So Damn Easy To Love

[redbrunja]

 

"Why Don't You Love Me" - Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo.

Conforms to damaging sexual norms/feminist critique of the most common ways women try to please men and their inherent fail? Discuss.

Comments

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

For me it's tricky, because there's the song and there's the imagery, and I mostly paid attention to the imagery, ignoring most of the verses.

I'm going to go with "mostly a feminist critique" for the video, with a side caveat of the fact that Beyonce seems to be close to naked in most of the videos I've seen lately and this was no exception, which is a sexist requirement of women in music.

Overall? I liked it. I think it benefited from the fact that we see a descent of the characters as their efforts to be perfect stereotypes fall apart from inherent silliness. I'm not a big fan of the fact that the song discusses a woman who apparently has everything yet is still obsessed about not getting a man's approval, yet I appreciated that she ended the song with "Well, maybe you're dumb."

ETA: I like Beyonce's sense of silly theater; she pulls it off.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh, Beyonce has a GREAT sense of theater.

And I think you pinpointed something in separating the imagery from the lyrics - because the images DO emphasize something that is only faintly apparent from the lyrics.