11/05/2016 bell hooks on Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' ­ e­flux conversations

http://conversations.e­flux.com/t/bell­hooks­on­beyonces­lemonade/3629 1/6

bell hooks on Beyoncé’s‘Lemonade’

karenarchey 13h

bell hooks writes about Beyoncé's Lemonade, and she doesn't seemparticularly impressed. hooks immediately contextualizes Lemonade as"capitalist money making at its best," and dismisses Beyoncé's efforts asthe album engages capitalism. The alternative hooks envisions seems tobe total rejection of the patriarchy. "To truly be free, we must choosebeyond simply surviving adversity, we must dare to create lives ofsustained optimal well­being and joy." Read hooks on Lemonade below,

11/05/2016 bell hooks on Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' ­ e­flux conversations

http://conversations.e­flux.com/t/bell­hooks­on­beyonces­lemonade/3629 2/6

the original version via her foundation website blog here.

Fresh lemonade is my drink of choice. In my small Kentucky town,beautiful black, brown, and white girls set up their lemonade standsand practice the art of money making—it’s business. As a grownblack woman who believes in the manifesto “Girl, get your moneystraight” my first response to Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade,was WOW—this is the business of capitalist money making at itsbest.

Viewers who like to suggest Lemonade was created solely orprimarily for black female audiences are missing the point.Commodities, irrespective of their subject matter, are made,produced, and marketed to entice any and all consumers. Beyoncé’saudience is the world and that world of business and money­makinghas no color.

What makes this production—this commodity—daring is its subjectmatter. Obviously Lemonade positively exploits images of blackfemale bodies—placing them at the center, making them the norm.In this visual narrative, there are diverse representations (blackfemale bodies come in all sizes, shapes, and textures with all mannerof big hair). Portraits of ordinary everyday black women arespotlighted, poised as though they are royalty. The unnamed,unidentified mothers of murdered young black males are each givenpride of place. Real life images of ordinary, overweight not dressedup bodies are placed within a visual backdrop that includes stylized,choreographed, fashion plate fantasy representations. Despite all theglamorous showcasing of Deep South antebellum fashion, when theshow begins Beyoncé as star appears in sporty casual clothing, thecontroversial hoodie. Concurrently, the scantily­clothed dancingimage of athlete Serena Williams also evokes sportswear. (Speakingof commodification, in the real life frame Beyoncé’s new line ofsportswear, Ivy Park, is in the process of being marketed right now).

Lemonade offers viewers a visual extravaganza—a display of blackfemale bodies that transgresses all boundaries. It’s all about thebody, and the body as commodity. This is certainly not radical orrevolutionary. From slavery to the present day, black female bodies,

11/05/2016 bell hooks on Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' ­ e­flux conversations

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clothed and unclothed, have been bought and sold. What makes thiscommodification different in Lemonade is intent; its purpose is toseduce, celebrate, and delight—to challenge the ongoing present daydevaluation and dehumanization of the black female body.Throughout Lemonade the black female body is utterly­aestheticized—its beauty a powerful in your face confrontation. This is no newoffering. Images like these were first seen in Julie Dash’sgroundbreaking film Daughters of the Dust shot by the brilliantcinematographer Arthur Jafa. Many of the black and white stillimages of women and nature are reminiscent of the transformativeand innovative contemporary photography of Carrie Mae Weems.She has continually offered decolonized radical revisioning of theblack female body.

It is the broad scope of Lemonade’s visual landscape that makes it sodistinctive—the construction of a powerfully symbolic black femalesisterhood that resists invisibility, that refuses to be silent. This inand of itself is no small feat—it shifts the gaze of white mainstreamculture. It challenges us all to look anew, to radically revision howwe see the black female body. However, this radical repositioning ofblack female images does not truly overshadow or changeconventional sexist constructions of black female identity.

Even though Beyoncé and her creative collaborators daringly offermultidimensional images of black female life, much of the albumstays within a conventional stereotypical framework, where theblack woman is always a victim. Although based on the real­lifeexperience of Beyoncé, Lemonade is a fantasy fictional narrativewith Beyoncé starring as the lead character. This work begins with astory of pain and betrayal highlighting the trauma it produces. Thestory is as old as the ballad of “Frankie and Johnny” (“he was myman alright, but he done me wrong”). Like the fictional Frankie,Beyoncé’s character responds to her man’s betrayal with rage. Shewreaks violence. And even though the father in the song “Daddy’sLessons” gives her a rifle warning her about men, she does not shoother man. She dons a magnificently designed golden yellow gown,boldly struts through the street with baseball bat in hand, randomlysmashing cars. In this scene, the goddess­like character of Beyoncéis sexualized along with her acts of emotional violence, like

11/05/2016 bell hooks on Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' ­ e­flux conversations

http://conversations.e­flux.com/t/bell­hooks­on­beyonces­lemonade/3629 4/6

Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” she destroys with no shame.Among the many mixed messages embedded in Lemonade is thiscelebration of rage. Smug and smiling in her golden garb, Beyoncéis the embodiment of a fantastical female power, which is just that—pure fantasy. Images of female violence undercut a central messageembedded in Lemonade that violence in all its forms, especially theviolence of lies and betrayal, hurts.

