Beyonce, Who Runs the World?

I have to ask a question and I hope no one questions my commitment to the cause: Why is Beyonce always half naked in her videos?

Two years ago I would have rather been burned alive as a heretic than to question God's will like this. Beyonce showing up half naked on VH1 used to be an unexpected surprise for which I'd just tell God "thank you" and keep it moving, but things are different now. I have a daughter now and I'm a little more conscious of everything. Having kids is like having a mirror placed in front of you that you're forced to look into everyday. You constantly analyze your actions and behaviors and you make adjustments with the hope that it'll be enough to give them a good foundation for life. At least that's what good parents do. Bad ones just keep-keeping on.

Chris Rock said it and I believe it: Your only duty as a father is to keep your daughter off the pole. I don't know the first thing about being a woman, but I know everything about dating them. I may have majored in Accounting and English but I could've picked up a psychology degree while I was in college. I didn't have a hard time finding a girl in college, I had a hard time finding a woman. Daddy issues, low self esteem and insecurities made for easy prey, but it was finding someone who didn't have a Planned Parenthood Platinum Rewards card that was difficult.

I find myself being more conscious of the music I listen to and the images I let her see on television. I can't play my iPod in the car like I used to. Not only does she repeat things, but she comprehends a lot of what she hears. One day it went from Jay-Z's "Who You Wit" (SKIP!) to Lil Kim's "No Time" (Oh hell no! SKIP!) to Tupac's "I Get Around" (WTF?) and it made me go home and try to make a playlist that I was not ashamed of. I put a bunch of R&B songs on it. I figured that she should hear a bunch of women singing because maybe she'll pick that up and, who knows, become the next Beyonce.

She was enjoying Beyonce's songs a bit, so I thought it'd be cool to let her watch some videos. My main goal is for her to be wholesome but at the same time not be a social leper like I was when I was little. My grandmother only listened to talk radio, so everytime we had a party in elementary school I'd just sit there looking lost. "Who's Bobby Brown?" So anyway, I turned on Beyonce's Youtube channel and I had to turn that off too.

Why are you naked in every video? If you go back to Crazy In Love, she has on the "woman of the night" shorts walking the block and then rolling around on the sidewalk like she's having an epileptic seizure. In some other video she's getting married or something, but apparently it's at the Victoria Secret Tabernacle because she's naked in that too. The video for Love on Top has her doing the New Edition dance wearing a leotard and a Captain Crunch hat. One of the reasons I wanted my daughter to listen to her was because on some interview that my wife was watching she said that she was all about women's empowerment. She had an all girl band and an all girl crew or something like that. She wanted young women to see that they could run things too or something.

I don't see how dressing like a streetwalking tooth fairy and gyrating in your videos (which seems to have nothing to do with the lyrics to your songs by the way) serves the goal of women's empowerment. You aren't empowering my daughter. You are, however, appealing to my more primitive male desires, but isn't that the problem that y'all are facing already? Don't you wanna break the misogynistic archetypes? And please don't give me that, "Just because I'm dressed this way" spiel. Like Dave Chappelle said, just because you're dressed a certain way doesn't mean you are a certain way. Just because I dress up as a cop, doesn't make me a police officer. You may not be a whore, but you're sure as hell wearing a whore's uniform.

And I'll say it before someone else does...I know that my daughter is only one. Beyonce isn't Barney. She's not supposed to be the day care role model, but I'm thinking long term. At what age does it become cool? Let's say my daughter wanted to go to a party dressed like Beyonce. At what age would the average man be cool with his daughter going out in public like that? 10? 15? 20? Never! What makes it so bad is that she's like the squeaky clean one compared to some of the other singers out. That concerns me.

So who runs the world? Men, apparently, if you think you have to dress like that to sell albums.