Most of the reactions to Beyonce's new album have been overwhelmingly positive. The Guardian declared that "Beyonce's new album should silence her feminist critics," and the New Statesman praised the artist for using her music to speak out against sexism in the entertainment industry. But while others were celebrating (or debating) the empowering aspects of Bey's latest LP, the Daily Mail felt it was more important to focus on how thin Beyonce is.
This is the headline that ran on a story published this morning about the video for "Pretty Hurts," a song that's lyrics are dedicated to critiquing mainstream beauty culture and the intense pressure placed on women to be "pretty" over everything else:
The "Pretty Hurts" video (scroll down to see a 30-second preview) shows Beyonce as a beauty queen being picked apart by pageant judges and trainers, being told she weighs too much, and putting on a false smile on stage while she pops pills after-hours and watches fellow contestants eat cotton balls instead of food to maintain a certain level of thinness. The lyrics also have a very clear message:
Mama said, you’re a pretty girl / What’s in your head it doesn’t matter / Brush your hair, fix your teeth / What you wear is all that matters ... Pretty hurts / Shine the light on whatever’s worse / Perfection is the disease of a nation / Pretty hurts / Shine the light on whatever’s worse / Try'na fix something / But you can’t fix what you can’t see / It’s the soul that needs the surgery.
Completely ignoring Beyonce's point that we should stop determining the value of female celebrities -- and women in general -- by their body size and conventional beauty, the Daily Mail waxes poetic about how crazy it is that Bey is so "trim" after having a child two years ago. Womp, womp.
Go home, Daily Mail. You're definitely part of the problem.
[H/T Feministing] Celebrity - The Huffington Post
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