Representation of Black Women Power in Beyoncé Knowless's
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E-Structural p-ISSN: 2621-8844 Vol 4 No 1 e-ISSN: 2621-9395 Representation of Black Women Power in Beyoncé Knowless’s “Run the World (Girls)” Neni Kurniawati Universitas Dian Nuswantoro ([email protected]) Article History: Submitted June 14th, 2021; Accepted July 29th, 2021; Published August 3rd, 2021 Abstract. A Song is one of the propaganda media uses to construct or reproduce an ideology. Beyoncé Knowless' song “Run the World (girls)” is an example of a song that raises the issue of Black Feminism Thought. This paper will discuss how textual and discursive practices construct the paradigm of black women power or black feminism thought through the signs in the text of the song lyrics and video of the song. This study will use the theory and methods of Paul Ricouer's hermeneutics by analyzing the text as a basis for interpreting, discourse theory, and feminism. The structure of the text in the lyrics and the visual signs in the video of the respective song will be interpreted to understand the meaning and its relation with ideology reproduced in the song. The results show that the dialectic of verbal and visual signs represent black women power and aim to bolster black women to become well-respected ones, especially by black men. The independence of black women in the economic and educational aspects, as well as the ability to bear children are the discourses that are reproduced by the singer to make social changes in black people’s life. The presence of this song is also related to the black feminist movement which propagates their ideology through songs. Keywords: black women, discourse, hermeneutics, ideology, Paul Ricouer Abstrak. Lagu menjadi salah satu media propaganda untuk mengkonstruksi atau mereproduksi ideologi. Lagu “Run the World (girls)” Beyoncé Knowless merupakan contoh lagu yang mengangkat isu tersebut. Tulisan ini akan membahas bagaimana praktik tekstual dan diskursif melalui tanda-tanda di dalam teks lirik lagu dan video lagu tersebut dalam mengonstruksi paradigma perempuan kuasa kulit hitam atau black feminism thought. Studi ini akan menggunakan teori dan metode hermeneutika Paul Ricouer dengan menganalisis teks sebagai landasan dalam melakukan interpretasi, teori wacana, dan feminisme. Struktur teks dalam lirik dan tanda visual dalam video lagu “Run the World (Girls)” diinterpretasi untuk memahami makna dan relasinya dengan ideologi yang direproduksi dalam lagu tersebut. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa dialektika tanda verbal dan visual merepresentasikan perempuan kuasa kulit hitam dan lagu ini bertujuan mengajak perempuan kulit hitam untuk menjadi perempuan yang dihormati terutama oleh laki-laki kulit hitam. Independensi perempuan kulit hitam dalam bidang ekonomi dan pendidikan, serta kemampuan bereproduksi merupakan diskursus yang direproduksi oleh penyanyinya untuk membuat perubahan sosial pada kehidupan masyarakat kulit hitam. Kehadiran lagu ini juga berelasi dengan gerakan black feminist yang mempropagandakan ideologi mereka melalui media lagu. Kata kunci: perempuan kulit hitam, diskursus, hermeneutika, ideologi, Paul Ricouer http://publikasi.dinus.ac.id/index.php/estructural 68 E-Structural p-ISSN: 2621-8844 Vol 4 No 1 e-ISSN: 2621-9395 INTRODUCTION To convey a message or spread an ideology, media in various forms can be used. The song is one of the media used for this function. Technological developments enable songs to be displayed in an audio-visual form along with easy access for viewers. Through visualization, music listeners are no longer given the freedom to interpret the meaning of the lyrics as they wish. The video of a song forces the listener to follow or agree with the construction of meaning in various discourses that are represented through the visualization of song lyrics. Discourses represented in a song have a significant role in social construction that may lead to social changes. From digital track record, it shows how people in England and the world in the 60s were influenced by the style of The Beatles band members and their songs, for example on the style of dress or the style of dancing. The magnitude of the influence of a song on the listener is also seen in the song "Gloomy Sunday" written by Rezso Seress from Hungary. The lyrics of the song are considered to impact the listeners and cause some suicidal cases. In some countries, the song is banned because it is considered to influence the listener to commit suicide (Colluci, E., 2013: 48). Considering this, it can be seen that the perspective of a song’s writer which is manifested in the discourse raised in their work has a significant role in influencing social behavior. The song titled "Run the World (Girls)" is a Beyoncé’s song that is considered to reproduce the ideology of black feminism through its lyrics and music video. This paper tries to see what verbal and visual signs are contained in the lyrics and the video that show the discourse of black