I am sure this post is gonna earn me the label of hater, but it's not that, really

     Today my meds knocked me out t and I slept the day away. I missed my students' graduations and feel horrible about that.  Through the fog I am irritated and critical about several things.  One of the things that constantly urks me is the fact that I place higher standard on my own people, and unfortunately, they rarely live up to them.  One of the people living down to society's expectations is Beyonce. As the title says, this will probably earn me the label as hater, but I don't care. I used to love the Beyonce song, Why Don't You Love Me?, until I saw the video.




    Some of my qualms with it are obvious. For one, why is it so hard for performers, I am intentionally not calling her an artist, to accept that as public figures they are inherently role models and to perform and behave as such? It isn't hard, just think about people other than yourself and stop letting money motivate your actions. I assume one of the core fans bases of Beyonce's are young girls. In the video she is scantily clad, which is not a surprise but I felt I should add it to the list, reproducing gender norms, choosing to portray herself as a real life blow up doll with her pin up poses and empty stares, and smoking.
     I understand that the video is supposedly based in the fifties, but you only played Etta James in a movie, the cameras have been off for a while now. Don't get me wrong, I am all for equal rights. You want to walk around butt naked, go ahead, but don't do it under the guise of being a role model. In an interview, an interviewer asked Beyonce who her father is and she responded, "Jesus." Really Beyonce? Don't confuse this with a religiously zeolous rant, it isn't. It is a rant against hypocracy. If the "good Christian, southern woman" is the role you want to play, play it! But don't continue straddling the fence.
     I also don't understand why recent Beyonce videos have nothing to do with what the song is about. Simply listening to the song, it seems like an act of vindication. "Why don't you love me?" Is a hypothetical question. She doesn't want a response, she is proving that the man is an idiot for not wanting her and all her positive attributes. It is not her crying on the phone trying to get the man back.  The song is a giant f*ck you, you are plain dumb, I am too good for this. The video, with her on her hands and knees scrubbing, crying, throwing things, smoking to calm her nerves, is a pathetic plea for the man to come back. And who the hell cleans the house in that sort of get up? I don't understand the world. Erykah Badu gets a fine for this video:



Badu's video has a point, moral, and a theme and she is literally punished for this. However, Beyonce can put out any ole thang. So as for your question Beyonce, Why don't we love you, because it doesn't seem like you love yourself.