Queer Invisibility Within Lemonade and Daughters of the Dust
Going off of one of the topic suggestions on the rubric offering the idea of using our personal identity intersections as inspiration for this assignment, I really wanted to explore the use of queer themes throughout Lemonade as well as other films/pieces that we have examined throughout the course of the semester.
Much of Black culture has informed what we know today as queer culture. Specifically language coming from the New York City ballroom scenes of the late 20th century. In Lemonade, specifically during Formation, there is a lot of usage of queer language such as “slay trick or you get eliminated” as well as the inclusion of words spoken by Big Freedia, a Black and queer rapper and musician who has been a pioneer in popularizing New Orleans bounce music. The larger question in all of this is, is this appropriation of queer culture? Or should we as queer people be glad that someone with a platform like Beyonce actively engaged with queerness? According to an article written by Lauron Kehrer “the album’s queer contributors and inspiration have been rendered largely invisible. Indeed, while “Formation” and the rest of the Lemonade visual album include a number of queer influences and resonances, few of the queer artists who contributed to the work are explicitly credited”.
Like Kehrer points out, throughout history, erasure of queerness, queer people, and queer culture seems to be largely prominent. Especially within Black communities. We see this also in Daughters of the Dust, which we watched in class earlier this semester. Yellow Mary arrives with a woman names Trula who appears to be her lover and travel companion, yet is never given much dialouge or explanation. Most who watch will assume their relationship, yet it is never acknowledged. There seems to be some type of fear surrounding the naming of queerness, as if it is allowed to be a secret but not to be something we speak about boldly. In an interview with Julia Dash, the director of Daughters of the Dust she says this about Yellow Mary’s character- “I see the Yellow Mary character as being heroic, because she’s a woman of independent means. Instead of working in an agrarian society, she chooses to be a sex worker, a prostitute, which gives her mobility. She travels with her girlfriend and they have money and they’re independent. And yet you see her hated by people within her own family, because she’s a woman of independent means and she’s uncontrollable”. I recognize that Dash is the director of this film and obviously knows and understands the true intentions behind the themes within the film, yet I would argue that none of this is visible to the viewer. Can Yellow Mary and Trula’s relationship truly be considered representation if the community it is representing isn’t named or explicitly talked about? Trula’s character is given little to no emphasis within the screenplay and the audience doesn’t get to know her or her relationship with Yellow Mary at all, rendering the queerness within this film to be largely invisible.
Beyonce received a decent amount of heat for the queer erasure that takes place within Lemonade, which seems to have inspired her to pay homage to the Back and queer people that have paved the way for her success with her new album, Renaissance. According to an article by the Washington Post, Beyonce actually dedicated Renaissance to her late gay Uncle Jonny, who first exposed her to much of the music that would inform this album. This album seems like Beyonce is finally “paying dues” of sorts to a community that allowed her to have the career and success that she has amounted, and also answering many calls out from those in the queer community to give credit to people she has been referencing in her music throughout her entire career. While Lemonade may not have done all it could have to honor the queer artists from which it was inspired, in Rennaisance “Beyoncé pays homage to the familial aspect represented through the house mothers, fathers and children in ballroom scenes. It’s a reminder of the love and inclusivity inherent in Black culture, said Omise’eke Tinsley, a professor of Black studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.” (Washington Post).
Queer culture has informed and inspired artists for decades without proper visibility or credit. Over the years, more people have begun to talk about Black queer culture and its history in order to fully represent those who have paved the way for much of our popular culture. Beyonce has both profited off of queerness without representation and seemingly learned from her mistakes by creating new art that pays homage in a way that is true to the community it represents. Queer erasure and invisibility constantly are battles that we are fighting in order to feel represented in many different forms of media. Perhaps we can hope that future years will bring more nuance and clarity for representation both by and for Black queer people.
Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03007766.2019.1555896
