Beyonce is at it again!  She’s faking reality and pretending that we don’t notice and are not offended by her intentional deceit.  Is this capacity for suspending disbelief part of the DNA of her itinerant celebrity status?  Pretending to really sing the National Anthem at Obama’s second inauguration was but the latest straw breaking our camel back.  Four years ago, we addressed the performance fakery of Yo Yo Ma at Obama’s first inauguration; and the second time around — we’re stuck with No Mo’ Beyonce.

Kelly Clarkson killed her song for Obama — and she sang it live.  Beyonce, obviously afraid of a cold weather disaster, risked nothing, and pretended to sing along with a recording of herself.  The great singers of our lifetime would never lip-sync a song in public without expecting to get caught, mocked, and condemned.  We are happy to oblige.

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.  Beyonce’s public track record as a pretender is pretty clear.  She grave robbed dance ideas from Bob Fosse.  She pretended she isn’t Black.  She appeared to have faked her entire pregnancy by wearing a prosthetic “baby bump” to win human sympathy for an experience she did not earn or even begin to have.

How should we respond to public phonies like Beyonce who demand our attention and devotional adoration?  Do we really want to follower her and give her our money — or do we really need to ask her to stand up to reality and deal with doing the right thing as we are expected to do every day?

If she isn’t careful, Beyonce risks becoming a cartoon of what started out to be a real and promising career as a performer.  Now she is becoming a joke upon herself with all this gerrymandering of what was once a mighty talent.  She could be busy.  She might be tired.  She should never be a faker, though, and it is our duty as her admirers to ask her to knock it off and get real all over again.

3 Comments

  1. Gordon Davidescu – Born in Perth Amboy, Gordon Davidescu lives in Queens with his wife, children, cat, and plush bears. He loves reading a good book whether it is cloth and paper or digitally.
    Gordon Davidescu says:

    Let us also not forget that she attempted — thankfully, not successfully — at patenting her child..

    I think she really is that cartoon already. It’s absurd to think you can fake it in this age with the Internet’s Panopticon staring at you, waiting for you to make that mistake…

    1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
      David W. Boles says:

      I forgot about her trying to Trademark her baby! That proves she really lives only in her own reality and the rest of us are just there to give her money for just being her.

      I think you’re right she’s already a parody of herself. It’s a sad fall, really. She started with so much promise.

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