Beyoncé covers Out magazine’s May 2014 “Power Issue,” donning a cropped, curly platinum blonde wig and pearls in the spread, photographed by Santiago & Mauricio and styled by Lysa Cooper.
The singer, who released her self-titled fifth studio album in December told Out:
“There is unbelievable power in ownership, and women should own their sexuality. There is a double standard when it comes to sexuality that still persists. Men are free and women are not. That is crazy. The old lessons of submissiveness and fragility made us victims. Women are so much more than that. You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist—whatever you want to be—and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.”
Beyoncé continued, saying:
“While I am definitely conscious of all the different types of people who listen to my music, I really set out to make the most personal, honest, and best album I could make…I needed to free myself from the pressures and expectations of what I thought I should say or be, and just speak from the heart. Being that I am a woman in a male-dominated society, the feminist mentality rang true to me and became a way to personalize that struggle.”
After receiving backlash from conservative talking head Bill O’Reilly, who blamed her for contributing to the rise in teen pregnancy, Beyoncé says that she hopes to achieve an equal playing field for men and women. But is her approach taking things a bit too far? Did her scantily-clad performance routine at the Grammy Awards support women, or keep them boxed in, leaving them viewed as merely sexual objects?
Some argue that Queen Bey’s ownership of her sexuality is doing a positive. However, that praise is met by opposition from many who see the singer’s raunchy acts hidden under the blanket of “feminism” as a cop-out to continue using sex to sell records. What are your thoughts?