Analysis of Beyoncés Formation Video (Black Lives Matter)

Analysis of Beyoncà ©s Formation Video (Black Lives Matter) Beyoncà ©s Formation Video (Black Lives Matter)A Literary Analysis Research Paper Abstract Beyoncà © is one of the singers most recognized in the world and United States of America. She assumed a political role since some events aroused against Afro-American People, related with racism and police brutality. She created the musical video Formation to transmit a message to the people in favor of black lives matter. Keywords: Beyoncà ©, Video, Black Lives Matter, Illuminati, Creole, Alabama, Louisiana, Black Culture, Rapper Beyoncà © launched in 2016 her album Lemonade, including one controversial song, the number twelve in the list whose name is Formation. This unique song is accompanied with an award winning, well-produced and elaborated video, released on purpose, next to the birthday anniversary of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland, whose deaths are well remembered by Afro-American people as victims of brutal law enforcement and racism. Beyoncà ©s Formation messages are about many more things than simple racism and police brutality. This song delivers messages about feminism, Creole culture, Beyoncà © pride, Black pride, Black power, sexism, LGBT, Hurricane Katrina rememberings, and Beyoncà © intention to dispel the rumor that she is an Illuminati. This video masterfully reveals to faces of Beyoncà © at the same time, as an Entertainer and an Activist. (Caramanica Wortham, 2016). All Formation messages could be classified in major and minor messages. This writing only deals only with major messages, and minor will be ignored. The major messages are one of this two possibilities: direct and explicit messages, or in the other hand are ambiguous, subliminal or hidden messages. This visual and musical work apparently deliver inconsistent sentences with multiple meanings, but that aspect is irrelevant to the first time viewer, because the video is very rich on visuals and plays sticky rhythms that distracts him from the powerful hidden and subliminal messages. This video is holistically great, verified by its numerous well written articles and awards received. Under a rigorous and serious analysis, many messages emerge with multiple meanings. Specially two types of messages could be identified: first, direct or non-ambiguous messages, and second, ambiguous messages with multiple or hidden meanings. Any person, not necessarily an expert will be able to recognize that the lyrics and visuals of this video were semantically engineered by a linguist or carefully designed by an expert on semiotics. Some messages are direct and non-ambiguous like: The Hurricane Katrina aftermath, the Police signs, Beyoncà © pride, Black pride, Black power, Creole Culture, and the effort to dispel the rumor that Beyoncà © are an Illuminati. On the other hand, there are ambiguous messages delivered with multiple or hidden meanings about sexism and LGBT. Those messages appear to the viewer to have multiple interpretations, but the final meaning decision is left free to the particular audience, their will, their virginal minds or the predominant psyche of the individual. Every sentence has two interpretations: the vulgar and the non-vulgar, the formal and the non-formal, the explicit and the implicit message. One of the first message delivered is about the Hurricane Katrina, when the video starts with a living phrase of a killed rapper, whose name was Messy Mya. The voice of the rapper expresses: What happened at the New Wilins? (beyonceVEVO, 2016), then the video shows up many scenes related with New Orleans Katrina floodings. Along the video are Police signs delivered with an apparent neutral connotation, but at the end they suggests indirectly a judgement to the collectively subconscious mind, who has been extensively influenced by the media with the events on police brutality. Beyoncà © is laying at the top of a New Orleans white and blue car, with the word police, partially submerged in the flooding water, sitting squatting, while the back scene displays a neighborhood with flooded houses. Some police departments may considered that scene disrespectful. In other scene, after a sequence of images of New Orleans daily living, the observer can see the word police at the back of a man that resembles a guard. Once again, the video attracts the mind of the viewer to the word police. It is unforgettable the scene when the young boy is dancing with a New Orleans Style, in front of an anti-riot line of policemen and they rise their hands, after that the camera shows a graffiti in the wall with the legend Stop Shooting Us (beyonceVEVO, 2016), this could be interpreted in many ways, but one of them, is the triumph of the weak using non-violent methods, over those that represent the governmental