5 Times Beyoncé Proved She Was Down For the Cause
By: Kayla Pasacreta
Happy 37th birthday, Bey!
Beyoncé has spent her entire career slaying as a multi-talented singer, performer, and more recently...activist! Queen Bey has definitely earned her spot as a powerhouse who is unafraid to use her platform to make important political statements and give back. In honor of her birthday, here are are five times Beyonce showed us she's an activist bae.
1. Making Flawless**, which doubles as a feminist anthem and a bad b***h bop at the same damn time.
photo via Getty Images
In her banger Flawless** Beyoncé, recruited Nigerian-author Chimamnda Ngozi Adiche to use a powerful excerpt from her TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists". A feminist and bad bitch bop all in one? We stan!
“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 girls 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: a person who believes in the social, political
And economic equality of the sexes”
2. Her half-time Super Bowl performance.
photo via Getty Images
Beyoncé used her Super Bowl half time performance to not only give a poppin' performance, but also pay homage to the Black Panther movement (her dancers were decked out in all black, berets, and picked from), the Black Lives Matter movement, and the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina. The performance was surely a political message of sorts. She wasn't lying when she sang, "You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation,” Rudy Giuliani called the performance 'ridiculous'. She had all the haters big mad!
3. The time she and Jay-Z participated in a rally/concert to mobilize voters to vote for Hillary Clinton
photo via AP
Just a couple of days before the 2016 election, Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio to encourage young people to get out and vote, "We have to vote. The world looks to us as a progressive country that leads change. Eight years ago, I was so inspired that my nephew, a young black child, could grow up knowing his dreams could be realized by witnessing a black president in office,” she continued, "And now, we have the opportunity to create more change. I want my daughter to grow up seeing a woman lead our country and know that her possibilities are limitless." She ended the speech with a powerful "I'm with her," in support of Hillary Clinton.
4. Using her BeyGood foundation to give back
photo via Beyoncé.com
Beyoncé uses her BeyGOOD foundation to give back and inspire others to do the same. The foundation started an OTR II scholarship to award selected students with $100,000 toward their college tuition, organized a drive to raise money and provide food and supplies to Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas, and even partnered with Global Citizen to lead a UK-based charity incentive. The BeyGood website encourages fans to “help shape the future” and offers tools to help people register to vote online.
5. Presenting Colin Kaepernick with the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award
Beyoncé and Kaepernick, photo via Sports Illustrated
If you’re a fan of Beyoncé, you probably know she stopped attending award shows years ago! However, she made an exception for the ESPYs last December to present Colin Kaepernick with the ceremony’s most distinguished award - the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award! The moment was a profound one #fortheculture.
Which of these five is your favorite Beyoncé moment?
