Her Life, Her Body, Her Heritage

August 10, 2018 4:13 AM

As Beyonce takes over Vogue Magazine, she has some stuff to say. Beyoncé In Her Own Words. (SL Vogue)
posted by hippybear (7 comments total)

I loved this essay but I must admit the thing that went through my head at the end of it was “I wonder if Anna Wintour asked someone what FUPA is or googled it?”
posted by like_neon at 5:06 AM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

So many artists who become popular in their youth remain mired in the same themes and artistic approaches of that time period. Beyonce is not just a beautiful testament to black womanhood, she's a triumph of artistic maturity. Many adults don't reach her maturation and self-actualization. The fact that she's done it while starting from a place of managed teenage pop/R&B stardom is truly incredible. It is all too easy to get broken or become facile in that atmosphere, but she's always kept pushing herself and always reaches for new, deeper levels of artistic expression and understanding. People who dismiss her as fluff and manufactured fanbait don't give her a thousandth of the credit she deserves.
posted by Anonymous at 8:08 AM on August 10, 2018

She is also an example of someone who clearly appreciates the position and fame she's worked for and sees it as a platform on which to elevate other artists and thinkers who otherwise would not get this level of attention. The ideas she shares about race and womanhood and family--specifically with respect to blackness--are aggressively ignored by the rest of the world, but she gives them a place where we can't help but pay attention.
posted by Anonymous at 8:13 AM on August 10, 2018

FUPA made my dictionary word of the week on twitter. Yes, I had to see just exactly what it meant! Beyonce is an admirable person, no doubt.
posted by nofundy at 12:42 PM on August 10, 2018

Expanding outward on her framing of her heritage: Arica Coleman in Time, on The Complicated History Behind Beyonce's Discovery About the 'Love' Between Her Slave-Owning and Enslaved Ancestors.
But caution must be used when describing relationships that appear consensual using the language of love and romance. We cannot know what was in the hearts of Beyoncé’s ancestors, or any person who does not leave a record of their emotions, but we can know about the society in which they lived. Complex dynamics of power are at work when we talk about sex within slavery, and the enslaved negotiated those forces on a daily basis in order to survive.
posted by TwoStride at 6:32 PM on August 10, 2018

"It's important to me that they see themselves as CEOs"
posted by R.F.Simpson at 4:15 AM on August 11, 2018

In the 125 year history of Vogue, this is the first cover shot by a black photographer.
posted by octothorpe at 9:15 AM on August 11, 2018 [3 favorites]