Let’s start by making one thing clear: I bloody love Beyoncé.
She’s Queen Bey, Sasha Fierce, diva-extraordinaire; a mum of three, wife, singer, dancer, actress, political activist, social activist, philanthropist. A powerful, in charge, totally bossing it, all singing, all dancing icon for the millennial lady. She’s the woman that got “
Bootylicious” added to the Oxford English Dictionary. If that isn’t enough, I don’t know what is. Add into the mix that she's the most nominated female artist in Grammy history and has been described by critics as
“the most important and compelling popular musician of the twenty-first century” and it’s difficult to understate her importance to modern culture.
Absurdly, there is even a recently discovered type of horsefly named after her.
Horsefly aside,
a recent revelation has made me question the very foundations of the BeyHive (that's her fan base, for those of you not in the know) - that her most iconic girl power anthem was actually written by five men.
So, with this in mind, does Bey deserve the feminist Halo that she so proudly wears?
When Run The World was released in 2011 it didn’t actually chart that well, peaking at 11 in the UK charts and 29 in the US Billboard Hot 100. Nonetheless, it was catchy, bold, undeniably aggressive, and it made us feel unstoppable. We all wanted to be in
that
video, despite our already proven inability to bust our hips or shake our booties whilst looking in any way graceful (we’ve all tried the Crazy In Love dance at 3am, it’s never attractive). Six years later though, Run The World is considered a cult classic - much unlike Rebecca Black’s Friday and Cher Lloyd’s Swagger Jagger (remember that one?), both of which were released in the same year.
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Beyoncé's Run The World was written by Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Nick van de Wall, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Dave Taylor, Adidja Palmer and Beyoncé. In principle, this songwriting line-up isn’t an issue in itself; after all, there is no rule that says songs that female artists must be written by women. Beyoncé is credited on the titles and given that she’s known for calling the shots in her creative processes, she more than likely had a strong input in its writing. But even if we do ignore the complete omission of even a single of the many talented female songwriters in the music industry from its composition, there is still the reality that the marketing around the track wasn’t quite, shall we say, in-sync with the truth.
In a quote made available to accompany the song’s release, Beyoncé described her motivations for writing Run The World: “
I think about saying the things that women want to say but sometimes are not confident enough to say. I am going to continue to write those songs that give women strength."
Notice how there’s no ‘we’ in there? The message seems to be: “I’m a woman, you’re a woman: this song is speaking on your behalf, acting on your behalf, making statements on your behalf, from a place of shared experience.” But with five male writers, that’s not quite the truth. The truth is that the song that makes us feel so in charge was, essentially, shaped by men without any direct exposure to - for want of a better term - the "female experience" (read: catcalling, pay disparity, inequality and mansplaining, among other things). Ironically, the song itself has been also criticised for being sexist against men.
Shortly after the release of Run The World, Beyoncé gave an interview in Billboard magazine during which she was asked about the concept of power in the context of female empowerment:
“To me, it's about setting a good example, and not abusing your power!” Then the question must be asked... is it not an abuse of the power that Beyoncé holds to sell the song in this way?
Now, I’m not saying that she’s not a feminist or that she hasn’t inspired and empowered many women during her career but simply that in this case, it was misleading to sell a song that was written almost exclusively by men as something rooted in females taking ownership. It is tantamount to commodifying feminism.
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Much has been made of Beyoncé's decision to perform in front of a huge sign reading FEMINIST during her 2013 Mrs Carter world tour, and this is certainly not the first time that Beyoncé's brand of feminism has been challenged. I absolutely can’t agree with those much-repeated critics who say her sexualised stage presence negates her feminist qualities - the woman is living, breathing proof that you can wear glitter, look sexy and make a success of yourself, all at once. Among her more prominent critics are Annie Lennox, who described her as “feminism lite” which exists for primarily commercial purposes, and Chimamanda Adichie, whose powerful TED talk We Should All Be Feminists Beyoncé sampled in her 2013 single ****Flawless. Adichie was somewhat kinder: “Her type of feminism is not mine, as it is the kind that, at the same time, gives quite a lot of space to the necessity of men.”
Her 2017 album, Lemonade, opened a whole new can of worms in the "is she/isn't she" debate, taking on all manner of topics and stereotypes that could probably fill another 20 articles. But w
hether you’re part of the BeyHive or the anti-Beyoncé brigade, there’s little denying that she inspires and empowers women across the world. Clearly, there is a disconnect between the message of her most powerfully "feminist" song and its construction. M
aybe more than anything we should herald Beyoncé as a woman willing to use her status, self-expression and songwriting to highlight issues such as gender, race and violence, which is in itself a feminist act.
My verdict: she’s still the boss.
