Beyonce's "Formation"

Beyoncé's "Formation"

Beyoncé's 'Formation music video uses a number of representational themes. These include: 

Gender: Beyoncé's body and the way that it relates to her star persona and her being an African-American woman is a key element of her music videos. She uses binary opposites as she is represented as a strong empowered woman while simultaneously being sexually objectified through codes of clothing, narrative situations and provocative dance moves. Therefore, at times, she challenges stereotypical representations of women in the music industry while also reinforcing a stereotypical representation of women who are defined by their body image. Also the sense of sisterhood in the dance numbers create a positive representation.

Ethnicity: Beyoncé uses the iconography of the antebellum dresses worn by white women in the American South during the slave trade era. There are references to slavery and the relationships between plantation owners and slaves. In the video, black women are also wearing the dresses reinforcing the political point regarding the historical treatment of black people in America. The women's hair also suggests their important cultural and racial heritage. These can all link to Barthes theory of semiotics. 

Issue: She refers to the floods in New Orleans that were a result of Hurricane Katrina and suggest the racial tensions following it, She also makes political statements about the treatment of Black Americans and makes direct references to the 'Black Lives Matter' movement by including a wall of graffiti and a row of white police officers facing a black child in a hoodie.

Formation both conforms to and challenges Gilroy's postcolonial theory. Formation positions Beyoncé as the strong black woman challenging the notions of the postcolonial legacy. However, certain elements of the video also reinforce the idea of otherness, the exotic and the dangerous stereotype in relation to representations of race. In the representation of a range of racial issues in the video she herself can be said to create a sense of division rather than racial integration.

It can also link to Bell Hook's feminist theory. It could be used as a stimulus to explore whether the video offers a strong message about gender or instead feeds into the oppression of women in a patriarchal society. Hooks’ position that feminism is a struggle to end sexist/patriarchal oppression can be used to ask whether the video is part of that struggle or part of the oppression.