power By the end of the video, the police car got totally submerged under the water, with Beyoncà © lying at the top, drowning, giving the impression that the police problem is a lose-to-lose situation. This is confirmed by some critics affirmations that Beyoncà © is not trying to defame the police. (Logan, 2016). Black power is depicted when Beyoncà © shows up in an elegant long black dress with a big black hat, agitating his hand with a piece of his long hair in circles surrounded by Afro-American guys, also dressed in etiquette black clothes, at the door of an antebellum house, the image evoked in the mind of the viewer is about the power and the way that wealthy and powerful black people lives. The Black power is also depicted in the scene that shows a lonely black cowboy with a golden necklace. An explicit message occurs when Beyoncà © try to defeat the rumors affirming that she is an illuminati, using a unique phrase: Yall haters corny with that Illuminati mess (beyonceVEVO, 2016). The video exhibits some dual interpretations with sentences like this: Paparazzi, catch my fly and my cocky fresh (beyonceVEVO, 2016). This message could be interpreted as a sexual reference or a pride reference. Also there are some explicit sexual references, like: When he fuck me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster, cause I slay (beyonceVEVO, 2016), and there are ambiguous, hidden or second meaning sexual references, when she said: I got hot sauce in my bag, swag (beyonceVEVO, 2016), this sentence has two simultaneous interpretations: first as a reference to Creole culture in which women carries hot sauce in their purses, or a female sexual reference. The controversial word swag may be used in this video as a synonym of promotional items, stylish confidence, or with a sexual orientation reference, also this word correspond to a very well-known LGBT word that means secretly we are gay. But the most incredible fact is that the word slay is mentioned 49 times along the video, probably, with the meaning of extraordinary or killer performance, but lets consider that is also a well-known urban sexual reference. Beyoncà © pride is evident when she expresses Im so reckless when I rock my Givenchy dress (beyonceVEVO, 2016), or Im so possessive so I rock his Roc necklaces (beyonceVEVO, 2016), or Earned all this money, but they never take the country out me (beyonceVEVO, 2016). It is unavoidable that The Black and Creole culture message earned a strong reference in this video, with direct and explicit sentences like this: My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana (beyonceVEVO, 2016), You mix that Negro with that Creole, make a Texas bama (beyonceVEVO, 2016), I like my baby hair with baby hair and afros (beyonceVEVO, 2016), I like my Negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils (beyonceVEVO, 2016). There is a direct reference to feminism and women leadership when she says: Okay, ladies, now lets get in formation (beyonceVEVO, 2016). In the second middle of the video there is a black man holding in his hand a newspaper named The Truth, whose cover story displays the phrase More than a Dreamer with the photo of Martin Luther King, suggesting that his Leadership was bigger than his famous discourse I have a Dream. The final conclusion is evident. Beyoncà ©s Formation video direct and indirect messages are multiple and not only about simple racism and police brutality, but also was produced with the intention to reveal some paradoxical aspects of the southern living in the United States. This well acclaimed by the critics video was produced by professionals with the same intention as the Black Lives Matter movement, probably become his Anthem. WORKS CITED [beyonceVEVO]. (2016, December 9). Beyoncà © Formation. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ. Caramanica, J. , Morris, J. and Wortham, J. (2016). Beyoncà © in Formation: Entertainer, Activist, Both?. New York Times, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/arts/music/beyonce-formation-super-bowl-video.html?_r=0 This is a critical review of Beyoncà ©s Formation Video is made by three recognized critics, in the form of a dialog. They suggest that Beyoncà © is an activist and at the same time she is an entertainer. This source is reliable because its Currency (2016), Relevance (Critical review), Authority (New York Times, Best Recognized journalists), Accuracy (Content reliable and credible), and Purpose (the point of view appear objective and impartial). Logan, B. (2016). No, Beyoncà © is not bashing the police: Heres what her new song Formation is really saying. