You Better Recognize
You Better Recognize
Growing up as a Black female, I have been exposed to an infinite amount of music by other African American female artists. However, little did I know that many of the love songs performed by Black female artists posses elements of womanism, or the acknowledgement of Black women’s contributions to society within the lyrics. One of these many pieces of music include pop artist, Beyonce’s song, “Irreplaceable.” The growth of this song’s popularity transformed it into a strong women’s anthem, allowing the song to relate to all women, regardless of race, age, religion etc. Beyonce had women all over the world singing “I can have another you in a minute, matter fact he’ll be here in a minute,” to men. This sort of female liberation is the epitome of feminism and womanism. However regardless of all the female bashing music in our culture, men decided to remake this song from a man’s perspective, creating a whole new twist on the song and an overt rebuttal of feminism.
On youtube.com there are numerous remakes of this video/song ready to view by the public. One particular video made by “4everfaithfulun2Him” paints a picture of Black feminism and fits the original intent of this song. The young Black woman in this video simply sings in front of the camera, while an instrumental of the Beyonce song plays. Looking at this video from a Black feminist/womanist perspective I noticed that the young woman in the video connects to this song in a personal aspect, meaning that the lyrics in the song are relatable to her. The fact that the girl selected this song implies a stance of liberation and Black female independence, which is associated with feminism and womanism.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the male version of this video and song is somewhat of a rebuttal of what the original song stands for (i.e. Black womanist independence and the idea of not needing a male figure). It is interesting that Beyonce’s statement of Black womanist independence evoked such a negative and somewhat mocking response from mainly Black men. This factor is reminiscent of the Black man’s reaction to the Black Feminist Movement. It seems that when a Black woman makes a statement concerning independence, Black men find it necessary to “take back their rightful place as leaders in the Black community” (i.e the Million Man March). Even during the Black Woman’s Club Movement, Black men had a multitude of opposing voices in Black women displaying such strength, unity and activism. It is because of this that the male remake of the “Irreplaceable” video/song was acceptable and somewhat expected. The youtube video by “louisht” displayed common images of disrespect from Black male to Black woman. The lyrics of the original song were changed in order to fit a man’s perspective, encouraging brotherly companionship, having multiple female partners, and most importantly, putting the Black woman in “her rightful place” as inferior to men.
In comparing and contrasting these two videos proves how patriarchy in our society is still evident and well defended. Furthermore, it is proven that womanism, or the recognition of women’s achievements and validating it in our society, is not supported as frequently as patriarchal ideas. However, through songs such as “Irreplaceable” the public is still able to see that Black women can stand strong on their own and validate their own achievements, so Black men and society, you better recognize.
Video Addresses: Male Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1DHHmOOVFg
Female Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qOC7uwuQ9c
