--- title: Beyonce's 'Formation' Is Activism for African Americans description: The performer has always made a political statement with her work canonical: https://time.com/4211888/beyonce-formation-activism/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-08T16:37:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:48.106Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Beyonce's 'Formation' Is Activism for African Americans, Women and LGBTQ People og:description: The performer has always made a political statement with her work og:url: https://time.com/4211888/beyonce-formation-activism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce8d67424ca0eb2/69887c94cf40a890e9c41dce/beyonce3.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Beyonce (R) performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 7, 2016, og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beyonce's 'Formation' Is Activism for African Americans, Women and LGBTQ People twitter:description: The performer has always made a political statement with her work twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce8d67424ca0eb2/69887c94cf40a890e9c41dce/beyonce3.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beyonce's 'Formation' Is Activism for African Americans, Women and LGBTQ People > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: The Halftime Show That Transformed the Super Bowl [Watch (HLS stream): The Halftime Show That Transformed the Super Bowl](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZkcZlc5f.m3u8) (1:51)  _Published 2016-02-05_ by [Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley](https://time.com/author/omiseeke-natasha-tinsley/) and [Caitlin O'Neill](https://time.com/author/caitlin-o-neill/) Feb 8, 2016 4:37 PM UTC  Beyonce (R) performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 7, 2016, Beyonce (R) performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 7, 2016, Christopher Polk—Getty Images by [Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley](https://time.com/author/omiseeke-natasha-tinsley/) and [Caitlin O'Neill](https://time.com/author/caitlin-o-neill/) Feb 8, 2016 4:37 PM UTC OK, ladies, now let’s get in formation: Watch Beyonce show everyone what it would look like if black women’s lives mattered in her [new music video](http://time.com/4210856/beyonce-formation-download-free-new-single-super-bowl-show/). The world would have Queen Bey letting braided extensions and fur coat fly, dancers in thigh-high stockings and booty shorts dropping it low in hotel hallways and parking lots, elegant sisters fanning themselves like queens, and black girls laughing and playing. If all these seem like things you’ve seen in other Beyonce videos, well, that’s precisely my point. Beyonce’s glittering black girl magic—no, her black _grown woman_ magic—has always been a political statement: an act of black feminist world-making that imagines how black women can survive and create their own, unmatchable value. The music video to Beyonce’s new single “Formation,” which she performed during the Super Bowl Sunday, is being quickly labeled as political because of its references to Hurricane Katrina and Black Lives Matter protests. But “Formation” differs radically from other post-Ferguson protests songs like Trip Lee’s “[Coulda Been Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKoDYiEogks)” or Rihanna’s “[American Oxygen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao8cGLIMtvg)” video, which focus on black men’s deaths. Beyonce’s celebration of her formation—her heritage, her fine form, her politics—is a tapestry of black women’s colorful, textured _lives_, which refuse to become the living deaths that feminist foremother Audre Lorde warned us about. While some activists call on African Americans to get militant in response to injustice, Beyonce asks ladies to get in formation, to stand side by side and show everyone we’re still here and “[we gon’ slay, slay](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/news/a53296/beyonce-formation-lyrics/).” In Bey’s black feminist formation, black women spend time in one another’s company—in a Storyville hotel, a hair shop, a parking lot, a church, an empty swimming pool—and enjoy their bodies in all their blackness and womanness. This song is all about the pleasures of having a black female body and _owning_ it. “Cocky fresh” Bey calls her black feminist aesthetic. Cocky, as in enjoying pleasure with a sense of controlling her own sexuality that’s usually reserved for men: “When he f— me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster, cause I slay” she sings, letting us know having good sex is all about flexing herpower in a relationship. _She_ slays while he has to scramble to earn post-sex rewards. Bey revels