The Female Black Body in Beyonce's Visual Album, Lemonade

The Beyonce's album, Lemonade is an exquisite masterpiece that addresses the theme of black women's empowerment and represents a female's black body. History depicts females as lesser beings who suffer chauvinism, discrimination, oppression, and other forms of female prejudices. The feminist movement began as a result in 1960, but unfortunately, the revolution was biased against the black females based on their race (Whittier 4). A need, therefore, arose that the black women had their movement to counter their problems and clear the then negative image of black womanhood. The visual song by Beyonce, Lemonade, shot in 2016 shows the pride of having a female's black body and the associated social, economic, and political achievements that resulted from the initiated black feminist movement in the past.

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The video shows the pride and the power in women with the black heritage. The song represents the preciousness of a female's black body and the confidence required of that every black woman. The sixty-minute long visual song shows the black women celebrating themselves at its display (Hartmann 5). It features Beyonce on a throne, and besides her are Serena Williams and other famous black women.

The backup dancers in the song are all in black outfits and their natural hair, a set stage that boldly depicts black heritage and pride. The album also references the culture of Louisiana-Creole and Hurricane Katrina from the period of antebellum with its clothing and the present day represented with her using the Big Freedia (Ogbar 6). The album shows that a black woman must own her nature confidently as a black, and own her femininity as a female or a woman. The featured celebrities in the Lemonade are Warsan Shire, Serena Williams, Zendaya, Quvenzhane Wallis, Amandla Stenberg, and the mothers of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner holding their dead son's photos (Hartmann 6). Beyonce encourages the black women and says that when life gives them a lemon, then they must prepare lemonade. This statement, which became the album's title, was informed by the saying of the Jay-Z's grandmother's birthday clause that states, "I was given lemons from which I made lemonade."

Beyonce quote's Malcolm X in the feature film, and says that "black women are the most disrespected people in America." However, regardless of the sufferings, the mentioned women are seen as those who stood up tall, with pride. The symbol that stands out in the video is when Beyonce recites, she experienced thickened skin of the devil on her feet, and she bathed and bleached. Also, the area where she flashes her red dress off represents the idea of new life and letting go of the physical maintenance a black woman may need to have, but permit the natural appearance that would command respect and approval from both the white and black community.

The video states that black woman needs respect regardless of her hair and color. The hair and the texture of the body may cause worries for the school going black children and sometimes led to penalization. However, the song captures the difficulties of keeping up with such ideologies and the fear of rejection. She states that she currently feels like letting the hair be the way she slept on it, that is, flat on one side but still deserves respect. The video promotes awareness regarding the societal attitude towards a black female's body and calls for equality.

The film tries to depict black females as people who also have their various forms of pride and success. Some jobs do not allow wearing an afro and dreadlocks in the hair at the workplace. These styles are sometimes considered unprofessional. However, in the Lemonade, Beyonce depicts pride of being black in these forms of styles, and the look is beautiful, empowering, and powerful. The film emphasizes the beauty of being black. Every style that Beyonce chose for the show represents the virtue of being black in various ways. The black women confidentiality is portrayed with their natural hair, outfits, the range of skin complexions, and the ages. All these elements, in one way or the other, reflect the standards of beauty, and families of the African-American culture. The celebration of the blacks in the video is unique and defined in a manner that the mainstream pop never does, and therefore, Lemonade came to show the meaning of the black girl magic (Hartmann 6).

Lemonade gives the milestones of the female Blacks visually, musically, symbolically, and lyrically. The story told in the song is that of infidelity, depression, anger, and worthiness issues (Miles 138). She underscores these factors using the words of Warsan Shire, a renowned poet. The song then ends with a message of hope, redemption, forgiveness, and empowerment that elaborates that the black women are not weak no matter the past pains and sufferings.

Conclusion

Beyonce encourages black women to rise beyond the stereotypical attitude, have high self-esteem, and love themselves. She empowers women to work and keep earning their own money. The video shows the self-empowered black women and their various achievements in life. The foundation message of the song is to encourage black women to see the beauty of having a black body and the different successes they can make in life.

Works Cited

Hartmann, Johanna. "Sound, Vision, and Embodied Performativity in Beyonce Knowles' Visual Album Lemonade (2016)." European journal of American studies 12-4 (2017).

Miles, Corey. "Beyonce's Lemonade: When Life Gave Us Lemons, We Saved the World." (2017): 136-138.

Ogbar, Jeffrey OG. Black power: Radical politics and African American identity. JHU Press, 2005.Whittier, Nancy. Feminist generations: The persistence of the radical women's movement. Temple University Press, 2010.