Okay, I might write more about this later or I mightcompletely forget about it. I am listening to Beyoncé’s Single Ladies. I really like the song but I am not sure if I SHOULD like the message or not. On one hand, it is seemingly very empowering: She will not continue to be part of a relationship where her need for commitment et cetra is not met. And yet at the same time, when she is talking about “putting a ring on it” she is talking about herself. Can we say objectification, people? And what is up with our collective obession with “The Ring”? I just don’t get it.
I actually would like to know what you all think. If I actually get comments (hint, hint), I’ll write another post on the subject. If not, I will move on and try to stop over-thinking a freakin’ song. And now back to Oedipus to the tunes of hiphop.
1 response so far ↓
Scott Johnson // September 14, 2009 at 8:46 pm |
I found an interesting tidbit about Beyonce on her wikipedia page. A longstanding boyfriend whom she dated from age 12 to 19 left her. I can only speculate that this song has something to do with this relationship, but relating the two changed the way I looked at your comments and the song.
Before I saw the song as more of an “I’m single!” shout out, and now I see it as more what happens to lingering teenage angst from a first major personal rejection. And, if she’s drawing from her memory of this teenage relationship, it would not surprise me if her teenage self thought of marriage in an objective way given that circumstance. I think the line about putting rings on things you like is really clever. Is it acceptable to sacrifice politically correctness in order to state things in a creative and clever way? You already eluded to the answer, in order to be popular in Beyonce’s realm of music, you probably have to.