If you surrender to the air, you can ride it.
-Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
If you surrender to the air, you can fly freely.
(Limiting people’s frame, other people’s opinions, blows, failures, misunderstandings, just because they have not learned to surrender to the breath of the moment, can’t control the air and struggle, and I don’t have to struggle with it. No matter what decision is made, as long as it is As long as decision-making, as long as it is practice, I am alone, and I cannot find others to rely on, nor can I escape my own responsibility as a human being. Everyone can truly meet only in their own independence.)
Beyoncé is the most dazzling superstar in America. Some people say that Beyoncé’s success is due to her good family background. Although we cannot deny the impact of the environment on people, no matter how dazzling Beyoncé’s family background and creative team are, she is the core figure in the team. Strong and agile, a complete person who is both sexy and charming for women and surging power for men.
On the stage, her independent and confident performance is the result of completely trusting her own heart. While thoroughly feeling and believing in herself, she also completely trusts her companion. Everything on the stage is not only exploring and releasing one's own voice, thoughts, and feelings, but also going home, seeking inward, and experiencing the fusion of everyone's hearts. Beyoncé's concentration and responsibility are not only reflected in dance and music, but she also strives for perfection in all the details of the stage setting and performance. This shows that the energy that a person can exert can far exceed one's imagination. This also corresponds to a sentence in the documentary, you can only be what you can imagine.
What makes Beyoncé more impressive is her feminist thinking. She was my favorite celebrity when I was in school. I didn’t understand feminism at that time, because she didn’t enter society and she never cared about the meaning of feminism. She had no idea about the discrimination, pain, and suppressed voices that women generally suffer. . I once naively thought that in school, in my own family, I have never encountered discrimination against women. Only now I realize that the situation may not be the same as previously naively envisaged.
If a person is not allowed to speak and makes his own true voice, he may slowly lose his voice, become mute, or become a person who can only speak through other people’s voices. This situation is exactly what The situation of millions of women. Due to my laziness, I did not reflect in time when I encountered pain and frustration, and I couldn't see what happened and why these problems occurred. Most of the time, I missed opportunities in the process of avoiding pain. If you don’t want to bear the pain, you won’t be able to understand the deep meaning behind the pain and frustration, and you will be constantly rolling in the same mistakes. Unless one day realizes that you must raise your head and take a good look at the experience and meaning of the pain before you, fate will surely make yourself fall in the same place until you train yourself to see the status quo. .
Everyone comes to this world with the task of learning and practicing. The appearance of the task often appears in the face of frustration, pain, and failure. If you refuse to acknowledge and reflect on the pain, you will miss the enlightenment. If you refuse to see, refuse to face, or even admit your own problems, your destiny will let yourself repeat the same situation again and again, until you begin to learn, begin to recognize, and begin to change.
For example, with regard to women’s general situation and their perception of their own situation, it is not that they have not encountered opportunities, but have no feelings, and have not realized that they have been in a discriminatory environment. Women are often not encouraged to continue their studies, and they are not taught how to recognize and reflect on social reality. They are easy to be "blind" to the reality in front of them in an environment where they are "cared for". But this reality, which is of course not known, is probably just a set of systems or tools. For example, you can’t be aware of the three obediences and four virtues of speech and enlightenment, are not encouraged to speak your own voice, are not encouraged to pursue your dreams, do not strive for strength, do not strive for self-improvement, admit that you are weak, have husbands and children, get married and have children, be quiet and silent. It is a way and tool for society to materialize and discriminate against women.
If you really follow the inertia of your parents or society, you will "unknowingly" fall into the difficult situation of the general women. Only when you really fall into this trap and taste the bitter fruit, you will understand What is discrimination. What is meant by "should be obedient", "don't be lazy, but don't be a strong woman, otherwise no man likes it", "have children early", "don't be so assertive"?
What Beyoncé’s concert wants to express is to let people “see” the shackles and restraints that the social rules have brought to women all the time. Why can’t women express their thoughts, tell the truth, or pursue their dreams? , Can't have your own voice, can't explore the world you like alone?
These desires were originally the most basic rights that a person should have, that is, bravery, honesty, kindness, and independence. But why are the most "ordinary" human rights under the discipline of society? Doesn't appear in the world of women anymore? In such an environment, women think it is correct to shut up and be quiet. Almost no man likes a woman who is too thoughtful and assertive. This is what I know of self-righteous, knowledgeable and educated men who will also unknowingly show such prejudice, because such women are right For them, it is not "easy". Perhaps for them, "easy" is good, not good.
The path of women’s growth, if the prejudice and suspicion of men and society, including women’s unknowing A real person, an individual who can think, live, and awaken independently, must step on countless thorns.
Of course, if you don’t want to be an awakened person and follow the path of minimizing pain, you will become a good woman in the eyes of others, because when you no longer make your own voice or listen to your own voice, just follow When others are satisfied, at least others (women and men who have been disciplined) will no longer set obstacles on your way to become an awakened and independent individual, and you will naturally become a traditional woman who is unconfident, painful, and frustrated. , And forget that he is a human being.
Anyone shouldn't live with a label and identity in the first place. For such a simple reason, to become a real person is "abnormal" in the eyes of most people. But in Beyoncé’s concert, in her lyrics, in the university’s school motto, it was discovered that “abnormal” was originally “not normal”. To be a complete person is the first task of a person. Rather than the symbols and identities given by society. Why is such a simple common sense a strange phenomenon in society?
The reason why universities have become universities and idols have power is not because the education of pathfinders and predecessors is universal truth, but because universal truth is not “universal” in fact. If society is a dye tank, and universities are the living water of the source, then universities are constantly striving to bring "common sense", the most ordinary and profound truth, into the soul of people through education, and then instill in people who may not even have common sense. society.
Education is not for students. After graduation, when they find that the rules of society are different from those taught in schools, they deny school education, and even think that those are old-fashioned ones, so they gradually "mature" and become a member of the dye vat. Dye vat activists. One should not forget the original role of education and the necessity of transforming education into practice. The practice is to pour the clear water from the source into the "rules of dyeing vat" that is universal in society, and to transform the turbid water in the dyeing vat into the clear process that people should have. The prerequisite for completing this process is that when encountering thorns and difficulties, do not give up hard work, do not give up learning, and do not succumb to the so-called social rules.
If after entering the custom of society, when suffering and setbacks cannot be put into contemplation and reflection, it is easy to return the previous education to the school and forget the purpose of receiving education. The purpose of women’s education is to keep their mouths shut, obey the four virtues, suppress themselves, lose their ideals, and be filial to the parents-in-law after returning to society? Is it because oneself is not independent, or others are not independent, obeying people's habit of not being independent, and gradually losing the opportunity for self-awakening, which is called "turbidity" as "mature"?
After watching Beyoncé’s concert, I realized that I was beaten in the face and had been educated by society for so many years of depression. Beyoncé is constantly trying to let people see the pain experienced by women and the spirit of self-improvement from the pain. These should be the basic qualities that a person should possess, namely kindness, honesty, and courage. But even if it is common sense, only a few people really see it and stick to it. I hope that the self who has begun to learn from the pain can not forget these ordinary and profound truths in the sufferings that must be endured as human beings.
Keep going, no matter what.
-Reginald Lewis, Virginia State University, 1965
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