Formation

Intertextuality in Formation:

The Holy Mountain- Alejandro Jodorowsky

The shot mirrors the image of the Holy mountain featuring a similarly dressed entity named the Alchemist.

The Alchemist in The Holy Mountain is a symbol of truth and spiritual freedom: a socially conscious ‘liberator’ who rejects authoritarianism.

Beyoncé is drawing comparisons between herself and the Alchemist with the police authorities positioned as the target of her gestures. After all there are frequent images related to police brutality throughout the video, coinciding with a climatic message exclaiming “Stop shooting us”.

What key representations feature in the music video? Gender, age, ethnicity, etc. Are there any positive and negative representations?

• African-American empowerment
• All ages
• White represented as law enforcers
• Beyoncé and females sexualised
• Beyoncé is a feminist

How has this been constructed? What are the connotations?

In the video Beyoncé is shown as a strong and powerful woman with her sharp movements and empowering vocals. Her proud  African-American identity is prominent throughout the video, with her dancing with back up dancers, who are all African American themselves. Opposing her feministic views and strong messages in the video, is the fact that she is still sexualised due to the clothes she wears and her provocative dance moves, she therefore reinforces typical connotations of the music video mode whilst still showing her signature feminist side. The video contains a range of African-American characters, all different ages, this shows that no matter what age you are you are still at risk of being cast aside or shunned for your ethnicity, consequently Beyoncé empowers all: young and old, to show them they are worthy.

How do the representations relate to the lyrics and the genre of the music?

The video opens with the words “What happened at the New Orleans?” this is paired with Beyoncé standing on a police car that is sinking in the flood of New Orleans, this image shows how people were stranded during the flood and left helpless, by starting with this image Beyoncé sets the tone of the music video. At 2:47 Beyoncé sings the phrase “Okay ladies, now lets get in formation” while dancing with backup dancers in a car park, by only addressing “ladies” the feminism in the video is seen more clearly. The suggestion of getting in a “formation” shows how the ladies need to stick together to get through the storm, this would make Beyoncé’s female African-American audience feel included and accepted.

Has she used the video to construct a representation of herself? How?

In the video Beyoncé has presented herself as a very headstrong and confident woman, she is not the only character in the video showing her inclusion and acceptance of others. On one hand we can see her as an empowering woman who fights for rights, but on the other hand she could still be represented as a typical music artist as her video has the typical conventions of a female music video: she flaunts her body and dances provocatively. These actions cause her to be sexualised by the audience therefore lessening the sincerity of the message of the video.

Is the music video reflecting on a historical, social or cultural context? How? What are the connotations of the images?

Black Lives Matter is an important movement that Beyoncé supports, she shows this in her video as the vast majority of the character in the video are African-American, they are all represented positively as no violence is used in the video. The video contrasts from stereotypical black representation in media, and shows them as real people who have been segregated and fought against for no reason. In the video iconography is used to represent the African-American culture, at one point in the video we have a wide shot of Beyoncé and other African-American women sitting down wearing antebellum dresses which were worn by white women in the slave trade era, this shows her taking back the livelihood of African-Americans and also making a point to modern day racists that they can no longer be oppressed.

To what extent do the representation of gender and ethnicity in Formation offer a range of more diverse types?

Females are represented as a mix of both empowered and sexualised, from David Gauntlett’s theory the audience could choose aspects of the music video to change themselves. Some may choose to fight for the equality of races and join forces with Beyoncé on the Black lives Matter campaign, others may aspire to have her confidence and power. Men in the video are seen to be reserved or submissive in relation to Beyoncé, at 1:10 Beyoncé is dancing on the steps to a house and keeping stoic expressions, By representing men in this way, Beyoncé opposes the stereotype that African-American men are violent, in addition she shows that not all men need to objectify women and can respect them instead. In the video Beyoncé shows a variety of different people from rich to poor and young to old, this ensures that the maximum amount of people are represented in the video consequently allowing a larger audience to identify with the video.

How might the audience respond to the representations they see in the video?

I think that the African-American audience would follow the preferred reading when watching the video this is because they have been represented positively throughout, they can identify with certain elements of the music video. The video contains quite a few historical and modern conflicts and situations that negatively impacted African-American life, (e.g. New Orleans flood, Police brutality, slavery) therefor the African-American audience may feel moved or proud that they have overcome those obstacles, and strive towards ensuring nothing similar happened in the future. On the other hand I think the white audience may have a more negotiated reading, this is because the only representation they have in the video  is male riot police, although they don’t seem to be represented entirely negatively in the video (they aren’t violent on screen) they still represent the violent police and police brutality in America, this is highlighted with the graffiti “Stop shooting us”, therefore they may feel targeted by the video, but as this is a historical fact and only a minor part of the video they may still overlook it and instead focus on the great story and cinematography of the music video.

What stereotypes are prevalent in Formation?

• Sexualised women
• innocent children
• violent White people
• empowered women

How does Formation reinforce and challenge stereotypical representations of gender, age and ethnicity? 

In the video Women are represented as two different types; sexualised and strong. Beyoncé and her backup singers can be seen as strong as they display a culmination of powerful dance moves and embrace African-American culture even if it is disregarded by a lot of Hollywood and the music industry. Even though they show this side of them they may still be sexualised by the audience as they show off their bodies in tight and short clothing, which connote impurity and sexuality. The representation of white people in the video is fairly negative, although they don’t show the stereotypical violence of white American Policemen they are still dressed in riot uniform showing their authoritative nature, by this being the only representation of white people we could infer that due to all the historical oppression and violence white people cause African-Americans, they may start to see white people in a purely negative way unless a change is made. Therefore the white audience may want to change themselves personally or change the perception of all white people in media by influencing others. Young people in the video are shown as innocent, this is because when we see children in the video (Beyoncé’s daughter) are wearing white, this connotes innocence and purity, showing us that they are open to influence and should be protected.