Behold Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' on a Rutgers-New Brunswick syllabus.
All the single ladies (all the single ladies)/All the single ladies (all the single ladies)/All the single ladies (all the single ladies)
As my Inquirer colleague Jonathan Lai writes, the megaplatinum hip-pop singer and her lavish video oeuvre are the focus of a three-credit undergraduate course called Feminist Perspectives: Politicizing Beyonce.
Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it/If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
Taught by adjunct instructor Kevin Allred, the class examines the cultural context and significance of Beyonce - whose countless hits include 'Me, Myself and I' - as well as how this undeniably talented, profoundly vacuous young performer is packaged and presented.
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Reading the earnest comments of students and instructor alike, I'm tempted to dismiss Politicizing Beyonce as a misadventure akin to Rutgers having paid reality TV superstar 'Snooki' $32,000 to appear on campus in 2011.
I got gloss on my lips, a man on my hips
That Rutgers paid Snooki, the diminutive 'Jersey Shore' diva, more than esteemed novelist Toni Morrison suggested a collapse far more global than the State University of New Jersey's alone.
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Then I reminded myself that to overthink the significance of a class devoted to Beyonce makes about as much sense as the class itself.
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--KEVIN RIORDAN