Contrary to misguided notions of gender equality, women do not andwill not seize power and create self­love and self­esteem throughviolent acts. Female violence is no more liberatory than maleviolence. And when violence is made to look sexy and eroticized, asin the Lemonade sexy­dress street scene, it does not serve toundercut the prevailing cultural sentiment that it is acceptable to useviolence to reinforce domination, especially in relations betweenmen and women. Violence does not create positive change.

Even though Beyoncé and her creative collaborators make use of thepowerful voice and words of Malcolm X to emphasize the lack ofrespect for black womanhood, simply showcasing beautiful blackbodies does not create a just culture of optimal well being whereblack females can become fully self­actualized and be trulyrespected.

Honoring the self, loving our bodies, is an appropriate stage in theconstruction of healthy self­esteem. This aspect of Lemonade isaffirming. Certainly, to witness Miss Hattie, the 90­year­oldgrandmother of Jay­Z, give her personal testimony that she hassurvived by taking the lemons life handed her and making lemonadeis awesome. All the references to honoring our ancestors and eldersin Lemonade inspire. However, concluding this narrative of hurt andbetrayal with caring images of family and home do not serve asadequate ways to reconcile and heal trauma.

Concurrently, in the world of art­making, a black female creator aspowerfully placed as Beyoncé can both create images and presentviewers with her own interpretation of what those images mean.However, her interpretation cannot stand as truth. For example,Beyoncé uses her non­fictional voice and persona to claim feminism,even to claim, as she does in a recent issue of Elle magazine, “to

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11/05/2016 bell hooks on Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' ­ e­flux conversations

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give clarity to the true meaning” of the term, but her construction offeminism cannot be trusted. Her vision of feminism does not call foran end to patriarchal domination. It’s all about insisting on equalrights for men and women. In the world of fantasy feminism, thereare no class, sex, and race hierarchies that breakdown simplifiedcategories of women and men, no call to challenge and changesystems of domination, no emphasis on intersectionality. In such asimplified worldview, women gaining the freedom to be like mencan be seen as powerful. But it is a false construction of power as somany men, especially black men, do not possess actual power. Andindeed, it is clear that black male cruelty and violence towards blackwomen is a direct outcome of patriarchal exploitation andoppression.

In her fictive world, Beyoncé can name black female pain,poignantly articulated by the passionate poetry of Somali­Britishpoet Warsan Shire, and move through stages evoked by printedwords: Intuition, Denial, Forgiveness, Hope, Reconciliation. In thisfictive world, black female emotional pain can be exposed andrevealed. It can be given voice: this is a vital and essential stage offreedom struggle, but it does not bring exploitation and dominationto an end. No matter how hard women in relationships withpatriarchal men work for change, forgive, and reconcile, men mustdo the work of inner and outer transformation if emotional violenceagainst black females is to end. We see no hint of this in Lemonade.If change is not mutual then black female emotional hurt can bevoiced, but the reality of men inflicting emotional pain will stillcontinue (can we really trust the caring images of Jay Z whichconclude this narrative).

It is only as black women and all women resist patriarchalromanticization of domination in relationships can a healthy self­love emerge that allows every black female, and all females, torefuse to be a victim. Ultimately Lemonade glamorizes a world ofgendered cultural paradox and contradiction. It does not resolve. AsBeyoncé proudly proclaims in the powerful anthem “Freedom”: “Ihad my ups and downs, but I always find the inner­strength to pullmyself up.” To truly be free, we must choose beyond simplysurviving adversity, we must dare to create lives of sustained

11/05/2016 bell hooks on Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' ­ e­flux conversations

http://conversations.e­flux.com/t/bell­hooks­on­beyonces­lemonade/3629 6/6

optimal well­being and joy. In that world, the making and drinkingof lemonade will be a fresh and zestful delight, a real life mixture ofthe bitter and the sweet, and not a measure of our capacity to endurepain, but rather a celebration of our moving beyond pain.

­­bell hooks