She has been in the center of a recent storm for the lyrics of her song, “I Been On,” but Beyonce is not backing down in the May issue of British Vogue, whose cover she graces.
The 30-year-old superstar, who is about to begin the European leg of her new world tour, said she considers herself a modern-day feminist.
“I guess I am a modern-day feminist,” she told the magazine. “I do believe in equality. Why do you have to choose what type of woman you are? Why do you have to label yourself anything? I’m just a woman and I love being a woman. I do believe in equality and that we have a way to go and it’s something that’s pushed aside and something that we have been conditioned to accept.”
Beyonce has always been praised for her grueling work ethic, but she says it comes with a price.
“I’m always bruised somewhere – my legs, my hips,” she said. “But you’ve already started so you’ve just gotta fight through it.”
Some have questioned why she would name her world tour “Mrs. Carter,” but she’s very clear on what the name means to her.
“I feel like Mrs. Carter is who I am, but more bold and more fearless than I’ve ever been,” she says. “It comes from knowing my purpose and really meeting myself once I saw my child. I was like, ‘OK, this is what you were born to do’. The purpose of my body became completely different.”
The singer’s tour kicks off on April 15 in Belgrade, Serbia, and will wind its way through 42 cities in North America and Europe before ending in Brooklyn in August.
In her controversial track, which features a “trap” style beat in the vein of viral “Harlem Shake” sensation, Beyonce commands respect from those who would try and take her position as the current queen of pop.
“Bow down, b*tches,” she demands on the track’s chorus, a line that has already divided fans.
“I took some time to live my life/but don’t think I’m just his little wife,” she sings, referring to her husband Jay-Z and the birth of her daughter Blue Ivy. Beyonce’s position as a black female role model makes her use of the “b-word” questionable, but that may be the song’s goal.
