CHICAGO — Is Beyoncé a "real" feminist?
That question has been debated by everyone from singer Annie Lennox to writer bell hooks, so an instructor at UIC is taking it to the ivory tower.
"Beyoncé: Critical Feminist Perspectives and U.S. Black Womanhood," is a new course at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
It "will use the artist’s music and career as a way to explore her attempt to be positioned as a feminist and queer figure, as well as larger issues involving media images and representations of African American women," according to UIC news report.
The course is not the first of its kind. "Politicizing Beyonce: Black Feminism, US Politics, & Queen Bey," is being taught at Rutgers University, and was widely publicized in October.
Instructor Jennifer Richardson said the theme of the course could really be applied to any black woman in media, such as first lady Michelle Obama.
"We would have the same type of tools, the same kind of critical analysis of how she is represented, who she is as a person and what that means in terms of what corporate mainstream media says about black women. It’s not just about Beyoncé," Richardson said in a news release.
And homework won't be as easy as bingeing on music videos or deconstructing lyrics.
Students will be expected to read feminist texts from bell hooks, Angela Davis, and others, write essays and make "a musical autoethnography," according to the release.
So, will the students come to a conclusion on whether Beyonce is a feminist?
“What I really love about teaching critical feminism, and black feminism in particular, is that students are introduced to this dialectical space where there is not just one answer to a question like that,” Richardson said.
Richardson also is working on a book titled, "Beyoncé, Olivia Pope, Michelle Obama, and Pirate Jenny: Visions of Black Womanhood, Sexuality, and Feminisms in Contemporary America," based on her dissertation.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
