Beyoncé: The Duchess of Viralshire

Beyoncé

The Duchess of Viralshire  

When Beyoncé broke the internet Super Bowl week with the release of her Formation video, Super Bowl Halftime Performance and Take My Hand, Precious Lord mini-documentary, two things primarily happened; people reacted and people responded. From Political Talking Heads, Barbershop Talk, 15 second Instagram Vloggers, Conspiracy Theorists, Conservatives and Entertainment Bloggers, everybody and they Momma had something to say, positively and negatively. On February 9th, one of my colleagues Salim Adofo, Vice-Chair of the NBUF [National Black United Front], shared this poignant thought via his Facebook Page which effectively summarizes the same perspective I share:

"You can have whatever critique of Beyoncé that you want to have. The fact is she has help to keep the conversation of Black Resistance alive and in the mainstream media for the time being. I see this as a teachable moment. I understand the power and influence a mega star like Beyoncé has and if an incorrect message is sent out, it could be very misleading. Beyoncé is going to do what she is going to do. I cannot control that. However what I can control are the elements of my own cipher. I just need to perform my duty as a civilized man and continue to teach freedom, justice and equality. This gives me another avenue to educate some one that I may have not been able to reach before." 

On a personal level, I like Beyoncé's business acumen, work ethic and of course her beauty and sex appeal. Above all, I enjoy seeing how she communicates the complex dimensions of a woman; it's a level of sophistication you oftentimes don't see. Many women, especially in mainstream entertainment, are one maybe two-dimensional. If they ooze sexuality, that's all you see and it may take them a lifetime to change that perception. If they're chronically single and about that turn-up lifestyle, they may never successfully transition into a wife or mother, even if they got married and had a child. Beyoncé is an archetype of a woman's multi-facets. She's able to successfully and seamlessly articulate a variety of a woman's dimensions, which are, yet definitely not limited to, a Mother, Diva, Daughter, Sister, Wife, Bonnie [partner of Clyde] Queen, Girlfriend, Round The Way Girl, Sexy/Erotic, Activist and etc. Beyoncé's most recent manifestation is the real Sasha Fierce; the archetypal Phoenix from the X-Men, Dr. Jean Grey's alter-ego and one of the most powerful mutants. If you understand the context in which Stan Lee created the X-Men, the correspondence of Professor X. to Martin Luther King Jr. and Magneto to Malcolm X., what I'm saying makes perfect sense. In my assessment, some of the women who don't like Beyoncé oftentimes dislike one of her dimensions. Sometimes it's the same dimension they have yet to manifest. In other words, some women who criticize Beyoncé about her sex appeal, don't have sex appeal. Not all women are like that, some are, and those who are express it on social media every day. Some women simply don't agree with Beyoncé publicly displaying her sex appeal and think she needs to be more modest, more like a Sade. I can understand that concern for her or any woman's safety and any thinking person should. America is historically misogynistic, chauvinistic, [white] patriarchal and much of its low-brow citizenry still openly objectify, oppress and brutalize females/women with impunity. I talked about some of these standards in my article Is Bill Cosby Innocent or Guilty? This concern for her or any woman's safety doesn't mean that I think women should wear scent neutral potato sacks to not set off the savages. It does mean that I think we need to work towards a paradigm shift in terms of better educating our young girls and boys about self respect and respect for each other. It also means that if we want to teach that respect we need to consistently demonstrate it in our everyday lives and help each other do the same. Some of us, men and women, are savages and aren't going to do anything about our level of respect. When this is the case, it's important for us to manage our children's expose to this and help insure this kind of mentality isn't poisoning the wishing well of our next generation. As our children become young adults, adults and then possibly parents, they will make their own decisions about what they agree and disagree with. For those of us who care, it is our job is to make sure that the legacy we're creating, and will ultimately leave behind, helps lead our future generations in the right direction.

