For years I've been told by many a website, magazine, and friend that Beyonce is the Queen of Everything. I've been told this is a fact and I should just accept it and move on because questioning it is like proclaiming that you're not excited for Sherlock – you just don't do it. But today when Beyonce posted an Instagram pic of her in the Jesus spot in The Last Supper painting it made that antagonistic side of me boil to the surface and I'm done accepting her royalty without question. Here are 5 reasons why Beyonce is actually NOT the Queen of Everything.
1. SHE WENT VEGAN FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS
When hubby Jay-Z announced that he and Beyonce were going vegan there was no mention of the traditional reasons one decides to go down that path. It had nothing to do with the animal cruelty behind factory farming or a desire for sustainable living. Rather, "Queen Bey" and Jay-Z were exploring veganism for the health benefits a plant-based diet. Also unlike most vegans who make the switch permanently (or at least try to), Beyonce's experiment had a strict cutoff date of 22 days. Why? Because that's half of Jay-Z's age and one more day than it takes to break a habit. Makes perfect sense, right? After the announcement the internet fell all over itself congratulating the couple and making excuses for the reasonings behind it. I just think it's not really admirable veganism if it's only for 22 days and you know that going in. All Beyonce succeeded in doing was turning veganism into the next hot Hollywood fad diet.
2. SHE WORE FUR RIGHT AFTER GOING VEGAN
Further proving that her 22-day vegan cleanse had exactly nothing to do with animal rights, Beyonce stepped out in a Christopher Kane jacket trimmed with a fur collar. And not even a tiny collar. She's basically wearing an entire fox. I hope everyone in the vegan restaurant she was heading into gave her dirty looks, but they probably didn't because we're still being conditioned to think she does no wrong.
3. SHE WON'T LET PEOPLE TAKE PHOTOS OF HER
Lest they be unflattering. When these so called "unflattering" photos of Beyonce hit the internet after her Super Bowl performance, her publicist wrote to Buzzfeed asking them to take the pictures down. Buzzfeed instead published the email which read:
There are some unflattering photos on your current feed that we are respectfully asking you to change. I am certain you will be able to find some better photos.
But the photography struggles don't end there. Following the media storm from her publicist's email, Beyonce allowed "no photo credentials" for her Mrs. Carter tour. Instead, she hired her own photographer Frank Micelotta to best ensure the most control over which ones were released to the press.
Her camera fury continued at a July concert she scolded a fan who was snapping pictures of the star saying, "Put that damn camera down!" The order came after she noticed the fan wasn't singing along like the rest of her minions. "See, you can't even sing because you're too busy taping," she said. "I'm right in your face, baby. You gotta seize this moment, baby!" The fan, no doubt embarrassed, sang the lyrics "to the left, to the left" into the mic before Beyonce mercifully let them alone. I don't even want to get into how some people don't necessarily want to sing along and enjoy having a photo record of events that mean something to them, but instead want to focus on the "I'm right in your face" line. Like how dare anyone not give Bey their undivided attention, she's a Queen after all! Ugh.
4. SHE SUPPORTS WALMART
Walmart is the scourge of the retailing world in America. They're known for their low wages, defective products, and sexy halloween costumes for toddlers. A lot about Walmart needs to change, and that change won't come if the supposed Queen of Everything heads over to one and uses it as a promotional platform. It was Beyonce's F-U to Walmart competitor Target who refused to sell her digital album because they have a policy of "offering CDs that will be available in a physical format at the same time as all other formats."
5. THIS WHOLE "XO" STUFF
Beyonce recently decided to exploit a tragedy for her new song "XO' by sampling a part of the 1986 Challenger explosion at the start of the song. The phrase “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction.” is said by NASA frontman Steve Nesbitt "who was the public voice detailing the flight of the Challenger as it rose and then disintegrated." Beyonce issued an apology for highlighting the tragedy in her pop song saying:
My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song ‘XO’ was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten.
But that wasn't good enough for many people including June Scobee Rodgers whose husband died in the accident. She said of the song:
We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO.' The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today.
This "XO" business has finally opened many people's eyes that Beyonce may not be flawless after all. I'm certainly not saying she has to be. I just want people to own up to that fact that she's not really the Queen of Everything. That she makes mistakes, acts selfishly, and occasionally places herself on a way higher pedestal that she deserves. Like, say, the one of Jesus in The Last Supper painting. She's already catching flack over that just hours after initiating her "XO" apology. Perhaps these events coming so close together will garner the attention needed to take Bey down to the level of just a popular singer, rather than a God.
