First, the Queen of Music and First Friend of the First Family, Mrs. Knowles Carter: One of the world’s most accomplished entertainers and certainly one of its most beautiful women, the artist known as Beyonce has conducted her career with wit, grit and a whole lot of style over the years. Heck, we’ve even forgiven the lip-syncing of the Star Spangled Banner at the President’s January 2013 inaugural because, you know, she’s Queen B.
I’m really not a prude.
I sat through The Wolf of Wall
Street, for godsake! But I have to
say that Beyonce and Jay took it a little bit over the line last night at the 8
o’clock hour on the Grammy Awards.
Twerking, chair dancing, strobe lights and bleeped out lyrics: Ok, B, if I wanna buy your video album, I am
choosing to see your steamy Drunk in Love
performance. But I suspect a large
number of viewers last night were tweens and teens (your fans) who are still
figuring this sex stuff out and didn’t see this performance coming.
What were you thinking? Ah yes, album sales.
Today I’m sure you’re thrilled with the buzz-on effect of
your opening act. In the name of
artistic freedom you gave twerking a little class, unlike that bumpkin Miley
Cyrus, eh? Of course, I wonder how you’ll
feel when the “next” Beyonce of 2024 performs a similar number and your own
beautiful little girl is now a tween…
and watching…say wha???
Now on to the former First Lady of the great Commonwealth of
Virginia, Maureen I deserve my very own
Oscar de la Renta gown even though my husband is a lowly paid public servant
McDonnell.
No, it wasn’t enough that the needy Mrs. McDonnell asked
some ethically challenged CEO to buy her nice clothes and help with the family’s
debts; she wanted the Rolex and Range Rover too! But even Maureen crossed the line: CEO Jonnie Williams of Star Scientific just
wanted to sell a few vitamin supplements with the help of state-sponsored
research “wired” by the Guv. Instead, “lusting
for luxury” Maureen asked the Sugar Daddy CEO for a kind of permanent “loan” of
his Range Rover so her college age son could look the part of big man on campus.
She tripped his wire, and he tipped off the Feds.
Amazing.
But now my point (and I have one): Female empowerment is a beautiful thing. I applaud women who have the confidence to
take risks just so long as the risk isn’t at someone else’s unknowing or unwanted expense. When artistic
integrity becomes more important than the ability or desire of the audience to
understand it, it becomes a subtle kind of bullying. And when empowerment becomes entitlement, it can flirt dangerously with the line dividing the strictly legal from the criminal.
For some folks out there, this may all boil down to
perceptions of sophistication and my lack of it. But for me, the recent behavior of these
women smacks more of sheer stupidity.
Sorry, B. Hope you’ll
make a better choice the next time.
As for you, Maureen, I hear “orange is the new black.” Good luck with that.
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