Why Beyonce’s New British Vogue Cover Feels Like a Personal Attack
And why that could be the method to her madness.
My Instagram page was a wall of Beyonce covers this morning. Her iconic turns in the mag have always captured the collective attention of Black women in my circle. This one was no different.
The conversation often begins the same way, with someone asking in the chat:
Does Bey look too skinny in this?
Yup
Okay, I was wondering if it was just me.
Nah, she needs to eat something for real.
Conversations like these transcend my little group chat of Black women. This is a generational conversation. A code passed down to determine what about this person is setting off our collective Black women Spidey-senses.
An Ancestral Black Woman Connection
Some of you know what I’m talking about. Have you ever heard a Black woman in a crowd ask another “Are you okay, sis?” Watch all the older Black women, age 35 plus, swivel their attention toward the targeted sista, eagerly awaiting her answer. Like a secret language passed down through our ancestors “You okay sis,” has always been a signal that one of us is not okay and that the woman in question may be in need of an assist. If you are in the area when this all goes down, be ready to act.
Today’s “Does she look skinny?” is yet another code from the ancestors. A signal that something is not right. A way of checking on another woman's health (mental and physical) in our family or circle. It’s a litmus test of sorts, and one reserved only for us, created in order to help one another as we lived under some serious oppression. Asking about Bey’s skinny thighs on my social media would have been misread by white fans as criticism of her weight or a judgment of her photo editing decisions. When, in reality, all I want to know is, “you alright, girl?”
The Space Between the Bougie and Ratchet Black Woman
Bell hooks spoke of this dilemma between Black women and their image in society. Our bodies are separated from us in the oddest way. In her essay "Feminism Inside: Toward a Black Body Politic" Hooks talks about the paradox in which Black women live. This is especially true for Black women in the spotlight:
“If Black women were depicted as sexual savages, hot p––ssies on the lookout for ready prey, then these stereotypes were countered by images of virtuous repressed Black ladyhood." bell hooksHooks talks about this need for us to recognize how Black women are viewed through a stereotypically divided lens that refuses to acknowledge us as whole beings. We are perceived as the Whitley Gilberts or the Shenehnehs—nothing in between through the eyes of our white supremacist capitalist society. The problem is too many of us live in that space. Yet, we are getting louder. For many of us, Bey is representative of a rebellion against stereotyping, a perception problem that has needed to die for quite some time.
The Vogue Cover is a Tease
That’s why her Vogue cover today felt like an attack. She has done so much to represent those of us in that space between stereotypical perceptions of Black womanhood. When she walked down a busy city street, in an evening gown, with a bat in hand, ready to smash the hell out of her lover's car. Her hair is natural and her makeup flawless.
She is that lady, with a bat named "hot sauce" at the ready to do some damage to the care of a man who did her wrong. That’s savage right there. This is the video for the song Sorry on the Lemonade album. On Black is King, Bey is royalty, and her family is featured, but they are still twerking (savage) and acting in ways that are unbecoming a lady.
When I look back at the covers she did for Vogue before these releases, they all showed a Bey who looked "skinny" and her curves photoshopped into oblivion. What if this is intended?
That she does the magazine covers to set a "ladylike" image in order to draw in crowds beyond Black women. Then, the release comes to the audience with an image of the Black woman that destroys any perceptions and stereotypes of Black womanhood that everyone, including our fellow sisters, has been conditioned to carry. These are images of Black women who are natural, sophisticated, proud of their hood roots and repping that sorority or HCBCU (signifiers of education) at the same time.
Black Women as a Whole Being
If you need to see the relevance of needing to see Black women as one whole being, look no further than the music of Megan Thee Stallion. Her collaboration with Beyonce on the Savage remix celebrates a Black woman’s ability to be several definitions of womanhood in one body. It’s evident in the chorus:
I’m a savage
Classy, bougie, ratchet
Sassy, moody, nasty
Acting stupid, what’s happening?
What’s happening? — Megan Thee Stallion
Megan celebrates both her ladylike form that people want to see but often mistake as weak or silent. She pairs it with the “ratchet” savage side that is the embodiment of the sassy black woman mixed with a hefty bit of “jezebel” in the eyes of our society. The musician proves this in Savage and other songs like Thot Shit where she depicts Black women in all types of jobs dancing, wearing what they want, and reminding the white protagonist that he can’t escape us no matter where he goes.
What Will Bey Do Next?
I can't wait to see what she has in store for everyone in the upcoming Renaissance album due out in July. What type of combination of Black woman imagery will we see? I think the words “retro-futurism” and "ode to dressmaking" are some solid clues. Could we get a Bridgerton Bey next Whatever we get, it will be a view of the Black feminine body that the world needs to see now.
Listen to Beyonce’s newest single “Break My Soul,” out now.
Tell us what you think of the new music.
