Indeed, when you ruminate on the majority of Beyoncé’s career, so little of it includes thinking about her actually speaking during interviews. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists” is one of the most obvious examples of that, with Beyoncé weaving it into 2013’s “Flawless” to get a message across that she herself couldn’t articulate with the same eloquence. Like Madonna, Bey is a great curator, deft at incorporating the work and “influence” of other artists into her own. The extension of a woman, so easily interchangeable with an object to be owned in our society.

In between, too, there was a rather jarring song to hear coming from such a feminist: “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).” As the track that couldn’t be escaped from the end of 2008 onward, Yoncé was touted all the more as some kind of proponent for female empowerment for lyrics that urged women to “know their worth.” That worth, of course, being measured by whether or not a man was willing to marry them a.k.a. Starting with Destiny’s Child’s “Cater 2 U” and hopefully ending with the fact that she forgave Jay-Z for cheating on her (and yes, fellow “feminist” Hillary Clinton is guilty of the same with Bill). Carter Show World Tour), Beyoncé has done a few contradictory things in her career in the face of holding on to that accolade. Long heralded as a feminist, especially after she put that title in huge block letters above her at a 2014 VMAs performance (in addition to the Mrs. What’s more, anticipation of her first solo studio album since 2016’s Lemonade (also marking what will be the first record put out in her forties) is only adding to Beyoncé fever. Her deification has only intensified over the years and, with her fortieth birthday upon us, the worshipful tone geared toward the triple threat sensation has only augmented. Beyoncé is one of many icons that people have difficulty seeing as mortal (despite her dalliance with Sisqo).

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