Talking back to Beyoncé

telephone.jpgWhen I first saw Beyoncé’s Run the World video, I groaned within seconds, and actually couldn’t make it to the end I was so annoyed and bored. (I’ve since watched it all the way through just to be sure I wasn’t missing something important.)

My issue was not just that it was absurd – I’m not a regular horse rider, but those heels seem a bit impractical, no? – but the lions and chained dogs (hyenas?), coupled with the costuming, seemed to me to riff heavily on an ‘African princess’ motif that could have been powerful, but ended up being silly when it got to the part where Beyoncé crawls around on the ground arching her back and throwing her hair around. In a song about how girls run the world.

I did like the dance moves though. And I do understand how fun it can be to dress up in multiple, slightly outrageous, costumes.

Then my colleague Helen pointed me to this awesome video by NineteenPercent – calling out Beyoncé as a liar for the central claim in her song. That girls run the world. And that is why I love the internet sometimes.

H/T to Helen from Bollocks to Poverty, who blogged about the vids, too, here.

Photo of a an old-style telephone by zigazou76, shared under a Creative Commons license