Beyonce's Been Accused of Selling Sex

When Andrew Garfield did that SNL sketch about the Beygency, I'm sure he thought he was joking. After all, Beyoncé doesn't actually rule the world, right? Wrong. The Beygency has spread so far and wide by now that they don't even have to do anything. Just the threat of them is enough to protect Queen Bey. During an interview with Pride Source, Lily Tomlin accused Beyoncé of selling sex and then changed her tune as soon as she was reminded of Beyoncé's very protective fanbase. If that doesn't tell you who run the world, then nothing will.

"What can I say?" said Tomlin in the interview. "She is a pretty popular woman and she's married to a very powerful man, but she's still selling sex. She's selling a lot of sex to teeny-boppers. I don't know. Who are her fans? Everybody?"

If there's one thing we've just learned from the feud between Rihanna and TLC, it's that celebrities need to stop slut shaming each other. Everyone in the world needs to stop slut shaming each other, obviously, but celebrities are also role models and if they keep doing it then their fans will think it's all right to continue. The entire concept of selling sex is an insulting one because it implies that a sexually liberated woman is only exploring that freedom for someone else's benefit rather than her own.

Unless Beyoncé somehow starred in a porn video and no one noticed, then she's expressing herself first and "selling sex" second. Because, let's be honest, if any of us looked like Beyoncé, we would probably flaunt it too.

Beyoncé's aesthetic goes out to adults, not to "teeny-boppers", and adults can discuss sex and sexuality as open and frankly as they want. In fact, what Beyoncé has been encouraging lately, with her self-titled album and with the interviews that came after it, is an open discourse on sexuality rather than relegating it to some taboo issue to be giggled at or whispered about in the dark. Where's the shame in looking good and feeling good?

Naturally, when Tomlin was reminded the secret government agency that takes down anyone who doesn't like Beyoncé, she immediately backtracked: "I shouldn't even talk about Beyonce because, hard as it is to believe and as much as she is present in the culture, I'm not terribly conversant with Beyonce... I'm familiar with her image and how incredibly vivacious and sexual she is to watch, so I just chalk it up to the culture."

Apparently, Tomlin's problem is with our overly sexualized culture and not with Beyoncé, which might slow the Beygency down a bit. Or probably not. After all, it's a little condescending to state that Beyoncé's sexuality is a reflection of our patriarchal culture rather than a personal choice of self-expression. Is our culture too concerned with sex as a whole? Maybe. But the fact of the matter is that we are also a society of prudes considering it's 2014 and it's still considered shocking for a woman to flaunt their bodies like Beyoncé or Rihanna.

Beyoncé wouldn't want 10 year olds grinding around any more than Tomlin does, so for Tomlin to blame Beyoncé for that is more than a little unfair. If she's lucky, the Beygency will accept her half-apology as is and leave her alone as long as she continues to not talk about Beyoncé. If not, then we might have another Rihanna-TLC situation on our hands. Lucky for Tomlin, Beyoncé and Rihanna handle their business in very, very different ways.

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