in her Southernness black womanness: “I like my baby hair, with baby hairs and afros,” she drawls, singing her love not only of black girls’ kinky, coily and curly hair but also of black Southern women’s speech. Yes, Beyonce’s black feminism is a politics of the pleasures reserved for black women: our country roots, our nappy roots, our Cheddar Bay Biscuits, our well-eaten cake by the pound. But don’t get it twisted: Bey’s black feminism isn’t only for cis-women. The song starts with a voiceover from media personality [Messy Mya](http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2016/02/messy%5Fmya%5Fbig%5Ffreedia%5Ffeatured.html), killed in an unsolved transphobic murder in 2010, who tells us “Bitch, I’m back by popular demand.” “Formation” also features queer New Orleans queen of bounce [Big Freedia](http://www.bigfreedia.com/) and footage from Abteen Bagheri’s 2014 documentary [_That B.E.A.T_](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4269471/), which explores New Orleans bounce music and queer culture. Femme and fabulous, Beyonce’s formation loves and celebrates the art of black femininity in _every_ kind of body brave enough to own it. As sociologist Zandria Robinson [writes](http://newsouthnegress.com/southernslayings/): “‘Formation’ is an homage to and recognition of the werk of the ‘punks, bulldaggers, and welfare queens’ in these Southern streets and parking lots, in these second lines, in these chocolate cities and neighborhoods, in front of these bands and drumlines.” Most of all, Beyonce’s black feminism celebrates conjure women and the magic they wield. Yes, “Formation” evokes New Orleans’ Hoodoo and Voodoo traditions with Bey in witchy black before an abandoned plantation house. But I also mean conjure in the sense of marrying dreams, work and power to create a new world—a world where black women own their bodies, pleasures, and possibilities. “I dream it, I work hard, I grind ‘til I own it,” Bey sings, and I believe her. Conjure women have become important figures for black feminists who refuse to accept the world we’ve been given. “In societies in which race and class are defining attributes of one’s life, the conjure woman’s spiritual disposition affords her the flexibility and prerogative to manipulate such confining spaces… to create safe, protective spaces for other people of color,” said Africana scholar [Kameelah Martin](http://simba.savannahstate.edu/profiles/profile.aspx?n=Kameelah%5FMartin). And while most of us don’t visit conjure women any more, we can still visit Beyonce’s world to watch black women elevated to the divas and dieties we deserve to be. “What a time to be black and alive!” The Cut’s Ashley Weatherford [wrote](http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/roundtable-discussion-beyonce-formation-blackness-feminism.html) when she saw “Formation.” And in a period that’s seen so much violence and heartbreak leveled against black women, anything that can make a sister feel like that is black feminist magic, pure and simple. Slay, Queen Bey. ## Transcript [ NOISE ] So even though today we think of the Super Bowl half time show as a huge showcase for superstar pop musicians when it began it was just a break for fans sitting in the stadium or watching at home. So it could be something as simple as marching bands or dance troops like Up With People. The true turning point in Super Bowl halftime history came in 1993 when Michael Jackson performed. The year previously, 1992, Gloria Estefan had performed as part of a tribute to the winter Olympics. It was both a little bit uninspired And was counter programmed against Fox, which put up the sketch comedy series In Living Color. 22 million people tuned away, and the NFL realized, they had to get a major, major star, to keep fans watching and entertained. Michael Jackson made perfect sense as a booking. He was a little bit up against the ropes, in terms of his private life And he needed a really good PR opportunity. His fans tuned in by the millions rather than tuning out. And they made it one the most successful Super Bowl halftime shows of all time. They also set the template for what it would look like in the decades to come, with truly iconic music acts. From U2, Bruce Springsteen, to Prince and Paul McCartney. So based on the fact that this year Coldplay is performing with Beyonce and other surprise guest to be announced. We've run short on icons who can truly carry an entire show by themselves. Look at Katy Perry teaming up with Missy Elliott. If I had to bet, I'd think future years will feature more and more medley, Of stars, each bringing their own individual fan bases together, so that we can all celebrate, no matter what genre of music we like best. 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