Voicing Empowerment

Appoline H-ROMANENS English 146G Instructors: James Tobias /TA: Rochelle Gold Tuesday, March 10, 2015 Synchronized “love” songs desynchronizing with female sexuality through voice and eroticism the current dynamics of sexual politics. PAGE 1! OF 6 ! Paper’s Statement/Abstract I made this Nevsky digram inspired double Graphical Score to be able to conveniently present to my readers a way to parallel and contrast two of our visual materials screened in class. I was first of all interested , in my first project, in studying Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love’’ music video; the freedom that perspired from the video, the aesthetic beauty and catchiness of the music, as well as the mystery of black and white choices of film editing made me choose this one in January. Somehow, it remotely reminded me of a Herb Ritts' video for Madonna’s song, “Cherish’’ that seemed to, if my memory served me right at that time, share the same aesthetic qualities with Beyoncé’s video and respond to it. I realized in a few months that Beyoncé’s open display of sexuality was not done in a ‘’loose’’ way or in a way to attract viewers, but rather to embody a feminist vision of African American artists and claims versus those of male rappers/singers..Just like the music and the video shared this essayist quality of freedom and beauty, Beyoncé Knowles tries to carry them in her life but also as an artist in her albums. She wants women to rise and take back the power History ravished from them and affirm their eroticism, their proud, free and pure sexuality.The Texan star constantly conveys this message in her videos.She also, in this quest to voice the empowerment, speaks for other communities, not just Black Americans, but for instance the LGBTIQ community. By so doing, she desynchronizes the current dynamics of sexual politics through the erotic and other means that demonstrate her and others’ agencies. Second of all, I explored how music and art existed to be reinterpreted. Some works share the same struggles of class, sex and gender orientation, others, like my analysis on Madonna’s 1989 music video “Cherish’’ was voicing the combat of the oppressed in accordance to the 1990s, that of the LGBTIQ community as well portrayed as mermen. I discovered Madonna’s work was inspired by Kool and the Gang 1984 “Cherish’’ music video, utilizing the history of African American music to talk about the importance of love and sexual freedom. Outkast and Beyoncé’s Bankhead Bounce moves we see performed by Beyoncé in“Drunk in Love’’ honor the memory and relationship African American music shares with History that define Gilroy’s dynamics of citizenship, class and gender, which are then intrinsically linked. Lastly, and for this reason, I decided to confront my analysis of “Drunk in Love” to Bessie Smith’s 1929 performance in “Saint Louis Blues”, to realize that there was one major difference in the way Bessie and Beyoncé’s disrupt sexual politics and voice their empowerment. Beyoncé clearly uses the erotic and open displays of her sexuality to affirm that she is a sexually liberated woman, and that, as a master of her desires, she has this willpower to make decisions for herself. I think that the challenges Beyoncé overcomes is to show her viewers that despite the monstrous spread of pornography nowadays, the erotic is what provokes desire and not this fake industry of feelings that emphasizes the sensation, just like a little bit of alcohol inspires Bessie. Therefore, Beyoncé in a way defines what true love is like and should be. Female and male mutual respect and equality. We see this idea in the second strip of the sequence I have analyzed, as we see Jimmy attempting to mockingly woo Bessie and pretend the only thing he needed was to come back to her in a complementary couple-like need, to in fact rob her of her money. when she least suspects it. The singer’s voice will repeat the leitmotif in the song: ‘’My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea’’ so that the other women or whoever is listening- not especially females- but any race, any gender of any orientation is warned that as long as there is a dynamic of power, it is meant to work, if nothing is done to disrupt those dynamics in terms of ‘’sex that oppresses and sex that is oppressed’’, as the French feminist Monique Wittig points out (68). Beyoncé voices her sexual empowerment through the erotic, Bessie Smith voices her female empowerment through her voice, but in the end they sing to disrupt and solve the same struggles using different styles of music that are in fact helping to create changes through the dynamics of space and time. And then rap and hip/hop music are later forms of blues and jazz music. Beyoncé’s musical, committed claims and artistic universe are a re-appropriation of Bessie’s legacy. In achieving the expressions of those feminist points of view, in regards to women’s social conditions, sexual development and agencies, Bessie Smith’s voice raises awareness and allows Beyoncé to, following the historical dynamics of African American