Beyoncé - Why Don't You Love Me

Tags: class, gender, intersectionality, marriage/family, race/ethnicity, representation, welfare, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2010
Length: 5:01
Access: YouTube

Summary: This is Beyoncé’s music video for the song “Why Don’t You Love Me.” The video depicts Beyoncé as a “traditional” homemaker from the 1950s. While the video might be seen as just another sexist attempt to pair women with homemaking, a deeper analysis would pay attention to the way this misogynistic performance seems to be done tongue-in-cheek. The fact that the performance comes from a Black woman in a reasonably affluent suburb might be interpreted to suggest that media representations, which typically link Blacks to poverty, are being subverted in the clip. This clip works well with Sade’s video "Babyfather," (here) which similarly depicts an affluent black woman homemaker in 1950s America.

Submitted By: Lester Andrist

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