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-messages-in-beyonces-formation-2016-2. This article corresponds to a review of Beyoncà ©s Formation Video and clears out to the audience that Beyoncà © is not ridiculing the police. In the opposite side this video is a call for peace and an altruist apology to the black culture in America. This source is reliable because its Currency (2016), Relevance (Critical review), Authority (Business Insider, Recognized journalists), Accuracy (Content reliable and credible), and Purpose (the point of view appear objective and impartial). Macpherson, A. (2016). Beyoncà ©s Formation review a rallying cry that couldnt be more timely, The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/feb/08/beyonce-formation-review-super-bowl-rallying-cry-black-consciousness This article corresponds to a review of Beyoncà ©s Formation Video that states that the world tour is timely deliveries. This source is reliable because its Currency (2016), Relevance (Critical review), Authority (The Guardian, Best Recognized journalists), Accuracy (Content reliable and credible), and Purpose (the point of view appear objective and impartial). Hoby, H. (2016) Beyoncà ©: Formation tour review defiant, victorious and glorious, The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/28/beyonce-formation-tour-review-defiant-victorious-and-glorious. This article corresponds to a review of Beyoncà ©s Formation Video that states that this is the event of the year, masterfully produced. This source is reliable because its Currency (2016), Relevance (Critical review), Authority (The Guardian, Recognized journalists), Accuracy (Content reliable and credible

‘Originally’ By Carol Ann Duffy Essay

Our Life is one long Journey, with good as well as bad times in it. From childhood to old age, we strive forever to experience and learn, often positive as well as negative turns in life often bringing upon one a lot of change. In the poem ‘originally’ by Carol Ann Duffy, one reads about a seemingly sudden change in a Childs life, where one is confronted with leaving their home, their country, to live somewhere else unknown. In ‘Originally’, which is divided into three parts, one follows the experiences of a speaker, who seems to have been forced to leave his or hers home, change and crisis being endured, and how the speaker in the end effect, slowly, adapts. The Poem though seemingly talks about this child leaving its home and changing, the Poem also shows how People all there lives change, starting by growing up to become a teenager, then to an adult and in the end to an aged person. The Poem starts of with a type of introduction; it begins the Poem by setting up a mood, by explaining how she moved with her family. The speakers love for her homeland is exemplified by using domineering words such as ‘own’, which makes it seem as something unique, and also by telling the reader that her brothers were ‘bawling’ the word ‘home.’ A combination of alliteration and imagery in the first line â€Å"red room† and â€Å"fell through the fields† also helps emphasize this. All of these rather unsympathetic words encourage a development of a depression throughout the Poem. The personification of the ‘miles (which ran) back to the city†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ seems to indicate how, while being on this train, makes the child feel worse and worse knowing its becoming more distant from its homeland, and this reflecting that the land is passing so quickly it seems to be running away past. The whole stanza mainly concentrates on the child and its family, except for the last line, this sudden change also brings up strong emotions because from one image of leaving the place you have always known to be your home, one suddenly notices how scared this child must me when the speaker says that it ‘stared/at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw’ it shows how terrified it feels and how it only has her old trustworthy bear with her to help her. The Bear being blind seems symbolic, suggesting that the speaker does not know what will become of its family in their new home, and much like an old toy is often blind because it has lost its eyes over the years. In the second stanza one learns about the problem the person had to go through once it had arrived in its new homeland. The first line ‘all childhood is an emigration’ fittingly captures the themes of the entire poem it shows how especially in ones childhood one changes all the time, teenager, Puberty, becoming an adult these are huge changes and can also be compared with types of emigrations. Throughout this stanza one learns about what difficulty the child had learning to adapt to the new culture, the accent sounds unfamiliar, kids do things she has not seen any of her friends do in her old homeland, and it shows how people all there lives are confronted with unknown customs and traditions, and one must nearly always learn to live with them, often to such an extent that you don’t know anything else anymore. The speaker talks about a lot of unusual and seemingly repulsive things like boys eating ‘worms’ or shouting words one doesn’t understand, in the lines before she also talks about Pebble-dashed ‘estates’, meaning very boring and dull housings. All this also seems to point out that the child seemed to have once lived in a better place, maybe the child parents use to have more money and something happened making them loose everything, and forcing them to move to a cheaper living area. This also gets reflected when the speaker talks about its ‘parents anxiety stirred like a tooth in my head’ which is a very effective way of explaining the worries and problems the child was confronted with. In the last line the font is though changed to italics representing the speaker talking and for the last time saying ‘I want our own country’, the speaker saying ‘own’ for the last time also shows how the child still doesn’t feel at home and by wanting its own country, meaning its ‘original’ homeland where it lived in before everything else changed. In the last stanza the Crisis has ended the person has gotten use to its new surroundings and is already feeling at home in this once new place. The mood is still relatively unenthusiastic but the person does start seeing a positive side in things. The speaker incorporates the persons family for a last time, when she says ‘seeing your brother swallow a slug, feel only/a skelf of shame.’ this line links back to the previous stanza with the  imagery of worms and slugs, which is not literal, but a metaphor for fitting in. The simile ‘my tongue shedding its skin like a snake’ tells the reader of the speakers not only of the speakers changed accent but also perhaps refers to many of the speakers old memories and habits which she has had to get rid of as they seem useless in her new home, and the person now in class ‘sounding just like the rest’ also emphasizes it having completely adapted to its (now not so) new surroundings. In the final lines of the poem though the person looks back one last time when being asked, ‘where do you come from?’ by a stranger, remembering its troubles having to adapt and sadness of having leave its once homeland, but now when being asked ‘Originally?’ the child ‘hesitates’ because it doesn’t not anymore if this is now his homeland or if ‘Originally’ means the one he once came from. The poem shows, in this case, how a child had to suddenly move from its homeland to a new place, strange and bizarre, in its view so different and at first seemingly impossible to be able to adapt, but in the end the child does manage to get over all its troubles, and to adapt to a completely new culture, where people do things it thought know one does. The Poem seems to use this child’s story as an example, of how much change people have to go through, and that even though it always seems impossible to be able to learn and adapt, one nearly always manages, and even though one does remember how it had once been, lives with it, and enjoys its new way of living.

Identify How We Construct Identity What Elements Make Up...

Assignment 3 Identify how we construct identity? What elements make up identity? How do we exhibit identity? This essay is to discuss where a person’s identity is derived from and how they portray those identities. A person’s identity cannot be defined simply by a single aspect of their lives such as religious beliefs but by a mixture of aspects and interactions that the person has. There are two theories that delve into the construction of a person’s identity; Social Identity theory and Identity theory. Hall defines identity as sets of social expectations related to ourselves and others that (a) are grounded in the interplay between similarities and differences and (b) pertain to the personal, relational, and communal aspects of lives.†¦show more content†¦590) Identity is defined by the influence that other individuals and groups exert on the person and is therefore a product of their society and not predetermined by birth. (Lillie, 1998) Identities are both collective and personal aspects that are collected dynamically over a person’s lifetime. (Chaitin, 2004, p. 6) Before a child is born foetuses are aware of movement and tone of voice of their mothers. Social identity is constructed through displays and ratifications of acts and stances that infants and small children pick up on. From birth, infants and children will regard their mother’s actions towards items, objects and other people before they decide on how to approach the object or person. The child will mimic their parent’s actions and as such start developing their own social identity. (Ochs, 1993, p. 292) As person develops within their community, they pick up traits and aspects that become their identity. The child starts life as the offspring of their parents, the child will attend school and therefore become a student, will play sport and become an athlete, will interact with other people and will become a friend. As the child matures, they may start working and become employed, attend university and become an academic, excel in a sport and become an elite athlete. 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Biography of Margaret of Valois, France’s Slandered Queen

