14 DAY TRIAL // Initially, I wanted to discuss with you, in this week’s editorial, the case of YouTube star Cassandra Bankson and how role models are everywhere around us, if we take the time to notice them. Inspiration, motivation and strength can come to us from the least unexpected places.
On the topic of role models, I came across this piece in the Huffington Post, in which a feminist explains how disappointing it is that Beyonce attended the Las Vegas fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, also dubbed the “Fight of the Century,” last weekend.
It argued that a self-titled feminist (Bey) couldn’t possibly attend an event between a known abuser (Mayweather) and an anti-feminist who opposed a woman’s right of choice (Pacquiao) and still be able to call herself that. It argued that she should be ashamed of herself for going to watch the fight.
It bugged me.
Beyonce endorses domestic violence, anti-feminists
Mayweather has had at least 7 assaults against 5 women, including the mother of his children. He’s punched strangers in a club and he slammed his partner with the car door before punching her in the face.
He never got sentenced for these attacks because there were never any charges pressed against him: the women he beat up were either too scared or needed the money from the settlement, to get away from him. In return, the champ could tell the press that, because there was never any photographic evidence of his alleged “attacks,” they never happened.
By comparison, Pacquiao is a saint, though he’s detrimental to the feminist cause by opposing women’s rights to abortion and family planning programs. (He also opposes same sex marriage, but that isn’t necessarily relevant here).
He is a congressman in the Philippines, and though his stance on these matters is linked to his religious beliefs, it’s still considered a setback in the way of progress.
By attending an event where these two fought and many millions were made both by them and everyone else involved, from the organizers to the pay-per-view companies, Beyonce silently endorsed them. Not them as sportsmen, but as men.
Just like when you buy Chris Brown’s music, another known (and convicted) abuser, you endorse him as a person, Beyonce put all her A-list backing behind these two. The piece argued that the shame of it all was that Bey was among the first female stars to proudly and loudly proclaim herself a feminist.
In turn, this got her under attack by “real” feminists, who were saying she was using the label in her favor, to drive financial gain, without espousing the feminist ideals. They said a woman who grinds on a pole and thus objectifies herself for money can’t be a feminist, even though she said it was all about empowering herself, about taking control of her image and doing with it what she wanted.
All this aside, Beyonce claims she’s a feminist and then she attends a gala focused on 2 anti-feminists. The move is of the “do as I say, not as I do” kind, where she wants to lead, but not by example.
Where does Beyonce the person ends and Beyonce the role model begins?
This is what it all boils down to, I think.
Indeed, both these men are bad news for the feminist movement. In a world where men and women have equal rights in all fields, as feminism aspires to achieve one day, there is no place for unpunished wife beaters or men who deny women the right to decide if they want to have a baby or not.
Indeed, by attending the game, Beyonce showed the world that she chose to turn a blind eye on the facts in these men’s personal life, thus turning her back on the women their actions affected. It was the equivalent of buying a Chris Brown album or giving pedophile Stephen Collins a comeback role in a movie.
The difference is, of course, that both Brown and Collins are proven to be a domestic abuser and pedophile, respectively.
So now for the part that bugged me about the piece: what if Beyonce is really into boxing, or social events of this magnitude and she simply didn’t want to miss this chance? What if she wanted to do something for husband Jay Z, by attending the game on his arm, even though she had no interest in it?
What if this was a personal choice for her and not some kind of grand public statement?
It’s true, Beyonce has a platform bigger than most pop stars out there, so she should be wary of the way she’s using it. By now, she must know that if she steps out in public with X dress or Y bag, it will sell out, so she should have guessed that her presence at the event would be equaled to endorsement.
Then again, where do we draw the line between public figure and an actual human being, with likes and dislikes, passions and secret hobbies? In Beyonce’s case, it seems that we never do, because she’s supposed to be a role model at all times and act only in the way others expect her to, not in the way she might like to.
A conclusion
This brings to mind what “Avengers” director Joss Whedon said the other day about what it’s like to come out as a feminist. “I’ve said before, when you declare yourself politically, you destroy yourself artistically. Because suddenly that’s the litmus test for everything you do - for example, in my case, feminism. If you don’t live up to the litmus test of feminism in this one instance, then you’re a misogynist. It circles directly back upon you.”
Once you say you’re a feminist, you have to be a feminist in the precise way other feminists imagine you as. Anything else is a disappointment and a crying shame.
So to answer the question in the headline: no, I’m not angry with Beyonce. I don’t think we should be, even though it’s regrettable that she attended the event and got so much media attention for it.
Those we should be angry at are the organizers and the industry people who continue to ignore that Mayweather has almost as many KO’s outside of the ring as inside it. And we should stop pretending or expecting that pop stars be here solely to serve our purposes and have no life of their own.