In seeing events like Beyoncé's recent media storm, it all comes down to asking ourselves, "What are you going to do about it?" -regardless if we're Team Reaction or Team Responded. One of the things that I've always strongly advocated is to critique something with contributions. Everyone has an opinion yet everyone is not willing and able to offer anything above and beyond that opinion. That inactivity changes nothing, especially when that critique is negative, and that's a double whammy. Even if it's a positive critique, we can still do something above and beyond that opinion. For example, I like the Hip Hop artist Earl Sweatshirt who was a member of the group OFWGKTA. Not only are my critiques of his music generally positive, I literally support his brand; a took two youth to a concert, I exposed thousands of listeners to him by featuring his music on a Musicology Episode of my show Atlantis Build Talk Radio, and I purchased some of his music and merchandise. I may not like everything Earl Sweatshirt does but if I do, I support it, with more than an opinion. If I don't, and I publicly share that critique, I offer some contribution as an alternative. I likewise don't like everything Beyoncé does artistically yet there are some things I do. In 2013 I screened Bey's 'Life Is But A Dream' documentary for an International Woman's Day event I co-hosted and again in 2014 for 9-12 year old youth in my STYA Program. If you haven't seen the documentary I encourage you to check it out, it's very insightful and especially empowering for girls and women of color to see. 

Queen Cee, owner of Queen Dollylama

Seeing all of these critiques I contacted one of my sisters in Canada, Queen Cee, who among many other things she does as an artist/activist such as the Be-You-tiful Girls Club initiative, owns and operates a company called Queen Dollylama that creatively re-images dolls to give them a naturally unique, ethnic and artistic look. As there is a lacking of dolls that are Afrocentric, she also specializes in re-imaging dolls of color. My idea was to build upon the positive momentum of Beyoncé using part of her platform to project black consciousness and culture into the mainstream media and collaborate with Queen Cee to customize a collectors edition doll that reflects these ideals of black resistance, #blacklivesmatter, Black Panther homage and of course #Formation. When complete I'm going to do an online drawing and give it away to one of my supporters. I will be sharing the rules of how to enter the drawing via my Facebook Page and Twitter so if you're not connected with me via Facebook and Twitter you'll need to in order to stay informed. 

In doing this project I am demonstrating what it means to "critique something with contributions" and expose my subscribers to Queen Dollylama and the work Queen Cee has been doing for more than two decades to advocate positive cultural expressions of people, especially women, of color. Events like Beyoncé breaking the internet will continue to be landmark moments within the chronology of our people that shapes the humanity geography of this world, whether we like it or not. The bottom line is we must be mindful of our position of power to consistently control this narrative. Not with an opinion, with contributions that are purposeful and a part of our legacy. Stay tuned for the Queen Dollylama Giveaway!

Peace,
Saladin 

Waist-To-Hip Ratios

Buffie The Body

Waist-To-Hip Ratios

~The Circumference of the Planet Earth~

In Western Society the aesthetic standard of female beauty has always been blond hair blue eyes. Over the years that has somewhat changed -with women of color and ethnically ambiguous prototypes being marginally promoted as the new face of beauty. What has not changed much is the idea of body type beauty.

For over two decades Caucasian scientists have been formally trying to quantify a standard of body type beauty and came up with a waist-to-hip ratio standard to justify it. I say "formally" because Caucasians have informally entertained this idea body type beauty for many years prior to the research done by evolutionary psychologist Devendra Singh in 1993. One of their most notable fixations being Hottentot Venus [Saartjie Baartman] -the archetype of Europe's crinoline, bustle, corset and girdle fashion eras. This is also where the notion of 36-24-36 body type measurement's come from.

It was discovered via Singh's research that the ideal waist-hip ratio [WHR] for attractive females was a 0.7 WHR. In other words, if you measure your waist, and divide it by the measurement of your hips, that will tell you your WHR. This research was conducted on male populations from different cultural backgrounds and it was discovered that there was a consistent affinity for female's with a curvy figure where the waist is significantly narrower than the hips. According to the Journal of Biological Psychology Waist "Hip size indicates pelvic size and the amount of additional fat storage that can be used as a source of energy. Waist size conveys information such as current reproductive status or health status in westernized societies with no risk of seasonal lack of food, the waist, conveying information about fecundity and health status, will be more important than hip size for assessing a female's attractiveness."

This is one of the reasons you also see some models contorting their bodies in magazine spreads, photo shoots, music videos or exaggeratedly swaying their hips as they walk the runway. They're not simply posing. They're 0.7 WHR posers -giving you the illusion that they're more attractive than what they naturally are. And in this technological age, females get Photoshopped to reshape/redefine their waistline all the time. That, my friends, is one of the subtle sciences of catfishing.

