Who Can Review Beyonce’s Lemonade? Traversing Race in Gender in Pop Culture
The self proclaimed, and publicly appointed queen of pop, Beyonce Knowles has spontaneously dropped her new album ‘Lemonade’, with a very artsy 65 minute video to accompany it.
Of course, you know this, everybody in the world knows this.
But what you might not have seen is the fierce debate that’s been brewing about who’s allowed to critique the album. There has been kickback from minority groups over critical appraisals being made on the album by white people and men, the basis of the issue is that, from their position of privilege, they’re not in the place to comment on the album because they can’t relate to issues of marginalisation.
It seems like valid reasoning, and men and white people commentating on the album’s cultural influence have been scolded for their insensitivity, but when it comes to critique of art, who is and isn’t allowed to critique it seems like it could be hypersensitive. To speak to us about traversing race and gender in the arts we spoke to Arts and Pop Culture Lecturer from Monash University, Dr Catherine Strong.
Produced by Phillip Leason
