Beyoncé — Queer Inspirations and Representation
It is no surprise that Beyoncé Knowles is known as one of the most vocal activists of the LGBTQIA+ community in the music industry. From simply supporting queer artists throughout her career to dedicating her latest album, Renaissance, to her late gay uncle, Knowles is unarguably a spearhead of her industry in this regard. Within her activism, she uses her musical bodies of work to further queer stories and representation. I will be discussing the theme of queerness in Beyonce’s work and connections between this theme as seen in Lemonade, Renaissance, and Daughters of the Dust.
One of Beyoncé’s most notable inspirations for the Lemonade visual album was the movie Daughters of the Dust. This story follows the Peazant family and their ancestral past as they decide whether or not to travel North in hopes of true freedom. A character in the movie, “Yellow” Mary Peazant, returns to her family bringing her new female lover Trula to visit with her. This movie being one of the main inspirations for Lemonade is important for two reasons; One, the film was released in 1991 and still had significant queer representation and, two, Beyoncé was clearly inspired by this queer representation for her visual work. The same-sex couple shown in the movie likely inspired her to feature representation of two same-sex couples in one of the music videos for Lemonade.
In Lemonade, themes of queerness and inclusivity regarding love are somewhat hidden throughout the lyrics and visuals of the album. Beyoncé uses vernacular that stems from queer culture, specifically the ballroom scene. Phrases such as “I slay” used in “Formation” make direct reference to queer ballroom culture, where the saying originated from. She also features lines from queer black artist Big Freedia on the same track, highlighting the gay New Orleans musician’s identity and language; Freedia uses similar queer vernacular like Beyoncé to open up “Formation,” with quotations such as “play with you hoes” and “slay, bitch.” Past her lyrics, Beyoncé also included clips of two same-sex couples in a montage during the track “All Night.” Her ability to showcase queer relationships in her art as a heterosexual woman speaks to the consistent theme of queerness she shows in her work, providing a platform for representation.
Beyoncé’s latest album, Renaissance, expands on the theme of queerness and pays tribute to house music, a genre pioneered by black queer people. The house and bounce inspiration this album draws from again gets its roots from the queer ballroom culture that Knowles has drawn inspiration from before. Not only is the genre itself undeniably queer, Beyoncé also ultimately dedicated the body of the work to her late gay uncle Jonny. He lived a very visibly queer life and was open about his positive HIV status, making this piece the perfect dedication to him. It also had features from multiple black queer artists, including but not limited to Big Freedia, Kevin Aviance, Ts Madison and Grace Jones. The culmination of LGBTQIA+ representation and inspiration in Renaissance showcases the overarching theme of queerness in Beyoncé’s music by taking all of the queer references she has used in the past and adding in newer pieces of queer culture to create a full body of work that highlights queer art.
As described in the three above examples, Beyoncé consistently uses the theme of queerness in her work to express her solidarity and provide a platform for queer representation (even though she herself is a heterosexual woman). Her choices to draw on queer inspirations, specifically with her lyrics and musical genres, highlights queer art to the mainstream and positively encourages the community to continue creating and expressing themselves.