Born Princess Marguerite of France, Margaret of Valois (May 14, 1553 – March 27, 1615) was a princess of the French Valois dynasty and a queen of Navarre and France. An educated woman of letters and patron of the arts, she nonetheless lived in a time of political upheaval and had her legacy tainted by rumors and false tales that portrayed her as a cruel hedonist. Fast Facts: Margaret of Valois Full Name:  Margaret (French: Marguerite) of ValoisOccupation: Queen of Navarre and Queen of FranceBorn: May 14, 1553 at Chà ¢teau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye,  FranceDied: March 27, 1615 in Paris FranceKnown For: Born a princess of France; married Henry of Navarre, who eventually became the first Bourbon king of France. Although she was notable for her cultural and intellectual patronage, rumors about her romantic entanglements led to a false legacy depicting her as a selfish and hedonistic woman.Spouse: King Henry IV of France (m. 1572 - 1599) French Princess Margaret of Valois was the third daughter and seventh child of King Henry II of France and his Italian queen, Catherine de’ Medici. She was born at the royal Chà ¢teau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where she spent her childhood alongside her sisters, the princesses Elisabeth and Claude. Her closest familial relationship was with her brother Henry (later King Henry III), who was only two years her senior. Their friendship as children, however, did not last into adulthood, for several reasons. The princess was well educated, studying literature, classics, history, and several ancient and contemporary languages. At the time, European politics existed in a constant, fragile state of shifting power and alliances, and Margaret’s mother, a savvy political figure in her own right, made sure that Margaret learned as much as possible about the complexities (and dangers) of domestic and international politics. Margaret saw her brother Francis ascend the throne at a young age, then die soon after, leaving her next brother to become Charles IX and her mother Catherine to be the most powerful person behind the throne. As a teenager, Margaret fell in love with Henry of Guise, a duke from a prominent family. However, their plans to marry went against the plans of the royal family, and when they were found out (in all likelihood, by Margaret’s brother Henry), the duke of Guise was banished and Margaret severely punished. Although the romance was quickly ended, it would be brought up again in the future with slanderous pamphlets that suggested Margaret and the duke had been lovers, insinuating a long-standing pattern of licentious behavior on her part. Political Unrest in France Catherine de’ Medici’s preference was for a marriage between Margaret and Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot prince. His house, the Bourbons, was another branch of the French royal family, and the hope was that the marriage of Margaret and Henry would rebuild family ties as well as brokering a peace between French Catholics and Huguenots. In April 1572, the 19-year-olds became engaged, and they seemed to like one another at first. Henry’s influential mother, Jeanne d’Albret, died in June, making Henry the new king of Navarre. The mixed-faith marriage, held at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, was intensely controversial, and it was soon followed by violence and tragedy. Six days after the wedding, while a large number of prominent Huguenots were still in Paris, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre occurred. History would blame Margaret’s mother, Catherine de’ Medici, for organizing the targeted murders of prominent Protestants; for her part, Margaret wrote in her memoirs about how she personally hid a handful of Protestants in her personal apartments. By 1573, Charles IX’s mental state had deteriorated to the point where a successor was necessary. By birthright, his brother Henry was the heir presumptive, but a group called the Malcontents feared that the intensely anti-Protestant Henry would escalate religious violence even further. They planned to put his younger brother, the more moderate Francis of Alenà §on, on the throne instead. Henry of Navarre was among the conspirators, and although Margaret, at first, disapproved of the plot, she eventually joined in as a bridge between moderate Catholics and the Huguenots. The plot failed, and although her husband was not executed, the relationship between King Henry III and his sister