music, reinterpret other artists’ works and translate them into the language of our modern times to touch a larger, rather universal audience. In other words,African American women’s behaviors in blues or rap music follow this scheme, according to Tricia Rose, “Three central themes predominate in the works of female rappers: ‘’heterosexual courtship, the importance of the female voice and mastery in women’s rap and black female public display of physical and sexual freedom” (147) By doing this, it achieves two aims. First of all, it permits us to remember about those struggles of class and slavery, those ‘’discursive implanted memories’’ Silverman talks about as I have shown. Secondly, it tries to convey the idea that there should be no such thing as a more powerful gender. Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” and “Saint Louis Blues’’ focus on women’s empowerment through their voices and display of sexuality. But an analysis of both tell us that voice and sexuality are in fact intrinsically linked. Just like the image serves the music in a video or a film, as Vernallis points out, “"We might thus define music video, simply, and perhaps too broadly as a relation of sound and image that we recognize as such.’’(438) To conclude, Bessie Smith’s and Beyoncé’s works are very effective in the way both take African American historical and musical memories to adapt it to their social statuses at the time or nowadays. Although “Saint Louis Blues’’ might not speak volumes to those who are not familiar with the struggles of African Americans overtime, the issues the visual and sonic works convey talks to anyone because those problems voiced have been remixed and reinterpreted, which is why Beyoncé’s music video has this universal virtue that, at least if not carried by the visuals, the music and the lyrics vehicle because they are inspired on the same historical types of struggles. The reason for this is that music affects the effects we have on something we see or hear, because music, born of poetry, has to do with the expression of the soul- a perpetual Bessie Smith’s plea. And when humans’ sympathy is involved, we are bound to feel something that touches our souls, in the same way blues, jazz, rap and hip hop, or soul music do. Different types of ways are used to carry the message and be effective. Through a vibrating timber– Bessie’s, or through the uses of the aesthetics of the erotic–Beyoncé’s. It highlights the importance of female and more largely humans’ empowerment. Through music, we can change the condition of women, men and LGBTIQ subjects in a pacifist way. Music creates a revolution in trying to disrupt abusive dynamics of power such as those of work and play, and more importantly of control versus desire, drawing on our past to better our future. Appoline H-Romanens March 12, 2015 We leave the intimacy of the home to follow Bessie to a bar. The landscape changes brutally, in a absurdist way, as worded by Edwards (91). What is absurdist in this shift is that there is apparently no connection between the intimacy of the home and a social place like a bar. However, it is through socializing, voicing her struggles through her voice that Bessie Smith is free. She sings a cappella, men, and women start echoing her voice . This notion, called ‘’antiphony’’ or “call and response” is a depiction of class difference. Not only expressed in terms of gender antagonism, but sexed gendered antagonism. Class is depicted as a working class. The gendered relationship is shown as a sexed reaction. Work and play are not lining up with citizenship and freedom with blues in the way that it should be. Bessie is not satisfied; she’s for now unable to resolve this sexual frustration, despite her having agency with her voice. At [00:03:36], Bessie leans toward her glass, her timbre still being echoed by the crowd. Her body is affected by the inspiration movement of her voice. Hence, the crowd becomes more important, as Bessie now repeats their lyrics. A dialogical sympathetic process is established. The crowd tries to cheer Bessie with the band, when Bessie does not need to be. She is voicing her struggles to share them. She does that through her voice, liberating everybody, as Angela Davis points out: “Women’s blues history revolve[s] around male lovers and (…)problems posed by heterosexual relationships complicated by expressions of autonomous female sexuality. ‘’ (45) Bessie and Beyoncé Drunk in Love Saint Louis Blues- Description Bessie Smith’s performance in “Saint Louis Blues” (1929) portrays a woman who’s been betrayed by her ‘’man’’ (Jimmy.) In this sequence, she is seen drinking alone, in her modest home, and desperate. Her long plea, ‘’my man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea’’, is the main recurrent theme- leitmotif– of the song. But it is not a lamentation. This line empowers Bessie Smith. She blames the patriarchal form of power she is apparently the victim of. The scene opens on a close-up of Beyoncé, disheveled, seemingly looking at the horizon .She seems to emerge from a dream, while trying