Chele Belle's Lair: Gateway to the Lepidopteran id

say-it-aint-so81:

pussyharvest:

unimpressed2chainz:

bitchwhoisyou:

the responses to kelly rowland’s new song are pissing me the fuck off.

she just revealed about how she was in an abusive relationship and the emotional hardships she went through, which included some negative feelings she had about beyoncé.

but y’all just wanna be messy and make statuses about how “kelly finally admitted what we all knew, she was salty as fuck about beyoncé’s success”.

can we stop being childish, willfully obtuse, and excited about turning everything into a battle between black women. i dont understand why people have pathological obsessions with talking about women and jealousy.

agreed. i listened to the song and read a bit about how difficult it was for kelly to record and release the song; no doubt, she probably felt some guilt for her resentment of beyonce (understandable) before and after the recording of the song, but it is what it is. no one doubts that the aftermath of destiny’s child was difficult for everyone who wasn’t beyonce. and when you consider the songwriting/performance/everything make up of destiny’s child from beginning to that very carefully crafted performance at this year’s superbowl, you understand why.

kelly rowland has been through it, as both a dark skinned Black woman in the industry and a friend/sister/bandmate of beyonce. it’s very difficult to call her feelings “saltiness.” kelly speaks about the industry right in the song, how record labels were looking to her for beyonce’s star power and, sensing that she didn’t have it, did not want to hear her “bullshit.” this is also something solange has written and talked about extensively in her earlier songs: having to make that separation from beyonce in order to create music and images that were truly hers.

and that IS the fault of the same music industry that has crafted, built and supported beyonce at the expense of other Black female artists. i don’t think beyonce has a hand in this, i think such a comparison is out of her control. i think this is what happens when an industry becomes comfortable with palpable, understandable, non-threatening Black women. I won’t pretend that society does not favor light-skinned women, but it also favors those who try for classiness, for respectability, for marketability—these are things it wants, and will reject those who don’t fall into line. the standard is very much higher for Black women. 

kelly was very brave. i think she understood that she was going to receive some backlash for talking about beyonce in the way that she did and even doubly so for her experiences with abuse. but her voice is very much needed and appreciate and understood. Black women experience jealousy; we are human as anyone else and we lust for things that our family/friends/acquaintances/peers have. we feel insecurity sometimes, we doubt ourselves and others. but such feelings are rarely discussed or portrayed in ways that doesn’t lose its importances to matters of “saltiness” and “cattiness.” 

👆☝all this

Once again reblogging for the commentary. Cannot recall when or how Black American secular music became a one-trick pony. There seems to be a mindset in place that if it ain’t Beyonce and/or rap it has no place in the music landscape. I am no Beyonce hater but no I really do not understand the ‘her shine is so magnificent and bright’ that surely no one else can or should have a flourishing music career. Oh well.