Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album is all about roots — her Southern and Texas roots, as well the debt country music owes to Black musical traditions. During her tour for the album, she’s making a clear statement about what grounds her today: her family.
Indeed, the only celebrities to make guest appearances during her “Cowboy Carter” tour so far have been her own family members. Her mother, Tina Knowles, and daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi have all joined her onstage, and a montage featuring previously unseen footage of her family, showing all her children including son Sir Carter, is shown between acts.
Beyoncé is making a statement: Motherhood is adding to her well-established image, not detracting from it.
Beyoncé is notoriously private about her personal life, including her children, so it feels novel that she’s decided to share the stage with them. As she did with her exploration of feminist themes in “Lemonade,” Beyoncé celebrates motherhood without separating it from her status as a glamorous sex symbol, although it does add a new chapter to her all-powerful brand. In featuring her children, especially Blue Ivy joining in on the dance routines during her previous and current tours, Beyoncé is making a statement: Motherhood is adding to her well-established image, not detracting from it.
Beyoncé scrambles the “controlling images” that box Black women into binary thinking — we can be this or that, but not both and certainly not something else altogether — about who we are or can be. While this is true for all women, the options are especially restrictive for Black women and, as sociologist Patricia Hill Collins, who introduced the “controlling images” concept, tells us, often justify the negative treatment and oppression Black women face and reinforce discrimination against them. For those of us who are not megastars, it helps to have highly visible figures expose these stereotypes as a pack of lies.
Of course, this can be a double-edged sword, the expectation that women who mother do so while maintaining their physical attractiveness, let alone their high-powered careers. Expensive “mommy makeovers” aside, this mandate is not realistic, coveted or even possible for many of us because of the way desirability politics and conventional beauty operate.
Beyoncé has at times been honest about what it takes to project the sort of feminine beauty she is known for, which has included extreme dieting and exercise that she now disavows, embracing her somewhat fuller figure compared to her early career. And she’s not new to this. Part of her popular appeal is her longevity and evolution as a lively touring artist in her 40s with three kids in tow. She still offers one of the best stage performances around, with fans lining up to purchase tickets even as they bemoan the price tag.
Queen Bey is all about redefining conventions and expectations. Blonde hair, country music, feminism — and now motherhood: She is as meticulous about crafting her own image as she is her sound. In making this hard work appear effortless, her versions of Black womanhood feel just as natural as the controlling images we’re more familiar with, somehow helping to undo the tight confines designed to contain Black womanhood. Not everyone agrees. Some have questioned Beyoncé’s status as a style icon, or whether she is sufficiently politically engaged. The feminist theorist bell hooks famously described Beyoncé as anti-feminist and a “terrorist” for the effect she has on girls and young women, encouraging them to pursue a form of beauty, gender essentialism and sexuality that ultimately confines them. While Beyoncé did not respond to hooks (she rarely publicly responds to criticism), it’s clear that feminism, like motherhood, is imperfect and personal. And now, it’s a journey that she chooses to share, however carefully curated, with her fans. Beyoncé is a public figure, which means her brand of feminism, sexuality and femininity, and politics are open for debate. This is true of her motherhood too, with fans questioning why Sir Carter is less visible than his other siblings or whether Blue Ivy’s red carpet looks are age-appropriate. Parenting in the public eye is hard, not just for celebrity superstars, because other people’s judgments can feed into existing insecurities about whether we’re getting it right in the first place. And even with a present father by their side, it’s often the woman who feels the brunt of parenting judgment. Sharing her experiences with difficult pregnancy and glimpses of her family has invited even more judgment, not to mention wild speculation and demands for greater access and information than she is willing to divulge. But Beyoncé will always be careful about her image, ensuring that it serves her brand and moves the culture forward. The same can be said for her brand of public motherhood.
Robyn Autry
Robyn Autry is a sociology professor and director of the Center for the Study of Public Life at Wesleyan University. She is the author of “Desegregating the Past: The Public Life of Memory in the U.S. and South Africa.” 
