Lean In, My Take on Beyoncé and Jay Z's Drunk in Love at the Grammy's

     I have been thinking about the performance and song Drunk in Love at the Grammy's last week by Beyoncé and Jay Z. My first reaction was that it was too sexy for an eight o'clock CBS show where young kids could tune in. Eight O'clock is usually family TV time at my house. True, it is the parents responsibility to monitor what their kids are watching. My kids are thirteen and sixteen and should be able to watch the Grammy's, but I was glad they were not watching the opening number last Sunday night. I would have turned it off if they were in the room.
     I love Beyoncé's music and have enjoyed watching other performances. The Grammy's is a place for self expression, but again I felt that the producers could have waited until later on in the show to air this half naked, very sexually explicit, dance/performance between Beyoncé and Jay Z. Listening carefully to the lyrics I was again kind of shocked that it was allowed on CBS.
     I didn't give it another thought as soon as Beyoncé's performance was over until the next day when I was reading all the controversy on line about the lyrics of Drunk in Love. There was an explosion of Facebook posts and bloggers writing on the fact that in the lyrics of Drunk in Love there is a reference to the abuse of Tina Turner via Ike Turner. There is a line in the song," Eat cake Anna Mae, Eat Cake Anna Mae." In the movie What's love got to do With It, about the life of Tina and her abuse by Ike, there is a scene in a diner where Ike wants to celebrate with her after one of her first performances. To celebrate he orders a cake, when she doesn't want any it shows him telling her to"eat the cake Anna Mae," when she refuses it escalates into a very abusive scene.
     The question of the day is why would Beyoncé have a line in her song referencing the abuse of Tina Turner?  How in the world could Beyoncé, a champion for feminism and feminists', possibly sing this with Jay Z and mouth those words? Most of the responses  I read were from angry liberal feminists ready to throw Beyoncé under the bus for assuming that she was condoning or somehow promoting abusive behavior which is a bit ironic in my opinion. I doubt that she would broadcast such a controversial performance thinking she would offend her liberal female followers.
     I re watched the CBS broadcasts version of Beyoncé and Jay Z and I also found another version of the song on You Tube, and read the lyrics to the song. It was clear to me that this song is about a power couple that went out to a club for a couple of drinks, got drunk, got horny, and decided to go home and do something about it.
    Below are some of the lines from Jay Z when many people decided that the song took a turn for the worst.

Foreplay in the foyer, fucked up my Warhol
Slip the panties right to the side
Ain't got the time to take draws off, on site

 OK, so the lines above speak of the fact that they are in the foyer and are starting... well you know. Next up the lines start getting a little tricky... read below.

Catch a charge I might, beat the box up like Mike
In '97 I bite, I'm Ike, Turner, turn up
Baby no I don't play, now eat the cake, Anna Mae
Said, "Eat the cake, Anna Mae!"
I'm nice, for y'all to reach these heights you gonna need G3
4, 5, 6 flights, sleep tight
We sex again in the morning, your breastases is my breakfast
We going in, we be all night

 OK, so the first four lines in the next stanza are definitely heating up and I get why people are seeing the Ike and Tina comparison, but I read this to be that this man is talking rough sex with his girl. Is this right, I don't know. I am not judging what they are doing, but rather trying to interpret the language. My understanding here is that this guy is going to give his girl rough sex. He is not literally trying to be abusive like Ike, although I can certainly see why it might be mistaken here. I think the reference is not appropriate, and it is in poor taste, and I get why people would be offended, but I truly think the intent here is to show that the content here is purely sexual. Could they have come up with another way to say that? Yes, but they are artists and perhaps they were making a statement to say hey listen we can reference this without people thinking we condone it. We understand it, but we aren't saying domestic violence is ok. Beyoncé is a fan of Tina and I believe they are friendly with each other. She is too smart to try to condone abusive behavior.
     Perhaps I am even reading into it more than is there. Perhaps it's just a dirty sexual song and they gave no thought at all to the Ike and Tina reference. No, I think they knew exactly what they were doing and maybe even wanted some shock value. Why not, that's what artists do isn't it? Take a look at Miley Cyrus and her twerking, tongue tied sexualization of herself . Gross and off the charts, but it got all of us talking. Here we go again with Beyoncé. I do find it ironic that the artist claims to be such a feminist and gets on stage using her sexual prowess to get a reaction- isn't that taboo for that group?
     She may be riding a surfboard of hatred from her supposed liberal female followers if she continues down the lyrical road of abuse. I'm sure it will eventually be asked and come out on her next major interview. I would love to be on the receiving end of that interview. For now I think I'd leave Anna Mae out of it cause that has everything to do with it.