Confidence Borne From Lemonade (By Emma Eekhoff)
/The other night, while mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed, I discovered an article on a conservative website entitled “How Beyoncé is Destroying your Daughter,” referring to her new album, Lemonade. I understand all American citizens have the right to free speech, and I also know that many Americans follow the doctrine of laissez-faire.
The article, written by a male, went into detail about how Beyoncé is apparently showcasing to our daughters “how to use sex as a weapon to possess and to gain revenge, find self-worth in your money and the expensive things you can buy, speak with the grace and femininity of a drunken frat boy, saying things like ‘suck on my b*lls’, never hesitate to f*** a b***h up, express your empowerment with middle fingers, and eat corn bread and collard greens.”
I find this to be complete ludicrous. Beyoncé knows her audience and she wouldn’t be teaching young men and women to be like that.
All of these claims are taken out of context from the album, just as you can manipulate the language in The Bible to make everyone look misleading. The way one finds confidence in their self is the most unique process.
If you analyze the album, it is visually thematic in figuring out that her husband was unfaithful, so the album is partitioned by song through stages of acceptance, denial, anger, guilt, sadness, and hope.
Another facet to the album was the celebration of Beyoncé's blackness; of who she simply is. I think this is where the media’s glasses get foggy as to what she is implying, and where they get the ammo to shame her for being proud and comfortable in her own skin. Beyoncé will be an example for women to love who they are, even if the world calls her contrary.
With the title Lemonade, is you can hypothesize that Beyoncé meant to ‘make lemonade with the lemons that life gave her.’ Beyoncé is far from ruining our daughters. She is displaying to them that is it okay to feel what you want to feel, but also that you need to feel your worth and not to allow an men to break you down.
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Hello, I’m Emma Eekhoff. I’m a 17-year-old that would rather be networking for business than at a party with my high school friends. I’m not afraid to share my stance on something, whether it is an art form like music or recent events in the world. I’ve been writing in a journalist setting for only a few years, through my high school’s online newspaper, The Growl Online or for a music blog. I love to connect and network with new people in the worlds of business and music, travel to new places and eat new interesting foods.
Follow & connect with me on Social Media: Instagram / Twitter / eekhoffemma@gmail.com