Margaret was forever embittered. Queen and Diplomat Margaret’s marriage, at this point, was fast deteriorating. They were unable to conceive an heir, and Henry of Navarre took several mistresses, most notably Charlotte de Sauve, who sabotaged Margaret’s attempt to reform the alliance between Francis of Alenà §on and Henry. Henry and Francis both escaped imprisonment in 1575 and 1576, but Margaret was imprisoned as a suspected conspirator. Francis, backed by the Huguenots, refused to negotiate until his sister was set free, and so she was. She, along with her mother, helped negotiate a crucial treaty: the Edict of Beaulieu, which gave Protestants more civil rights and permitted the practice of their faith except in certain places. In 1577, Margaret went on a diplomatic mission to Flanders in hopes of securing a deal with the Flemings: help from Francis to overthrow Spanish rule in exchange for putting Francis on their new throne. Margaret worked to create a network of contacts and allies, but ultimately, Francis could not defeat the mighty Spanish army. Francis soon fell under Henry III’s suspicion again and was re-arrested; he escaped again, in 1578, with Margaret’s help. The same series of arrests captured Margaret’s apparent lover, Bussy d’Amboise. Eventually, Margaret rejoined her husband, and they settled their court at Nà ©rac. Under Margaret’s guidance, the court became exceptionally learned and cultured, but it also was the site of many romantic misadventures among the royals and courtiers. Margaret fell in love with her brother Francis’s grand equerry, Jacques de Harley, while Henry took a teenaged mistress, Francoise de Montmorency-Fosseux, who became pregnant and gave birth to Henry’s stillborn daughter. In 1582, Margaret returned to the French court for unknown reasons. Her relationships with both her husband and her brother King Henry III were in shambles, and it was around this time that the first rumors about her supposed immorality began to circulate, presumably courtesy of her brother’s loyalists. Tired of being pulled between the two courts, Margaret abandoned her husband in 1585. Rebel Queen and Her Return Margaret rallied the Catholic League and turned against her family and husband’s policies. She briefly was able to seize the city of Agen, but the citizens eventually turned on her, forcing her to flee with her brother’s troops in hot pursuit. She was imprisoned in 1586 and forced to watch her favorite lieutenant executed, but in 1587, her gaoler, the Marquis de Canillac, switched allegiances to the Catholic League (most likely by bribery) and set her free. Although she was free, Margaret chose not to leave the castle of Usson; instead, she dedicated the next 18 years to re-creating a court of artists and intellectuals. While there, she wrote her own Memoirs, an unprecedented act for a royal woman of the time. After her brother’s 1589 assassination, her husband ascended to the throne as Henry IV. In 1593, Henry IV asked Margaret for an annulment, and ultimately, it was granted, especially with the knowledge that Margaret could not have children. After this, Margaret and Henry had a friendly relationship, and she befriended his second wife, Marie de’ Medici. Margaret returned to Paris in 1605 and established herself as a generous patron and benefactress. Her banquets and salons frequently hosted the great minds of the time, and her household became central to cultural, intellectual, and philosophical life. At one point, she even wrote in an intellectual discourse, criticizing a misogynistic text and defending women. Death and Legacy In 1615, Margaret fell seriously ill, and died in Paris on March 27, 1615, the last survivor of the Valois dynasty. She had named Henry and Marie’s son, the future Louis XIII, as her heir, cementing the link between the old Valois dynasty and the new Bourbons. She was buried in the funerary chapel of the Valois in the Basilica of St. Denis, but her casket disappeared; it either was lost during the chapel’s renovations or was destroyed in the French Revolution. The myth of a cursed, beautiful, lustful â€Å"Queen Margot† has persisted, largely in part because of misogynistic and anti-Medici histories. Influential writers, most notably Alexandre Dumas, exploited the rumors against her (which likely originated with her brother’s and husband’s courtiers) to criticize the age of royalty and the supposed depravity of women. It was not until the 1990s that historians began to investigate the truth of her history instead of centuries of compounded rumors. Sources Haldane, Charlotte. Queen of Hearts: Marguerite of Valois, 1553–1615. London: Constable, 1968.Goldstone, Nancy. The Rival Queens. Little Brown and Company, 2015.Sealy, Robert. The Myth of the Reine Margot: Toward the Elimination of a Legend. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 1995.