In a new short film titled “Yours and Mine,” Beyonce is unraveling the “complicated” layers of her fame, her stance as a feminist and the life lessons she has learned through her own personal experiences and challenges.
Recently it seems as if the typically guarded powerhouse songstress is opening up more with her fans and anyone else interested in what she has to say.
Her self-titled visual album was a complicated work, although it garnered some negative attention for the “Bow Down” lyrics and the sexually explicit track “Partition.”
“Yours and Mine” deals with the messages that many critics seemed to overlook—messages of empowerment, the complications of fame, the importance of family, the truth about human nature and much more.
Black and white behind-the-scenes shots from the visual album accompany a voice over by Beyonce herself as she starts to explain how life has changed for her after she became famous.
“I sometimes wish I could just be anonymous and walk down a street just like everyone else,” she says in the beginning of the video. “Before I was famous I was the girl on the hill with the guitar. I was the girl who just wanted a beautiful view of the beach and now that I’m famous it’s really really difficult to do very simple things.”
Things like actually going to the beach she so desperately wanted to see when she was growing up.
It isn’t the first time Beyonce has opened up about the difficulties of being famous and as her life continues to be on display for the world to see, it likely won’t be the last.
Despite the difficulties that come with fame, the mother of Blue Ivy said that she will never be a “victim” of any circumstance.
She says that’s something her mother taught her at a very young age—to never be a victim and to never rely on anyone to provide something for her that she can provide for herself.
That type of strength and desire to be independent is exactly what drives her stance as a feminist.
Despite many people criticizing this point of view, the “Flawless” songstress says she has always considered herself to be a feminist.
“I always considered myself a feminist though I was always afraid of that word because people put so much on it,” she explains in the video.
She has experienced the loaded nature of that word, as any celebrity who claims to be a feminist seems to be subjected to a socially constructed checklist of what it really means to be a feminist.
For Beyonce, an overtly sexual media image has brought condemnation from critics of her feminist position, but the star actually says that she has been extremely “choosey” with what she does with her body.
While she praises her independence she also opened up about the importance of being able to rely on others.
Today’s culture creates a narrative that success and ultimately happiness is something that has to be obtained without any help, but Beyonce says that is far from the case.
Not only does she say that it is okay to depend on someone else but she even says it’s what people are “supposed to do.”
“We’re supposed to depend on each other,” she says in the video.
It’s a stark contrast to the “get it on my own” mentality that has plagued the young Black community.
The film also gives Beyonce’s views on what it means to be a “humanist,” why people should embrace conflict and why her family is so important to her.
The entire video lasts a little over 11 minutes and can be watched in full below:
VIDEO URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4pPNxUzGvc#t=90
