Originally posted on XHIBIT P (www.xhibitp.com)

Written by XHIBIT P contributor Leticia St. Remy

Somewhere in between “Irreplaceable” and “ Girls (Who Run the World), Beyoncé has become the face of pop feminism in the past decade. Her songs have been lauded as being empowering female anthems for their assertive lyrics. I was not there for that memo; just because she makes songs that state, “[female] persuasion can build a nation”, does not means her brand of feminism is substantial and a message that young girls should be consuming. Frankly, Beyoncé’s interpretation of feminism in her music seems to be an empty declaration of what should be: gender egalitarianism in all aspects of society. Beyoncé has done very little to contribute to bringing that dream of girls running the world to fruition. Her commitment to feminism seems to go as far as her lyrics, which are admittedly not that profound.

Her recent interview with UK Harper’s Bazaar only serves to highlight the fact that her brand of feminism is rather simplistic and is a part of a well-constructed persona that utilizes the most “basic topics of politics and social realities of womanhood”. The interviewer asked her if she was a feminist, to which she responded, “I feel like… you know… it’s, like, what I live for. 
I need to find a catchy new word for feminism, right? Like Bootylicious”. Beyoncé’s willingness to suggest that feminism needs a ubiquitous catch phrase indicates that she views it as little more than a marketing tool that she can shape to her own needs. It shows that to her feminism is something that can be watered down and mass-produced into a simple phrase for popular consumption. As put by youtuber Nineteen percent “such [minimal, stylistic] and sporadic campaigns of girl power aren’t really helping the cause. Women have made great strides but it’s a bit too early to be making victory anthems if they aren’t any shift in values and work being to done to create and support such a shift”.

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Golden Globe Nominations are announced.  Check out what’s in store for the year’s first big awards ceremony.

Those crazy kids at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominations for the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards, set to be broadcast on January 11, 2009 on NBC.  In the film categories, the big winners were as follow:

*David Fincher’s beautiful life-in-reverse love story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (5 nominations, including Best Drama, Best Actor in a Drama and Best Director)

*John Patrick Shanley’s effective adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt (5 nominations, including Best Actress in a Drama, Best Supporting Actor in a Drama and Best Screenplay)

*Ron Howard’s mediocre version of the Broadway hit Frost/Nixon (5 nominations, including Best Drama, Best Actor and Best Original score)

Elsewhere, early Oscar favorite Slumdog Millionaire also made a mark, scoring 4 nods and Kate Winslet earned two acting nominations, Best Actress for Revolutionary Road and Best Supporting Actress for The Reader.  (It’s worth noting that the latter nod is absolute crap—she’s the female lead in The Reader, no matter what the HFPA says.)

Interestingly, 2008′s biggest movie, The Dark Knight, was almost completely shut out, picking up a single nod for Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker.  As of now, it still seems like a shoo-in to be one of the five Best Picture finalists when Oscar nominations are announced at the end of January, but this does indicate that there’s still a reluctance amongst a certain segment of the industry to lavishing attention on comic book movies.

Over on the TV side, I’m happy to see last year’s Best Drama Series Mad Men receive another nomination for its stellar second season and have my fingers crossed that the show’s Jon Hamm will be recognized for his excellent work as Don “The Man” Draper.  Of course, I may not be able to see Hamm accept his Golden Globe if Jeremy Piven wins yet another Best Supporting Actor statue for the long past-its-prime Entourage, as I’ll have thrown my TV out the window.  Expect 30 Rock to dominate the Best Comedy category again unless Tina Fey backlash suddenly rears its head in the next three weeks.

For a full list of the nominations, go here.  And tune in on January 11 to laugh at all the celebrities getting sloshed on the free booze.