All Analyze the Queen

Turns out, booty shaking and stamping your husband’s last name on a product of your own creativity makes a lot of folks question your feminist values. (Beyoncé recently told Vogue UK that though the word “can be extreme…I guess I am a modern-day feminist. I believe in equality.”) Some of the equivocation is no doubt caused by Beyoncé’s slick, pop-princess brand. It is difficult to square the singer’s mainstream packaging with subversion of conventional and sexist views of gender. But ultimately, the policing of feminist cred is the real moral contradiction. And the judgment of how Beyoncé expresses her womanhood is emblematic of the way women in the public eye are routinely picked apart — in particular, it’s a demonstration of the conflicting pressures on black women and the complicated way our bodies and relationships are policed.

Tamara Winfrey Harris has published perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of the public’s perceptions of Beyoncé’s feminism over at Bitch Magazine (Hairpin contributor Anne Helen Petersen is quoted at length), and elsewhere, we’ve got a new leak from the Queen Bey’s new album. A friend described “Grown Woman” as a “B-side ‘End of Time,’” which is pretty spot-on. I’m having issues with the piped-in fake crowd music, but that “’cause I walk with a vengeance” line is too good. (Edit: The leak has been un-leaked.)