In addition to the blond hair blue eye prototype, the "woman with curves" standard of female beauty is also changing. Not simply because of a male's desire for a different aesthetic but the changing roles of females within society and the hormone changes that come along with it. Androgens, hormones that includes testosterone and is the precursor to estrogen, increase WHR ratios in a female by increasing abdominal fat. Excessive levels of Androgens cause a variety of issues including acne, weight gain, excessive hair growth, menstrual dysfunction, fibroids and infertility. Cortisol, a hormone that helps the body deal with stress and regulate metabolism also increases fat around the waist. What this means can be summarized by Elizabeth Cashdan of the University of Utah:

"Waist-to-hip ratio may indeed be a useful signal to men, then, but whether men prefer a [waist-to-hip ratio] associated with lower or higher androgen/estrogen ratios (or value them equally) should depend on the degree to which they want their mates to be strong, tough, economically successful and politically competitive."

In other words, a combination of diet, roles females have begun to take on within Western society and the accompanying stressors has begun to increase their production of Androgens, change Cortisol levels and ultimately reshape/redefine their WHR. On one hand this has increased the strength, stamina, aggression and competitiveness for females to meet the many socioeconomic changes within society -as female headed households, mompreneurs and corporate women have become common. At the same time and on the negative side, when this increase becomes a hormonal imbalance, it translates into one of the leading causes of poor fertility.

What does all of this mean? That there's much science to back the notion that we are in the age of true Warrior Queens; women of color and ethnically ambiguous prototypes that don't look like Marilyn Monroe and don't fit into one of her archetypal body casts. As I type this there still remains a white supremacist fight to hold her aesthetic standard of beauty on a pedestal. Just recently Vogue Paris featured its first black woman on a cover in five years. That says alot -in light of the historical/classical love affair the French have always had with women of color. It's important for us to reinforce the idea that our women shouldn't covet white skin and another woman's 0.7 WHR to be attractive. They, without that complexion and/or body type, are the true standard of normalcy and beauty around the world. Not because males have aesthetically declared it, but because the stability and destiny of our human family needs it. Our women must be reminded that they are absolutely fine the way that they are and their health, cultural contributions and commitment to our families and community is what our world needs more than ever before.  

Peace,
Saladin

Jay Z and Wife Beyoncé at the Barclays Center

 

Open Letter to the NY Post

 

 

Good Morning Mr. Buiso,

First I would like to thank you for writing your article "Jay Z is blinging it black", and reaching out to me to lend my "expertise" about my culture -as you stated in your email. It's not often that Reporters demonstrate that degree of journalistic integrity by going directly to the source and I (we) appreciate you for taking that initiative. Because we only spoke briefly and didn't have an opportunity to discuss other areas of my culture in-depth, I wanted to take a moment to clarify some things in your article.

One of the commonly held misconceptions is that Mr. Knight, and the group that he comes from, can speak for and define the meaning of our symbols. We are psychologically different in outlook, and cannot speak for each other; Mr. Knight and us, The Nation of Gods and Earths [Five Percenters]. The fact that Jay Z and Carmelo Anthony have chosen to wear our symbol indicates that they want to be affiliated with the positive works they see us do in our communities.

Our movement is more concerned with issues addressing our esteem and self determination than we are at labeling others for their inequities done in American society. Our symbol -the Universal Flag- represents the sun, moon and star: our universal family, man, woman and child, period. And a unified family is the vital building block of any nation of people.

Thank you for your consideration and giving me the opportunity to clarify this. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me again.

 

Peace,

Saladin Allah

Email: atlantisbuild@gmail.com

 

Saladin Allah is a Therapeutic/Recreation major who attended Central State University in Wilberforce Ohio, a Region 6 Representative of The Nation of Gods and Earths [Five Percenters] in WNY/Southern Ontario, and founder of A.S.I.A. [Allah School In Atlantis]. Allah has written over two hundred social commentary articles for various national/international publications, self-published eleven books through his company Quanaah Publishing, and he presently works as a youth mentor and community organizer. You can also check out and subscribe to his popular Youtube Channel here: A.S.I.A. TV.