to hold herself together. Like Bessie Smith is holding a bottle of alcohol, Beyoncé reveals she’s “been drinkin”, plunged in that same state, comparable to Bessie’s melancholic blues. However, Beyoncé’s facial expression does not suggest shame or despair. Beyoncé expresses her power through her body, Smith gradually expresses her power through, her crescendo voice 1. The uses of the voice and the erotic: female sexuality empowerment Despite Davis’s point, it seems to me that Africa American women’s blues music is not only singing and sharing the “problems of heterosexual relationships’’, (45) but rather proposes a way to move away from the enslavement of those male v.female relationships, intrinsically linked with the dynamics of class and gender. Class and gender values are really key to both Bessie Smith’s and Beyoncé’s short film or music video because it draws from the history of work and play, dynamics of control and desire. Historically speaking, slavery is criticized in those works. Bessie Smith’s apartment derelict aspect reminds us of the condition of Southern women in the early 19th century. Herbie Hancock’s 1998 Gershwin’s World album features his “Saint Louis Blues’’ version, as he sings: “I hate to see that evening sun go down/ ‘Cause the woman I'm loving, she has left this town’’, reversing the situation stated by the 1929 short film, when it’s a man who’s having the blues because his woman left town, as Bessie sang earlier. This is indeed a proof of female empowerment, and contradicts Davis’ point saying that blues music is only mastered by women to voice female struggles around sexuality. Jazz and blues music are rather, at least to me, these media able to efface the politics of race, class and gender to become this effortless style, inspiring the players and listeners to fight for their freedom, not just a feminist voice. To fight for her freedom, Beyoncé uses the erotic and displays her perfect body. The beauty of Black American artists, just like the beauty of their voices becomes another way to voice those same struggles. Bessie Smith sings: ‘’'Cause my baby done left this town/I'm gonna pack my trunk and make my getaway.’’, whereas Beyoncé calls JAYZ’s name through the metaphor of her drinking. The combination of her love metaphorically expressed through her desire to lose herself while drinking, calling the erotic echoes Bessie Smith’s soulful plea which could sound like a love song. She could still be in love with Jimmy yet tells the crowd that while she would like him to come back, she knows better than rely on a treacherous man. This idea, contextualized back in the 1930s is bold and brand new. At the time women were not independent and were married to a man so that he could take care of their social and sexual development, that is to say, none. In the process, women were abandoning the erotic, personified in Beyoncé’s burning love, as well as their agencies, they were enslaved. “Saint Louis Blues’’ and “Drunk in Love’’ are voicing the same struggles, displayingPAGE their freedoms 2! OF 6 ! through voices and bodies. As we see Bessie Smith at the bar, the camera’s angle is focused on her, it is also focused on Beyoncé. In terms of the notion of the gaze, as women, they are what constitues the revolution around sex and gender, as argued by the French feminist Monique Wittig: ‘’As long as there is no women’s struggle, there is no conflict between men and women.’’(...)And fate supposedly cannot be changed.’’ (63) Fate is changing, however, through Bessie’s voice. If we look at the orange part- representing sound digitally, we see that the piece is made with first Bessie’s solo pleas which triggers the crowd’s desire to dance and be affected. Beyoncé brandishes her trophy and holds it above her head with one hand, to seize it with two hands as if to show she wanted to throw it far away from her. As pointed out by Christina Daraphon: “She isn’t letting the trophies become a statement of beauty because they are now meaningless to her.’’(6) Bessie Smith is not affected by the meaningless ways in which men judge working class women because it’s biased. Similarly, while hearing Bessie’s empowered complaint, the jazz band decides to play at [00:04:12] a cheerful tune everyone starts to dance on. Like Beyoncé’s voice calls us to dance our hearts out on her throbbing bass, Bessie Smith’s powerful timbre is increasingly going forte, emphasizing the affect of her voice, not that of her struggles . 2. Desynchronizing the politics of class and gender antagonism 3. Letting go with blues and hip hop, metaphor for seizing power These forms carry a historical reference and have to do with class, race, gender and sexuality. It addresses those larger problems of governance and interpretation, free will and destiny or predetermination. With the 19th century’s industrialization, we get this typically modern question of control and desire. BlackAmericans’ and Bessie Smith’s pieces ask the listeners to question these dynamics of control and desire, in which there is an immensely raced dimension. This scene is absurdist, as worded by Erica Edwards in Tuning into Precious: The Black Women's Empowerment Adaptation and the Interruptions of the Absurd. She points out that ‘’a series of abstract images substitutes for conventional plot, absurdism openly abandons reason and throws viewers into a world of detached signifiers.’’ (91) Blues music has values that emphasizes a voice that is valid in terms of control and desire; to disrupt those values. Bessie Smith’s disruption of those values are seen through her antiphonic performance, to which the crowd, composed of middle class white and black women and men, some couples and the musicians, reply to. A canon is formed with the women’s voices, to which the men’s reply. Blues music seems to destroy those barriers of class and gender when summoned among the struggles. Bessie Smith’s antagonistic combat becomes more general and englobes the crowd’s. Her voice disrupts it which allows the musicians to be inspired by her issue and turn it into a more universal one. This call and response becomes collective and social. Because moving bodies affect others’ in time and space. Similarly, Beyoncé’s ‘’metaphor pushes the viewer toward recognizing Beyonce’s success at conquering her independence and newly formed womanhood. As Edwards argues, “black feminism often merged with and adapted to the rhetoric of self-help and individual success,” which correlates to Beyonce’s desire to prove her conquered identity of a black woman in the musical industry’’, according to Sean Sharpe.(2) I related his idea to Bessie Smith showing that despite the humiliation of being betrayed and seemingly looking affected, her increasingly powerful voice is what matters and is a metaphor for a ‘’newly formed womanhood’’ In Beyoncé as well, her openness is not used to seduce her viewers, but rather that, as Tricia Rose points out in her 1994 essay: “Black Noise- Rap Music and black culture in Contemporary America’’,‘’mastery in women’s rap and black female public displays of physical and sexual freedom’’ abounds in the works of black female rappers, as well as a ‘’heterosexual courtship’’. (147) In Roses’ perspective, Bessie and Beyoncé display their sexual freedom for themselves, to embrace their female sexuality. In fact, the comparison between the Black American waiter who is rotating a silver tray, as the camera zooms on Bessie’s expression disrupts the dynamics of servitude, turning them into those of play versus work. Music allows this shifting in position and redefines power, which seems to be equally redistributed in this scene, although Bessie Smith, as the lead singer, is the one who is truly in power. Even though the uses of the erotic are not physically seen on Bessie Smith’s body and attire, conveying secrecy and therefore is a metaphor for her open soul compared to Beyoncé’s open displays of eroticism and sexuality, I think that Bessie’s lyrics speak for this eroticism. In fact, when she claims ‘’my man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea’’, she is warning other women not to fall for this seemingly tender and romantic heart of the male, but unveils its true nature. It’s a rock, a man’s heart does not have any feelings, and like a ricochet, it can be tossed away. This is erotic in the way Bessie dominates Jimmy, by showing how crystal-clear she sees through him. When Lorde points out that “[The erotic is] the personification of love in all its aspects- born of Chaos and personifying creative power and harmony (...) an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered. ‘’, Bessie’s empowerment exists through the creative power of her voice, which,is erotic. She disrupts the dynamics at stake, while counseling other women. In the narrative of the short film, a shift happens in the middle of the crowd dancing and, singing along with Bessie, when Jimmy appears. The notion of the gaze moves from Bessie to film Jimmy’s virtuosity in dancing and entertaining the crowd, stealing Bessie’s power – similarly, he will trick her with his ‘’May I have this dance?’’ move to steal her money. In contrast, when JAY-Z appears, Beyoncé s chorus talks about being in love ‘’all night’’, confirming that this song is about a possible free, and yet burning, erotic and passionate love, free of tricks and lies. Comparing this scene to Bessie and Jimmy’s ‘’dance’’, Beyoncé and JAY-Z form a unity as a couple ; the female star even mouths her husband’s words. The violence seen in the Bessie dancing scene echoes in JAY-Z’s voice when he says ‘’Now eat the cake Anna Mae, said eat the cake Anna Mae, I’m nice.’’Anna Mae is Tina Turner’s real name and this line refers to the controversy of Ike, Tina’s abusive boyfriend who, jealous that his girlfriend was asked to sign an autograph, not him, when she released her first single, forced her to eat the cake. Beyoncé’s choice to mouth the words is not to prove she supports domestic violence, but is rather a way for her to reinforce her equal power with JAY-Z. Jimmy’s mocking dance highly contrasts with JAY-Z’s amorous embrace with Beyoncé. Female empowerment is not just portrayed as