PHOTO: Beyonce channels Marilyn Monroe for 'Out' magazine cover
PHOTO: Beyonce channels Marilyn Monroe for 'Out' magazine cover
Beyonce appears in a platinum blonde wig on the cover of Out magazine’s "Power Issue," in which she discusses the work and secrets behind the surprise album that took over the music world last December — and more.
When her interviewer points out that Beyonce is her “most sexually liberated project,” the performer explains, “I’d like to believe that my music opened up that conversation. There is unbelievable power in ownership, and women should own their sexuality.”
“There is a double standard when it comes to sexuality that still persists,” says Beyonce. “Men are free and women are not. That is crazy. The old lessons of submissiveness and fragility made us victims. Women are so much more than that.”
She adds, “You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist — whatever you want to be — and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.”
While Beyonce has perfectionist tendencies, she was also forced to change course at certain points in the process.
“When I recorded ‘XO’ I was sick with a bad sinus infection,” reveals the star. “I recorded it in a few minutes just as a demo and decided to keep the vocals. I lived with most of the songs for a year and never rerecorded the demo vocals.”
She explains, “I really loved the imperfections, so I kept the original demos. I spent the time I’d normally spend on backgrounds and vocal production on getting the music perfect. There were days I spent solely on getting the perfect mix of sounds for the snare alone.”
“Discipline, patience, control, truth, risk, and effortlessness were all things I thought about while I was putting this album together,” continues the singer.
Out asks whether Beyonce had “different groups in mind” as she wrote her lyrics, many of which have struck a chord not just with feminists, but also with members of the LGBT community.
“While I am definitely conscious of all the different types of people who listen to my music, I really set out to make the most personal, honest, and best album I could make,” she says. “I needed to free myself from the pressures and expectations of what I thought I should say or be, and just speak from the heart.”
Beyonce continues, “Being that I am a woman in a male-dominated society, the feminist mentality rang true to me and became a way to personalize that struggle… But what I’m really referring to, and hoping for, is human rights and equality, not just that between a woman and a man.”
“So I’m very happy if my words can ever inspire or empower someone who considers themselves an oppressed minority,” she adds. “We are all the same and we all want the same things: the right to be happy, to be just who we want to be and to love who we want to love.”
