"My Album of the Year is Lemonade"

This week started with an amazing feminist moment when Adele won the Grammy for Album of the Year and subsequently dedicated the award to Beyonce, who she believed should have won for her album "Lemonade." The moment went viral and has been the talk of social media ever since. Even though I am the first person to role my eyes at consumerist/individual-focused/celebrity-obsessed modern feminism, this action by Adele represents so much more than that. The decision to give the award to Adele over Beyonce, despite Beyonce being the popular choice (you might almost say the Academy acted as a sort of electoral college, thwarting what would have been the popular vote, but I digress) - is just another example of institutions failing to evolve. The history of the Grammys, not to mentions the Oscars and all the other major awards shows, is a history of refusing to acknowledge black artists, even when their work was far superior. This is a systemic problem that is so much larger than this one incident.

It was also interesting that the video the of Adele's acceptance speech (see below) uploaded by the Grammys official account does not include the footage of Adele breaking her award and giving half to Beyonce (a la Mean Girls), that part was not televised. Although Adele's speech was partly about Beyonce, her more explicit statement about the award was made to a smaller audience in the Q & A after the show. After the show Adele said: "I felt it was her time to win, my view is kind of like what the f*ck does she have to do to win album of the year." It was crucial that Adele recognized the privilege that led to her work winning this award over Beyonce. As a white woman, her album was far less political and therefore the more traditional choice that the Academy went with. It was amazing for Adele to disavow the decision and explicitly acknowledge the role race must have played in the decision- after all "Lemonade" was an album focused on the black female experience and struggles - however, the fact that Adele waited until after the show to be fully open shows the pressure she was under to still respect the institution.

The respect the two women have for each other as people and artists is so evident when you watch Adele's speech and Beyonce's reaction to it. It reminded me of the point in the Modern Misogyny chapter we read about feminism being good for women. One of the points the author made was that empowered, feminist women do not see themselves merely in competition with other women, but rather build up other women. Adele was doing what she could to accomplish that. It was also a very beautiful moment for women that Adele used her speech to talk about how becoming a mother changed her as a women and an artist. She vocalized the often taboo subject of how hard motherhood is for women who also have careers. (Something Beyonce can undoubtedly relate to as well).

Watching another white-washed awards show was pretty disheartening, but Adele's embrace of (intersectional) feminism by standing up for Beyonce was at least a great moment to witness. Who knows, maybe the Oscars will decide to get progressive this year . . .