Thursday, April 13, 2017
Week Twelve: Response 12.4
Author Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie allowed Beyoncé to use her work to define feminism on her song
"***Flawless," however she recently confessed feeling insulted that
every journalist since has wanted to talk about Beyoncé rather than her
book We Should All Be Feminists. Artist Benji Hart's response to"Formation" also distanced Beyoncé's political messaging from
his own. How do their sentiments tie in with Zeisler's critiques of celebrity feminism?
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ReplyDeleteAuthor Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s sentiments towards Beyoncé using her work to define feminism in her song “***Flawless,” and Benji Hart’s response to “Formation” both tie in with Zeisel's critique of celebrity feminism because they both show how it is more about the celebrity than the message they are trying to give. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s recently confessed feeling insulted everything a journalist wanted to talk to her about Beyoncé rather than her own work. In her own words, “ I think she's lovely and I am convinced that she has nothing but the best intentions….but I was shocked about how many requests for an interview I received when that song was released. Literally every major newspaper in the world wanted to speak with me about Beyoncé”. Now it’s not that she doesn’t like Beyoncé, it’s just that she doesn’t like to be consistently asked about her in every single interview. However it is not surprising that she is asked about Queen Bey. Beyoncé is one of the most famous people of the 21st century, anyone who has any type of affiliation with her at some point and time will be asked about her. That just is the power of the celebrity. The power of her celebrity. Benji Hart had plenty to say about “Formation”. To sum up his entire response he believes “Beyoncé is a logo. Beyoncé is a commodity. Beyoncé is a production. Beyoncé is a distraction. Beyoncé is a ruse. Beyoncé does not actually exist”. Both of these sentiments tie in with Zeisler critiques on celebrity feminism because they both allude to the fact that it is more about the celebrity than it is about their message. Rather than focusing on the message people tend to focus more on the person giving it. This also ties in with Zeisler belief that feminism isn’t the number one priority for celebrities. She states “It’s a pretty good illustration of the fact that while most celebrity feminism is no doubt individually well-meaning, it often has no tangible connection to the images and fantasies we pay those celebrities to construct”. Being a singer, dancer, actor, actress, director, designer, etc, are the images we pay celebrities to construct. Chimamanda saw how it became more about Beyoncé than it was about her work. Benji explained how he felt that Beyoncé is just a logo, a commodity, a production, a celebrity first and foremost. Basically what Zeisler is trying to say it is a good thing that more and more celebrities are speaking up on feminism, however that does not come before their own career (as in what image they are payed to construct).
ReplyDeleteJagtap K.
When the primary focus of media and the general public is on what a certain celebrity like Beyonce defines feminism as, instead of looking at the movement the representation of feminism is misrepresented. As a public figure, Beyoncé uses her platform in order to sell herself and the products/companies she’s connected to. Furthermore, it focuses on celebrities who do not represent the movement and are not actively a part of the social activism that is essential to movements. These celebrities can be helpful to the movement because they have a large platform that arguably no other social activist does, and is able to promote feminism without feeling any economic or social backlash that a single mother or someone not being paid equal to their male counterparts might potentially feel.
ReplyDeleteThe issues associated with celebrities like Beyoncé, Emma Watson and Patricia Arquette adopting feminism with their own brands is that they are often only doing it because it is what is “trending” at the moment. Although the women do things to help out some issues that are occurring around feminism, they will just focus on movements that are beneficial for their career. For example, Beyoncé would rather focus around on an individual rather than the system she is a part of because it is what is best for her image. Other problems surrounding when celebrities adopt feminism with their own brands is they exist because of capitalist multinational conglomerates, which are against feminism. Also, the celebrities find as marketable, for example Emma Watson being a part of He for She campaign is making money off the campaign. Celebrities ignore feminisms plurality and complexity and turn it into a tweet, while being a feminist is more than advocating a tweet.
