always be peace among every relationships, there are times when relationships get into arguments but it should be resolved without violence involved.

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