Feminism is a large topic in today’s media with multiple women in the public eye supporting equality among the genders. With social media, television, and the music industry, advocates of feminism are able to influence society in a new way.

Feminism — the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.

An apparent strong feminist herself, Beyoncé Knowles Carter has been a dedicated advocate of women’s rights, yet she has been accused of supporting domestic violence in one of her most recent pop hits. Has Beyoncé’s stance on women’s rights been compromised, or is she subversively developing a more nuanced, yet still empowered, feminist perspective?

Beyoncé has been in the public eye for more than ten years now, and she is more popular than ever. Throughout these years, she has incorporated a significant amount of support for feminism in her songs, as well as through public announcements and papers. In January of this year, Beyoncé wrote an essay in the Shriver Report, supporting the equality of men and women. Not only has she written a statement, she has referenced the power of women in the past through songs such as “Run the World (Girls)” and “If I were a Boy.” Through these acts of publicity, she informs the industry that she believes in equality, regardless of gender.

However, Beyoncé’s support of gender equality has been questioned due to her most recent song, “Drunk In Love”. The song references Tina Turner’s abusive relationship with Ike Turner—specifically, she refers to a scene from Tina Turner’s biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It. In the rap portion of the song it sings, “Eat the Cake, Anna Mae.” These lyrics reference Ike shoving a piece of cake in a woman’s face and then slapping Turner’s friend. During Beyoncé’s performance at the Grammys, she chimed these controversial lyrics along with her husband, Jay Z.

A lot of argument has erupted from this lyrical unison with her husband, and it has led to the questioning of her beliefs on feminism. Why would someone who sought for the equality of the genders allow such a derogatory, inappropriate lyric into her song? “Drunk in Love” is a song that focuses on the sexual interaction between two people. The topic isn’t about gender equality; however, many critics view this risky lyric as a suggestion to domestic violence even though Beyoncé has proved through her public awareness that she is a strong enthusiast of gender equality.

Elizabeth Summerall, a strong supporter of feminism, believes that the controversial lyrics were misunderstood. “From what I can tell, I think she meant the whole verse a totally different way,” argues Summerall. “It’s about sex, and it’s about how he is dominant. She likes it like that. Do I think this was the best line to use? Probably not. But that being said, how I assume she meant it is not anti-feminist. It doesn’t make a woman any less of a feminist if sexually she likes to give the power up to the man and be submissive. That all being said, I also believe she would never stand for abuse strictly by judge of her character, and that makes me think this verse is about something else.”

Even though critics view this lyric as questionable to her stance on feminism, there is no doubt that the pop singer fights for gender impartiality. In her essay on Woman’s Rights, she focuses on how gender equality needs to be accepted by men and women before equality can be achieved. She focuses on the fact that women and men need each other and shouldn’t see each other in any lesser way. In her song ***Flawless, she features feminist Chmamanda Ngozi Adichie, who gives a strong speech that denotes Beyoncé’s stance on women’s rights.

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.’”

Beyoncé is pushing a new approach to modern feminism among the current culture. She reinforces the dominance of women, but also wants women to believe that they are able to approach men without it being against their beliefs. Modern feminism isn’t insistent on the complete independency from men, violating the cultural assumptions about feminism. Beyoncé is bringing women to see themselves as beautiful, powerful, and equal creations. She allows women to see the beauty in life, themselves, and most importantly, equality among the sexes.

Summerall also gives her opinion on modern feminism. “Modern feminism is what it says it is: modern. The issues are remotely the same, but the ways we’re dealing with them are different. We have social media, more organized rallies, and things that are allowing for more women to realize that feminism isn’t about burning bras and not shaving our armpits.”

“Modern feminism is what it says it is: modern.”