I spent most of today sifting through our final content and pin-pointing pull out quotes for each feature. The most relevant point relating to popular culture right now was made by Sharon Haywood who openly shares her opinions on the female body, self-image, violence against women, and feminism. In her interview, which will be feature in next month’s issue, she says the following:

‘I look at Beyonce’s new video for her latest song ‘Girls Run the World’ It’s being touted as a power anthem for girls and women but throughout the video we are fed continual sexualized images of Beyonce and her back-up dancers. Either consciously or unconsciously, female viewers are going to end up associating their personal power with their sexuality, instead of their intelligence, talents or ambitions’

A part of me totally agrees with Sharon, which is why I try to focus on the talents and ambitions of women featured in Complexd. The other part of me just wants to join in on Beyonce’s ‘Girls Run the World’ anthem, a song which she came under fire for by a few feminist. Beyonce has such a wide fan base; can she really please us all? The overt sexuality in the persona of her alter ego ‘Sasha Fierce’ may be deemed unsuitable for young women but it can be very sexually liberating for older females.

I decide to sit on the fence about my opinions on this topic, but this weekend at a friend’s birthday celebration I met two die hard Beyonce fans who don’t! Meet Nimo Hussein (light blue) and Emma Parker (dark blue). They love them some Beyonce and refer to themselves as Beyonce ‘stans’. They know the words to every song, the dance moves to every routine and the little characteristics of ‘Sasha Fierce’.

Nimo in particular is a very outspoken young woman who enjoys expressing her views on women’s rights through her poetry for and about women. To me, she epitomizes the modern feminist so I asked her to share her thoughts on the ‘Beyonce as a role model’ debate. Nimo says:

‘Feminism and female empowerment does not have to shy away from sexuality. I am not less of a feminist for strutting on the pavement in my sky-high heels than I would be in DM’s and ”de-gendered” masks. Having said that, the point of the song and video seems to be lost by many people that wish to attack Beyonce for being ‘too sexy’. This isn’t about girls running the world half naked, it’s about girls running the world, full stop, in whatever we’re wearing, however we’re wearing it and regardless of what we are doing. We should be celebrating the fact that in an age that seems void of feminist sensibilities, we can still find commercially successful women waving the flag for women and girls who bring messages of female power in a world saturated in the masculine. I fail to see how the video or the song leads people to think that we rule the world with just our sexuality and those women and girls have no intelligence or worth outside of that. To me, it is about potential, about reminding girls and women that there is infinite power in being a woman, no matter what the world says! As a make-up and stiletto wearing self proclaimed die-hard feminist; it saddens me that we wish to overlook the empowering qualities of this song. I understand that we have a long way to go because women are still being bombarded with one version of the female ‘sexy’, but this song (and video) is about more than short dresses and sexiness; it’s a reminder of power and it’s a reminder of strength. Who run the world? Girls!

Nimo is a very talented Complexd Woman. Look out for a feature on her and her poetry in this week’s Complexd Woman profiles.