“Beyoncé is my religion”
A look into Beyism
If you have not yet been informed, Beyoncé’s stardom has elevated her to such a high level that she is now considered a religion. Though this may seem like a dream come true for some, there has actually been a lot of backlash against trying to pass such a thing off as a religion.
As seen in this video, these women do not believe that it is appropriate to treat Beyoncé akin to how a Christian would treat God or Jesus because she has done nothing to deserve their praise and worship. In knowing that religion has no fixed definition or defining factors, I do not feel that I can say what is or what is not a “true” religion so instead I would like to explore the reasoning behind Beyism and the reasoning behind the backlash it has come to experience. I would like to start by comparing Beyism to another controversial, but more acceptable neo-religion being sports. For many people sports function as a religion in that the activity provides three out of the three functions that scholars like Durkheim use to define religion; the social function, the existential function and the transcendental function. Just as sports and sports teams are able to create communities for people to belong to based on the common intense love and deep desire they all have for the game, Beyoncé creates similar communities among her fans, though she is able to extend the reach of these community world wide.
Like a traditional religion, this community allow for a sense of belonging to something and gives these people something to identify themselves by. Sports fans will plan their entire week around their favourite team’s game and their favourite athletes are akin to deities or saints. Similarly dedicated Beyoncé fans will rearrange their life around her concerts or album releases and for them Beyoncé is a godly figure who walks among us simple folk so the things she does and says are treated as a doctrine or way to live life. This falls under the category of the existential function of religion whereby the religion or religious activity is used to make meaning of one’s life, it may literally give a person the passion they require in order to live. Lastly, the transcendental function of religion can be tied back to the community aspect whereby the sport or Beyoncé herself are able to unite people and allow them to participate in something sacred, which would be the community in Durkheim’s opinion, and bigger than themselves. Edward Bailey recognizes that these three functional definitions of religion no long only apply to traditional religions and instead can now similarly be found in secular activities as well (Klassen, 2014).
Through his three main criteria being Commitment, Integrating Foci and Intensive Concerns with Extensive Effects, Bailey creates a concept of implicit religion that helps us better understand how these secular objects can elicit a religious function (Klassen, 2014). Beyoncé fans, like many other fans or even traditional religious followers have an intensely deep commitment to their object or phenomena of worship. Beyoncé fans will line up days in advance in a freezing cold hailstorm just to get a ticket to her concert or be one of the first to purchase her latest album, there is really nothing that could deter their commitment to her and this can be seen in her long standing popularity from her early days as a Destiny’s child in 1996 to her continued success as a solo artist in 2014. With an understanding of integrated foci a person is able to pursue both their belief in Beyism as well as be dedicated to any other traditional religion, so unlike the above video which makes the assumption that a person can only be truly dedicated to one religion only, Bailey takes a more realistic and modern approach, which is also similar to the Lived Religions concept, in saying that people can in fact can follow Beyism but also continue going to their Christian mass on Sunday and believing in both equally does not make one less legitimate than the other. The third and final criteria says that the religion or religious object etc. should be viewed holistically, just as God does not only exist in a church and is integrated into the actions of people’s everyday activities. Beyoncé does not only exist at her concert, her words, thoughts and beliefs can be access constantly through many different forms of multimedia, her lyrics even seem to find a way to integrate themselves into the way people choose to live their lives.
So in the above sense, yes Beyism can be seen as a legitimate religion of the modern world, but like many neo-religions that seem to be popping up, I believe that one key ingredient is missing from both sports and Beyoncé in order to be on the same playing field as traditional religions and that is the ability for people to use these religions and their ideologies to make sense of the world around them and find the inspiration to contribute to a greater good. Let me unpack that a little bit, in comparing Beyism to a recognized religion such as Christianity, the former is not used by people to make sense of why a certain event occurred. I have been exposed to many Christian based explanations as to why it rains or why there are “good” people and “bad” people in the world and these explanations sound believable, but I don’t see how Beyism could shed light on why the world is the way it is. Also Beyism seems to be soely based on an intense love and commitment to being a Beyoncé fan, whereas more traditional religions use their gospels and doctrines to urge their followers to do good in the world and help those in need. Beyism however just seems to be contibuting to the success of an already wealthy individual. As brought up in the above Youtube video, what did Beyonce ever do to for the world to deserve having a religion named after her? What are your thoughts? Can Beyism play on the same field as traditional religions, or is this religion really just a form of extreme fandom?
For more information to continue the conversation on Beyism please visit the following links:
http://national-church-of-bey.tumblr.com
http://endtimeshofar.blogspot.ca/2014/05/beyism-and-yeezianity-are-anti-christ.html
Reference List
Klassen, C. (2014). Subcultures and Post-subcultures. In Religion & Popular Culture: A cultural studies approach (pp. 153–172). Don Mills: Oxford University Press.
