"What happens when you center on Black women?" Patricia Hill Collins, acclaimed sociologist and creator of the Black Feminist Thought theory, asked me after I told her about my desire to write about Black women as agents of social change.
Though I pondered several possibilities of a world for, about, and by Black women, I could never have conjured a vision as beautiful as "Lemonade." Beyoncé's answer to Collin's question is a 58-minute visual masterpiece that journeys through the singer's stages of ascension into a divine Black womanhood.
"Lemonade" is very much a womanist manifesto. Womanism, a term coined by "The Color Purple" author Alice Walker, is a framework that encourages Black women to love and embrace other Black women.
Womanism sees the bond between Black women as a source of strength. Forming bonds with other Black women — and embracing …show more content…
Controlling images, like the hypersexual jezebel and the irrational angry Black woman, have haunted Black women for generations.
Womanism, however, is about reclaiming space for Black women, which Beyoncé does by dismissively telling her husband to go call "Becky with the good hair." She rejects him as she declares her non-apologies for focusing on herself.
Throughout this narrative of transformation, she also negotiates sexism and the many angles that Black women must confront it.
Eventually, Bey comes out on the other side freer and radically transformed. That, above all else, is what makes "Lemonade" a womanist manifesto. The most significant aspect of womanism is the transformative power of Black women's love for themselves, their sisters, and all of humanity.
"Lemonade" is Beyonce's blueprint for the liberation of Black women and those in formation know how to build on it and define themselves for
Though I pondered several possibilities of a world for, about, and by Black women, I could never have conjured a vision as beautiful as "Lemonade." Beyoncé's answer to Collin's question is a 58-minute visual masterpiece that journeys through the singer's stages of ascension into a divine Black womanhood.
"Lemonade" is very much a womanist manifesto. Womanism, a term coined by "The Color Purple" author Alice Walker, is a framework that encourages Black women to love and embrace other Black women.
Womanism sees the bond between Black women as a source of strength. Forming bonds with other Black women — and embracing …show more content…
Controlling images, like the hypersexual jezebel and the irrational angry Black woman, have haunted Black women for generations.
Womanism, however, is about reclaiming space for Black women, which Beyoncé does by dismissively telling her husband to go call "Becky with the good hair." She rejects him as she declares her non-apologies for focusing on herself.
Throughout this narrative of transformation, she also negotiates sexism and the many angles that Black women must confront it.
Eventually, Bey comes out on the other side freer and radically transformed. That, above all else, is what makes "Lemonade" a womanist manifesto. The most significant aspect of womanism is the transformative power of Black women's love for themselves, their sisters, and all of humanity.
"Lemonade" is Beyonce's blueprint for the liberation of Black women and those in formation know how to build on it and define themselves for