a female who’s alone fighting, but rather exists within the dynamics of power, control and desire of her husband, too. Instead of being opposite, they are complementary. In Bessie Smith, only the music is, to her. However, if we analyze the gradual way in which the bartender next to Bessie looks at her and seems concerned by her struggles. It shows, as I will argue, that the struggles of Black American females also speak to male subjects. So the idea of male being absolutely heartless is being reversed by the behavior of this bartender who seems to almost intimately understand her, as opposed to the crowd who looks like they rather listened to her pleas but then those pleas were turned into dynamics of play and pleasure. Despite reintroducing the dynamics of male, sexual patriarchal power– he is the one who leads the dance– this scene is key in the sequence because even after Jimmy leaves, grabbing the neck of a woman and therefore proving he is not faithful and a liar as he exits, Bessie’s voice repeats ‘’My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea’’, neither dwelling on the fact he humiliated her when he pushed her off him, nor that he treated her like a “loose’’ woman as Davis argues, almost paying himself for his “services’’. In the final scene of “Drunk in Love”, I see a clear parallel with“Saint Louis Blues’’ in the way that alcohol and drinking are a way for female subjects to feel free. They go beyond the fact they might be judged for their depravity. When Beyoncé openly says: “I been sippin’ it’s the only thing that’s keeping me on fire, me on fire’’, I recall this opening scene with Bessie. Effectively, it is through the dreamy- for Beyoncé or - melancholic feeling- for Bessie that both women voice their struggles to solve it through their voice, the erotic, blues and rap or hip hop music. However, Beyoncé uses the denotative metaphor of alcohol for the connotative aspect of love, whereas Bessie uses the alcohol to unleash her creative energy, taking the power back, not affirming she had it beforehand, like Beyoncé shows in her erotic video. In fact, the absurdist transition shifting from seeing Bessie at home drinking and then at the bar still drinking is reflected in this last still above in Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love’’. She shuffles her identity and beauty with this desire to let go, conveyed through music Bessie Smith transfigures. For Bessie Smith, alcohol is an inspiring source, in a Poe like sort of universe of reverie and melancholy. Alcohol then becomes a metaphor to let go in both Beyoncé’s and Bessie’s works. Their freedom affirmed or reaffirmed leaves room for creation, which allows the expression of their soul, which in turn engenders the music and turn those same struggles into collective ones where the social aspect is key to disrupt the dynamics of sexual politics. 4. African American music voices the struggles of African Americans 5. Through voice and sexuality, empowering the oppressed Although it would seem that both “Saint Louis Blues’’ and “Drunk in Love, with its claims on race, gender dynamics of work and play and female sexuality through this call and response is addressed to a universal audience, I rather think that specific music created to voice the struggles of certain peoples belongs to them. The message of blues can be heard and read by anyone, yet I would argue it is targeted to those who can relate to the historical context during which these struggles emerged. In fact, Paul Gilroy believes that “the conflictual representation of sexuality has vied with the discourse of racial emancipation to constitute the inner core of black expressive culture. Common rhetorical strategies developed through the same repertory of enunciative procedures that have helped these discourses to become interlinked. Their association was pivotal, for example, in the massive secularisation that produced soul out of rhythm and blues and it persists today. ‘’ To me, this persistance of blues or hip hop/ rap music can only be fully grasped by people who share the same cultural backdrop, because it relates to them, therefore, touches them more, because it speaks to them and tries to empower them when addressing those issues. So when Angela Davis argues that this short film fails to respect the blues narrative and violates it, I rather think that is quite successful in showing how African American women, fighting slavery, do not want to fall for a man to be enslaved by them. In Beyoncé’s 2009 “Irreplaceable” music video, she sings: ‘’I can have another you by tomorrow/So don't you ever for a second get to thinking/You're irreplaceable. ‘’Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” is not saying that JAY-Z is all for her and that she’d be lost if her man was to leave town and betray her or was tying to steal her agency and sexual freedom. Bessie’s Smith performance and the song directed by W.C Handy in 1914 voices the struggles of African American women while allowing other subjects to identify with her, and therefore collectively address and try to solve the issues. As Vernallis develops, “Music video frequently remediates material. They adopt images from earlier sources (films, commercials, paintings, posters) and often juxtapose them with others in the video.’’ This is why a common theme exposed in other videos or films will be recognized by other people, used in other type of media.’’(459) For instance, in Herbie Hancock’s version, as noted earlier. Hancock’s version takes a seemingly female oriented issue against men and inverses the tendency, lamenting himself on the fact that not only men but also women can cheat and deceive someone, and that gender, class or race do not determine someone’s power. Beyond the idea that this issue is universal, dynamics of power are always biased, what is interesting behind this is that if women and men have the same struggle with the opposite or same sex, it shows that there’s no such thing as a stronger –men- or ‘’weaker sex’’–females. But this means that the dynamics changed overtime. Raising awareness and consciousness in “Superpower” by Beyoncé or through the jazzy voice of Bessie Smith desynchronizes the politics of sex, class and sexuality and allows us to make progress in historical injustices. However, even if we do not fully identify with the core meanings of the issues that blues and other type of African American musics present to us, Silverman points out that we do not need to. If we are to know about the problems we are not directly concerned with, it makes us perhaps feel less selfish as it questions the definition we place upon the power we have. Gilroy explained that it is through music that African Americans, having their ancestors brought back from bondage, could develop a new culture of freedom and equality, drawing on the past. Then, blues and any other type of music, or cultural meaning allows those who are not familiar with it to be displaced which therefore disrupts the current dynamics of sexual politics and redefine, just like this ability blues music has, to redefine power and destroy the barriers. When presented with different issues, we use key elements, such as gender and class to spot values we all share, which is why, despite our cultural or ethical differences, we could say that the message of music and arts and other forms of expressions can be universal, as Silverman explains: ‘’The issue, then, is not merely how we might be textually encouraged to confer ideality upon the face and lineaments of another, but how, through discursively ‘’implanted’’ memories, we might be given the psychic wherewithal to participates in the desires, struggles and sufferings of the other, and to do so in a way which redounds to his or her, rather than to our own ‘’credit.’’. (185) For instance, Beyoncé does not belong to the LGBT community, yet her music video “Superpower’’ voices their struggles, as Leovardo Ramirez suggests: ‘’ The members of the riot are seen destroying police cars and breaking windows which is a symbol of deconstructing the ideas that have prolonged the oppression of members of the LGBT community who have historically been denied rights such as marriage and have been segregated or mistreated. In the midst of the riot, Beyoncé is seen embracing a fallen man. She holds him a loving manner as to suggest not that they are lovers but that she loves him. ‘’(4) Similarly, Madonna 1989 “Cherish’’ music video sings for the oppressed, just like Beyoncé’s 2013 album, “Beyoncé’’ does. Madonna’s music video shows gorgeous mermen, maybe even more eroticized than she is. I see those gorgeous mermen as a representation of the homosexual community, yearning to be free. Symbolically, they gush out of water in synchronization with the music, which makes them, ‘’come out’’ at [00:00:54.13], i.e, affirm who they are, as LGBTIQ subjects. We can somehow identify with their combat because we all share experiences of oppression linked to class, race and gender. PAGE 3! OF 6 ! Beyoncé does it through the uses of the erotic, to affirm that she is proud to exist and reveal herself as a non-enslaved, free and powerful beautiful and successful Black American woman. Her song is about being in love to this blissful state of like- drunkenness, but from this change in sexual politics to today, one must take into account the voiced and unvoiced struggles of the oppressed, like Bessie Smith’s performance in 1929. This is through affects and musical memory that we move forward and that we can question or redistribute the dynamics of power through time. Bessie Smith’s short film proves that while African American women could not affirm themselves because they were wrongly accused by men to be ‘’loose’’, the singer’s voice speaks for this eroticism that does not have to specifically do with displaying one’s body, as Lorde points out: “Within the celebration of the erotic in all in all our endeavors (...) women so empowered are dangerous. So we are taught to separate the erotic demand from most from most vital areas of our lives others san sex (...) Such a system reduces work to a travesty of necessities, a duty by which we earn bread or oblivion for ourselves and those we love.’’ (55). And voice share these qualities too. Women, men and LGBTIQ subjects affirm their sexualities overtime, mediated by musical memories linked to historical similar or different experiences affects and effects can make us relate to. ©Appoline H-Romanens, 2015 Personal Illustrating Image: PAGE 4! OF 6 ! Works cited Davis, Y. Angela. Blues Legacy and Black Feminism –Mama’s Got The Blues. Vintage Books. New York, 1998, page 45 Edwards, R, Erica. Tuning into Precious: The Black Women's Empowerment Adaptation and the Interruptions of the Absurd , Indiana University Press. 2012, page 91 Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic–Modernity and Double Consciousness, Harvard University Press page 83 Lorde, Audre: Sister Outsider –The Uses of the Erotic, Crossing Press, Berkeley, 1984, page 55 Rose, Tricia, “Bad Sistas ‘’Black Women Rappers and Sexual Politics in Rap Music. Wesleyan University Press, 1994, page 147, Silverman, Kaja, The Threshold of the Visible World. Routledge, 1996, page 185 Vernallis, Carol, The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics.Oxford University Press 2013. Chapter 25, pages 438, 459 Wittig, Monique. The Category of Sex,, Berkeley,1976, page 66-67 in Feminist Issues, Fall 1982, pages 63, 68 PAGE 5! OF 6 ! Group’s Links cited and my Related Comments ➟ Christina, Daraphon, ‘’Female Empowerment in “Pretty Hurts”, 2015, page 6, paragraph 2, begins with ‘’As a result’’ Her point: “She isn’t letting the trophies become a statement of beauty because they are now meaningless to her.’’ My comment: “ Bessie Smith is not affected by the meaningless ways in which men judge working class women because it’s biased. Similarly, while hearing Bessie’s empowered complaint, the jazz band decides to play at [00:04:12] a cheerful tune everyone starts to dance on. Like Beyoncé’s voice calls us to dance our hearts out on her throbbing bass, Bessie Smith’s powerful timbre is increasingly going forte, emphasizing the affect of her voice, not that of her struggles .’’ ➟ Leovardo, Ramirez, ‘’Enacting Social Reform With Queen B’’ 2015, page 4, paragraph one, begins with ‘’Continuing the riot’’ Their point: The members of the riot are seen destroying police cars and breaking windows which is a symbol of deconstructing the ideas that have prolonged the oppression of members of the LGBT community who have historically been denied rights such as marriage and have been segregated or mistreated. In the midst of the riot, Beyoncé is seen embracing a fallen man. She holds him a loving manner as to suggest not that they are lovers but that she loves him. ‘’ My comment: “Similarly, Madonna 1989 “Cherish’’ music video sings for the oppressed, just like Beyoncé’s 2013 album, “Beyoncé’’ does. Madonna’s music video shows gorgeous mermen, maybe even more eroticized than she is. I see those gorgeous mermen as a representation of the homosexual community, yearning to be free. Symbolically, they gush out of water in synchronization with the music, which makes them, ‘’come out’’ at [00:00:54.13], i.e, affirm who they are, as LGBTIQ subjects. We can somehow identify with their combat because we all share experiences of oppression linked to class, race and gender. “ ➟ Sharpe, Sean, ‘’Beyonce’s Use of the Absurd’’, 2015, page 2, begins with “By using her younger self’’ His point: “ metaphor pushes the viewer toward recognizing Beyonce’s success at conquering her independence and newly formed womanhood. As Edwards argues, “black feminism often merged with and adapted to the rhetoric of self-help and individual success,” which correlates to Beyonce’s desire to prove her conquered identity of a black woman in the musical industry’’ My comment: “I related his idea to Bessie Smith showing that despite the humiliation of being betrayed and seemingly looking affected, her increasingly powerful voice is what matters and is a metaphor for a ‘’newly formed womanhood’’In Beyoncé as well, her openness is not used to seduce her viewers, but rather that, as Tricia Rose points out in her 1994 essay: “Black Noise- Rap Music and black culture in Contemporary America’’,‘’mastery in women’s rap and black female public displays of physical and sexual freedom’’ abounds in the works of black female rappers, as well as a ‘’heterosexual courtship’’. (147)In Roses’ perspective, Bessie and Beyoncé display their sexual freedom for themselves, to embrace their female sexuality PAGE 6! OF 6 ! Appoline, this is terrific! Your graphical essay is detailed, thoughtful, and very interesting. I learned a lot from reading it. The most effective part is your statement/ abstract where you clearly articulate your overall claims—this part is smart, persuasive, and exciting! In terms of the graphical score, you have so much information in there that some of your most important ideas get lost. If you keep working on this—and I think you should—edit the graphical score portion by getting rid of extra material (or putting it into footnotes, etc) so that your really great ideas have room to breathe. Overall, excellent work. 94