Like the rest of the world I’ve had Beyonce’s new, surprise album on repeat all weekend and one of my favorite tracks is the head banger “Flawless“. What was originally thought to be a track called “Bow Down” – calling for other female artists to recognize Beyonce’s dominance in the game – has turned out to be a track that promotes feminism and self-love.
Sampled on the track is Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who delivered a talk at TEDxEuston in London earlier this year called “We should all be feminists.”
Here’s what you hear as the second verse in the song…
“We teach girls to shrink themselves,
to make themselves smaller.
We say to girls,
‘You can have ambition,
but not too much.
You should aim to be successful,
but not too successful.
Otherwise you will threaten the man.’
Because I am female,
I am expected to aspire to marriage.
I am expected to make my life choices
always keeping in mind that
marriage is the most important.
Now marriage can be a source of
joy and love and mutual support.
But why do we teach to aspire to marriage
and we don’t teach boys the same?
We raise girls to see each other as competitors –
not for jobs or for accomplishments,
which I think can be a good thing,
but for the attention of men.
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings
in the way that boys are.
Feminist: the person who believes in the social,
political and economic equality of the sexes.”
Watch the full talk below:
