14 March 2006

Beyonce the trance


I was not blinking at all. It seemed that I wasn't. I fell into a trance watching Beyonce' vibrate on screen.

It was only after that video that I realized that I did not even remember what the song was or what it was saying. It was the first time that I heard it. All I remembered was Beyonce', her breasts, round butt and long nicely tanned legs.

Most girl teeners simply love 21-year old Beyonce' Knowles. As an advocate of sexual rights, I have would have no right to say that Beyonce's promotion of women's sexual expression is oppressive. It should not be oppressive but liberating instead. But watching her video everyday, everytime I tune in to MTV, somehow gives me an ill-feeling, a kind of discomfort that I would have to confront.

I took a glimpse of Beyonce's profile on the web. She is certainly a very talented musician. She is an artist, an award-winner. There is no doubt that she is a woman of substance.

Beyonce's beauty and stylish function glared at me when an ad on her web revealed that she is promoting a line of dresses, lotion, lipstick and perfume. Oh, I thought she would promote someone like the Philippine liposuction doctor Vicki Belo . I see now that Beyonce' herself is the advertisement.

Saying this about Beyonce is no way saying that she is not a liberating woman character in popular culture. Her confidence in her body has taught a lot of teeners and non-teeners like myself that a woman's body is beautiful, it should be carried with confidence, not something to be hidden.

But I think what makes me wary about the vibrating Beyonce' is that too much of her would make me want to be like her--even if I am not a teener. Just like reinforcement theory in communication. She is just so perfect. If only she can go beneath her glamour and show me the human and not just the advertisement, I would be much more confortable watching her. And she would be definitely be to me a feminist icon in popular culture.

What I fear in the sexually liberating pop-feminism's oppressive tendency is not really the sex, but its part in the propagation of a standard or set of standards that demands too much from my empty pocket.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nakaka-trance ngang panoorin si beyonce kasi hindi ka makapaniwala na puro pwet lang nya ang yumayanig hehe. i really hate it when singers with great voices sell their bodies (or booty pala) instead of their songs na lang (like mariah). well, such is life.

hey good post ha! sana you post about other popfemstuff pa. ala kayang lokal counterpart si beyonce at mariah? hehe.