A Deep Dive into the Critiques of Lemonade
Analyzing the cultural stereotypes portrayed throughout Beyoncé’s Lemonade.
Written by Julia Forman and Cady Eldredge
Introduction: At first glance, Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” is about black culture and black women rising together. However, there are many critiques of the film. Our project explores and researches more about the gendered cultural paradox in Lemonade and how the music video can portray certain stereotypes. While there is evident rage throughout the visual album, there are many parts of the film when Beyoncé talks about equal rights for men and women and how women must come together to prepare and fight against men. While Beyoncé efforts to instruct feminism to women everywhere, many parts throughout the film represent the opposite. We will dive into the readings and writings of bell hooks and Tamara Winfrey-Harris, who write about the counterproductive and unrealistic standard of beauty for young girls. At the same time, Beyoncé uses her celebrity status to promote romantic expectations. We will also look closer at Beyoncé’s glamorization of violence as acceptable social behavior for Black women.
bell hooks, a Black feminist and scholar, is a well-known critic of the artist Beyoncé and her visual album called Lemonade. In her writing, “Moving Beyond Pain,” hooks scrutinizes Beyoncé’s point of view. hooks argues, “[u]ltimately Lemonade glamorizes a world of gendered cultural paradox and contradiction” (hooks). According to hooks, on one hand, Lemonade promotes a stereotype of Black women being seen as victims. On the other hand, the angry Black woman in Beyoncé’s album wreaks havoc by acting on her rage. She specifically questions Beyoncé’s glamorization of violence as acceptable social behavior. The film includes many mixed messages, such as glorifying violence rather than inspiring positive change.
In 2014, two years before Lemonade was released, hooks characterized Beyoncé as a terrorist, accusing her of being an anti-feminist, particularly in terms of her sphere of influence over young Black girls. While “terrorist” is a hostile word to describe an artist, hooks used the terminology to draw attention to her point of view. She believes that Beyoncé contributes to a counterproductive and unrealistic standard of beauty for young girls. In the film, and through her music, Beyoncé uses her celebrity status to promote romantic expectations (hooks). Instead, Beyoncé should encourage healthy attitudes and body images by being a positive role model and focusing on women as a whole person.
In Beyoncé’s visual album, there have been many black female stereotypes that have been stretched and implemented throughout Lemonade. In 2016, Tamara Winfrey-Harris wrote an article called “‘Formation’ And Contradictions: When Revolution Becomes Pop Culture”, which expands how racism is embedded into American history and how “we abide certain Black features, but we do not love them” (Winfrey-Harris). Winfrey-Harris goes into detail about how in the 21st century we do not see Black beauty as appealing, and instead look toward the unrealistic beauty standard set on young girls everywhere, which is being white, having blonde hair, blue eyes, and being thin. This is similar to what bell hooks talks about in her article criticizing Beyoncé. Beyoncé’s Lemonade album has a lot of symbolism throughout the 65 minute film. Winfrey-Harris points out that while Beyoncé is trying to embrace Black beauty, she is also falling into the unrealistic beauty standard over the years by having the “right” kind of Black beauty (Winfrey-Harris). While some of Beyoncé’s songs are an ode to Southern culture, such as the song “Formation”, many of the lyrics praise black culture, while the way people act, dress, and interact are all stereotypes of Black women.
Three main examples throughout Lemonade:
- When Beyoncé is skipping down the street while swinging around a baseball bat and singing “Hold Up,” this could portray the stereotype that black women are violent, which is not an acceptable way to promote gender equality.
- In the chapter, “Denial”, Beyoncè says “I tried to change.” Beyoncè recalls that she tried to change her identity to please her husband after his infidelity. Beyoncè, or any woman, should not have to change who they are to win over a man.
- The song “Love Drought” is another example in Beyoncè’s Lemonade that aligns with hook’s analysis. In this video segment, Beyoncé walks in line with a group of women through swamplands, which symbolizes when historically enslaved people in Georgia drowned themselves rather than submit to slavery. The video also shows Beyoncé tied to a rope representing her imprisonment. While Lemonade is supposed to empower women, these clips show that Beyoncé has to choose between being imprisoned in her relationship or escaping it by death — both not encouraging options.
Conclusion: While Beyoncé’s work may initially seem to promote women’s self-esteem and reject cultural expectations of women to be something they’re not, upon closer inspection, Beyoncé adds to already unreasonable social standards that bombard women. Instead of beating them down through perpetuating stereotypes, Beyoncé should build women and empower them through her music.
Works Cited:
Class Texts:
- “Moving Beyond Pain” by bell hooks
- “Lemonade’s visual album” by Beyoncé
- ‘Formation’ And Contradictions: When Revolution Becomes Pop Culture by Tamara Winfrey-Harris
Outside Sources:
