Beyonce’s Dead Lobster

By eric holmberg | February 12, 2016 |

For any naive folk out there who think “it’s only music” and the lyrics and the lifestyle/worldview of the artist don’t really affect anyone, consider this:

Beyonce’s new hit single, “Formation,” features, along with lots of other sensual imagery, the lyric (brace yourself) – “When he f*** me good I take his a** to Red Lobster.” The week after she released the song and performed an edited version during the Super Bowl half-time show , the chain restaurant reported a 33% increase in sales.

Now consider this:

If a song can take individuals with no strong, innate desire to eat mediocre seafood and inspire them to visit a Red Lobster, what is its impact going to be on people–particular young impressionable ones–who do have a strong, innate appetite for sexual pleasure?

And then couple that with another Maslowian need: to be esteemed and self-actualized, confident of one’s own power to be sexy, attractive and in control. Someone, in other words, like Beyonce.

What makes this song and the worldview it presents even more insidious is that its message is supposed to be all about ethnic pride and empowerment. Laudable subjects to be sure. But mainlining licentiousness, something she and her husband have turned into an art form, is only going to help keep most of her audience–the 99.99 percent not blessed with her looks, talent and opportunities–on the real plantation, slaves to the massa’ of the fallen world.

Posted in Pop Culture

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Beyonce’s Dead Lobster

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