Fiercest. Video. Ever
Last week we discussed the spectacular assholery of Kanye West at the VMA Awards. But while there’s no doubt Kanye wins Dick of the Year Award, there’s also no doubt, IMO, that he was 100% correct that Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” video was WAY better than Taylor Swift’s. In case you missed its awesomeness, view here.
I’m a huge fan of Beyonce Knowles. As we say down South, “when the Lord handed out talent, she got in line twice.” But not only does she rock the house as a singer, dancer and actress, she’s a real class act. Witness her behavior at the VMA Awards: after Beyonce won Best Video of the Year she had Taylor Swift come up on stage and finish the acceptance speech that Kanye had interrupted.
But recently, that eminent feminist, MamaSharper, indicated her dislike of “Single Ladies”, mainly because she doesn’t like the repeated mention of how the dude “shoulda put a ring on it.” I passionately defended both the video and the song. If you read the lyrics, you’ll see it’s not a plea to have a man legitimize her by offering a ring. Quite the opposite–it’s a woman telling off a possessive ex-lover, saying “You didn’t want to commit, so you have no right to be jealous that I’m with someone else.” I have had that discussion myself, and now, thanks to Beyonce, I’ve got a catchy song and a cool left-hand wave if I have to have it again. The video is also an artistic triumph, an homage to a Bob Fosse-choreographed number called “Mexican Breakfast,” performed by the extraordinary Gwen Verdon (for a side-by-side comparison of the dances, go here).
So congratulations on Video of the Year, Beyonce. This single lady’s got her hand up for you!
oh yeah I love Beyonce for so many reasons. There’s a video of that tune over the Andy Griffith Show theme that works really well. By my standards, the best music is flexible like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-l4gfiCM8
While I agree with you that the meaning is more about not having a right to be possessive than legitimization, the song still turns me off. My problem with it is the implication that if you do “put a ring on it,” you have a right to be possessive in that way. The phrasing is also kind of blech – I know it’s just for the sake of convenience, etc., but I’m really bothered by the idea that all a man has to do if he wants a woman to stay away from clubs and other men is make the decision to “put a ring” on her. In other words, it makes it sound like the woman has no choice at all! Though I understand the message is “hey, I can do what I want so fuck off,” and I like that message, I don’t like the implications that go along with the wording.
@Judith. Well put. The song is fun and catchy but it puts forth the idea that commitment = ring. And once there’s a ring you have a right to be jealous. It just doesn’t sit well with me.
@Judith & misscalculate – I agree that the passivity of the phrasing and the identification of a “ring” with commitment are problematic (although not unusual given the genre) — but what’s wrong with the idea that once you and a partner have mutually committed to one another, you have a right to be jealous? Obviously people can define their relationships however they choose, and if dancing with people other than your partner, making out with people other than your partner, etc. are within the limits of your relationship, more power to you. But that’s not generally the case for the monogamous relationship as commonly defined (and, again, this is a 3 1/2 minute pop song, so there are limits to what she can cover). If you commit to someone and that means, among other things, “no dancing with other people”, then you *do* have a right to be jealous and upset if that person then goes and grinds with someone else. I don’t think there’s a problem with being jealous if your partner is going outside the bounds of your relationship as you’ve defined it — jealousy is a natural reaction in that case. But it has to go both ways (both partners have an equal right to jealousy).
I tend to agree with barqiel: if you are married/committed, it’s reasonable to expect your partner won’t be dirty-dancing with someone else at a club. I don’t think that’s being overly jealous or implying that marriage is the proverbial ball-and-chain.
When I first heard this song, I too was a little put off by the way it seemed to reinforce this need for a ring (a need that I have heard too often from many dear women in my life). But, after a little reflection, I thought the main point was so much more valuable. It is about shifting the power back to yourself, recognizing that you aren’t getting what you want and need, so you move on. I think it is a message many women need to hear, that you can leave and you don’t have to stay in a relationship that is less than what you deserve.
I don’t like the IT part. If you liked IT then you should have put a ring on IT. If she said “me” the song would annoy me 10 times less. Also if it didn’t get stuck in my head for days at a time. I do like Beyonce but her empowerment shtick is so phony.
Sadly, the comparison with the Gwen Verdon original just seems to show how a woman now has to make herself into a pornbot, when there was a time she could be admired as a dancer, even in a crazy flared suit. Where is the “artistic triumph” in filming three thin, busty women in break-ankle heels and skin-tight leotards shake their booty? No one could doubt Beyonce’s talent, but she’s not exactly challenging the status quo.
@orlando: I’ve seen dozens of dancers in similarly skintight leotards at White Oak Dance Project and Alvin Ailey and more vigorous booty shaking in Katherine Dunham choreography. Neither tight outfits nor booty-shaking means a dancer is a “porn-bot.”
Also, Gwen Verdon wore her share of tight, sexy outfits in her day, and she certainly could shake it when necessary.
Beyonce’s lyrics are usually misunderstood. take Bills, Bills, Bills for instance. People think she’s begging her man to pay her bills, when she’s actually telling him to take responsibility and pay the bills HE racked up.
Your slowly makin me pay for things
Your money should be handling
And now you ask to use my car (car)
Drive it all day and don’t fill up the tank
And you have the audacity
To even come and step to me
And ask to hold some money from me
Until you get your check next week
and
now you been maxing out my card(card)
give me bad credit,buying gifts with my own ends
haven’t paid the first bill
but you steady heading to the mall
going on shopping sprees
perpetrating to your friends that you be ballin’
Word, B. Word.
@Ceejee: YES! Also, from “Independent Women”:
Tell me how you feel about this
Try to control me boy you get dismissed
Pay my own fun, oh and I pay my own bills
Always 50/50 in relationships
Question: How’d you like this knowledge that I brought
Braggin’ on that cash that he gave you is to front
If you’re gonna brag make sure it’s your money you flaunt
Depend on noone else to give you what you want
@Ceejee & BeckySharper – See also “Irreplaceable”.
If people have problems with pop music as a genre they’re never going to forgive Beyonce for being Beyonce. I personally think she’s fantastic, as is this video and the message that commitment is a two way street and a woman should be empowered to walk away from a relationship that doesn’t give her what she wants.
@Blondgrlz: True. I think pop music and pop stars are so associated with the bad messages about women that people just automatically think Beyonce and her music MUST be sending bad messages, even when what she’s putting out is actually smart and empowering–and probably reaching an audience that wouldn’t otherwise be hearing a lot of woman-empowering messages.
not to be snippy, but did beyonce actually write any of her lyrics? i have always assumed that, like most hothoused performers, she’s just handed a sheet of lyrics and herded into a studio – maybe an unjustified assumption!
@sonambula: Yep, she wrote it (with others). And she produces her own albums. Beyonce’s very much involved with all aspects of her music–she’s not a prepackaged pop tart.
MamaSharper holds her position on this song as presented in the video. When Beyonce – and I agree she is an outstanding talent – is out there twitching her ass, the message I get is not one of independence but more like “you want to own this ass, put a ring on it.” When was the last time you saw a man sing “put a ring on it”
@Orlando, the dancer on the left is actually a man. This revelation is probably the only reason I ever watched/liked the video.