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explore the representation of ethnicity in beyonce's formation
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Explore the representation ofethnicity in Beyoncé’s Formation
music video. [30 marks]
Beyonce uses imagery and visual codes to represent minor ethnicities and
black people, directly addressing their past trauma and experiences -
(hurricane Katrina and police brutality). One example of this is the scene
with Beyonce and a group of women dancing in a car park. They all look
fairly different but are all flipping and moving their hair and bodies,
putting their ethnicity on display, this could be Beyonce’s way of saying
you should put your heritage on display and be proud of it.
We see a little boy dancing in front of the police who later throw their
hands up in surrender, this scene represents the bravery and strength of
the black community when it comes to the police, but the fact that the
little boy keeps his hood on could show he fears them. These scenes could
link to Gilroy’s theory on representation, and how he thinks that although
we don’t have colonies anymore the representation of these groups is still
affected by time as the child is the only black person in the scene and he’s
being confronted by a small army of white policemen, this represents the
theme of white vs black.
We see a black man dancing at the start of the video with his hands
behind his back and later in front of a mirror. This type of behaviour is
typical of the gay male stereotype, we automatically recognise that he is
gay. This is representing the minority group of gay black men who are
continuously stigmatised and humiliated by both the heterosexual and
white gay community. By openly representing him like this Beyonce is
fighting the view that they should stay behind closed doors. This is an
example of feminism and supports Bell hooks theory that feminism is for
everyone and that black and other minorities are affected the most.
Beyonce is seen as a figurehead that represents all black women and so
the way she represents herself would be the way other people would
perceive black women. By continuously exposing herself and wearing
sexualised clothes, she negatively impacts the image of black women,
feeding into the stereotypical view that they are just figures to be
sexualised and not strong independent figures that should be respected
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