There is also no explanation of how they are feminist; by reducing their allegiance by just announcing that they are feminist they are not discussing the issues they are creating a metric. Conversation is missing is that celebrities are not explaining how they are practicing feminists they are just using it like a known brand. Feminist because you said you are: Sarah Palin says she's feminist. Lost its meaning once it's entered popular culture to regain meaning these celebrities need to explain how. Second problem celebrities are inherently embedded in giant entertainment agencies that are at odds with the feminist mission Entertainers first not political activists who are going to say and do things that are not correct with what is happening politically in the movement. Patricia Arquette's speech wishes they would stop the wage gap and then went backstage and said that LGBTQ and African Americans need to support the movement. But she is not an activist because intersectionality has been a part of the movement for years. Celebrities should be looking at the political movement not the movement looking at the celebrities.
Aurora S.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reaction to being reduced to Beyoncé’s feminist cohort and Benji Hart’s criticism of “Formation” are both great examples of how we, as a culture, need to respond to celebrity feminism. In her interview with de Volkskran, Adichie disclosed that her feminism differed from Beyoncé’s because “she [Beyoncé] gives quite a lot of space to the necessity of men”. Basically, Adichie is consistently barraged by the media, who claim that because Beyoncé used part of her world renowned essay and TED talk about feminism that she not only is now validated, but that she endorses Beyoncé’s specific brand of celebrity feminism—which she clearly does not. Likewise, when her music video “Formation” came out, the media fell all over themselves to praise Beyoncé as the empowering black feminist she was finally claiming to be. Hart’s article, listing his many reasons why this is problematic, notes just how damaging this is to the many LGBT+ folks, people of color, activists, and feminists who have been working hard against institutional marginalization for decades: “In no way is this pop cultural propaganda about an artists’ political growth, for Beyoncé is not an actual artist. It is about corporations finding creative ways to profit off a popular movement”. While “Formation” may masquerade itself as a reclamation of black power for her, it is still just another tool aiding in selling the commodity that is Beyoncé, which is ultimately making her and her producers millions of dollars. These criticisms, of Beyoncé as a feminist and an activist, echo Andi Zeisler’s critique of celebrity feminism. Yes, Beyoncé can identify as a feminist, but she should not be the person feminists and activists alike should be looking to as a model for political agency. This is because, as Zeisler argues, celebrity feminists have to market themselves as a consumable product, which can make taking political, feminist action tricky at best and impossible at worst. Beyoncé’s first job is to be a celebrity, and she will have to align herself with parts of capitalism or media conglomerates that go directly against the feminist or Black Lives Matter movements, because she needs to sell albums and tickets to her tours. As Adichie, Hart, and Zeisler so eloquently point out, Beyoncé is one black woman, an individual, who cannot and should not uphold entire feminist movements because she is a famous artist.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the media and society have paid no attention to the feminist message in Beyonce`s song Flawless that was inspired by Adichie`s work is no surprise. When the journalists insist on talking about Beyonce rather than Adichie`s book We Should All Be Feminists it invalidates her message and belittles her feminist actions to being insignificant when compared to Beyonce. When celebrities get involved with promoting social issues, the focus is on the individual rather than the system she is a part of, which in this case is Beyonce and feminism. She is aligning her celebrity brand with feminism and creating marketplace feminism instead. This is not focusing on the issues at hand that have to do with feminism. It is popular and even trendy to verbally identify as a feminist, but when someone like a celebrity answers yes to being a feminist but has no political or social efforts to back it up, what message does that send? Because in reality the media will associate everything that Beyonce does with being feminist or not being feminist. Zeisler acknowledges the benefits of using celebrities to promote social issues such as them being diplomatic, having charisma, and have access to a large audience. They are extremely influential! But at the end of the day, Zeisler says that the celebrity brand is tied to media conglomerates and twitterverse. Celebrities exist because of capitalist multinational conglomerates which are at odds with feminism. Celebrities are also at odds here when they associate with a social movement because their every move will be pinned as being feminist or not. It boils down soundbites or tweets by one individual to defining feminism and this ignores the plurality and complexity of this movement. Celebrity feminism brings attention to the social movement but fails to lead by example in political or social action and leads people to follow in line by identifying but not being an active feminist. And more importantly it tries to define feminism through one person`s actions.
ReplyDeleteRegina D.