women and Beyoncé’s ideology. The interpretation of the song will be presented to see the reproduction of the ideology in it. To answer this question, the writer uses hermeneutical theory and method proposed by Paul Ricouer and several other supporting concepts such as critical discourse analysis, ideology, and black feminism thought. Visual markers in the music video and verbal markers in the lyric are analyzed to see the construction and reproduction of the ideology in the song and to have a more comprehensive interpretation. Research on Beyoncé’s songs and performances was conducted as well by Wallace (2017).Beyoncé’s song titled “Formations” and her performance on 2016 Super Bowl event were his main data. He used content analysis on the lyric and visual performance on the show and connected them to historical and biographical context of the singer. He was certain that the song had made some black people feel urged to act. However, he also believed that it was important to investigate the possibility that motivating black people was not Beyoncé‘s main objective. Wallace’s skepticism in his writing resulted in a conclusion that wearing a black panther costume in Super Bowl event, Beyoncé exploited black people struggle through the issues of “Black Lives Matter” movement and Katrina hurricane. In addition, “Formations” brought black people hopes, happiness, new energy and drive to strive for just, life and access to social and political domains dominated by white people. It also called for people’s participation in the struggle. However, he questioned the truth of struggle spirit and the representation of black people in connection to the politization of black people tragedy. He also questioned Beyoncé’s “blackness” as she dyed her hair blonde which is identical to white people’s physical traits. This appearance raised a question of her idealism on “blackness”. This writing also critically highlighted Beyoncé’s objective and ideology in her song using different data and approaches. Therefore, the findings of the research would give a different nuance on how to interpret a song and criticize the discourse contained. http://publikasi.dinus.ac.id/index.php/estructural 69 E-Structural p-ISSN: 2621-8844 Vol 4 No 1 e-ISSN: 2621-9395 Another research on Beyoncé Knowless and her songs has also been carried out by C. Constantine (2017) in her writing entitled "Beyoncé's Slay Trick: The Performance of Black Camp and its Intersectional Politics." She discusses Beyoncé Knowless's songs and stage performances which invite a lot of ideological readings and interpretations of gender, sexuality, and race. She questioned the black feminist ideology that was conveyed in Beyoncé's songs. The song used as data in this writing are the song "Flowless", "Formations", "Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It), and "Run the World (Girls)". C. Constantine highlights the discourses of Beyoncé’s feminism and racial politics ideology on the politicization of the black women's body and expositions on black camps, feminism, racial and queer politics. By analyzing the content of Beyoncé's videos and performances, C. Constantine wanted to look at the nuances of black femininity, black culture, and African American queer culture that are featured in the videos and performances of the songs mentioned above. This article seeks to explore the traditions and discourses of black society in the works of black artists. The result of the analysis shows that Beyoncé's works represent social reality that has the impression of gender and race. This paper put attention on the issue of black feminism especially in the songs "Flowless" and "Formations". According to her, Beyoncé raised the discourse that Western society should consider the categorization of gender by not only bringing messages about black women but also queer groups. This paper will be different from Constantine's if it is seen from the data, theory, and methods used. Thus, the focus and results of the research will also show different things. This study only focuses on black women who are represented in the song "Run the World (Girls)" and discourses raised. METHOD The research data source is the lyrics and video of the song “Run the World (Girls)”, performed by Beyoncé Knowless. To analyze the data, hermeneutics, discourse and feminism approaches are used in this study. Hermeneutics is a theory and method on interpretation, namely the interpretation of texts and other signs that can be considered as a text (Palmer, 1969: 43). Language in a text that is associated with a context will have multiple interpretations, so it requires an interpretation method because there is no possible objectivity and standardization when interpreting it (Ricouer, 2012: 211). Interpretation is an attempt to unfold hidden meanings and various meanings in different levels contained in literature work (Sumaryono, 1999:105). According to Ricouer, hermeneutics is a theory of the rules of interpretation. He pays attention to texts in written language, metaphors, and symbols.