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Beyonce and Jay-Z 'On the Run II' Tour - Glasgow

Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty

Last night, I found the time to sit down and watch Beyoncé’s Homecoming documentary on Netflix. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said. Beyoncé, her talent, her work ethic, her attention to detail are unparalleled. And in addition to the brilliance of her performance, she’s prioritizing Black art, Black people, women specifically, and Black culture. It’s not something we can say for many artists of her caliber.

So I’m not here to talk about that aspect of the documentary. I’d rather discuss a dynamic between Bey and Jay that the internet is picking apart.

Yesterday, we wrote about everything that Beyoncé endured in order to lose her baby weight. She shared in her Vogue article and in the doc that she weighted 218 pounds the day she gave birth. And in order to prepare for the performance, she cut out basically everything except for fruits and vegetables: so no carbs, no bread, no meat, no fish, no sugar and no alcohol.

We know Beyoncé has personal chefs and what not, so she had some decent veggie options but still, it sounds brutal. And she told the cameras that she was hungry.

The work she put into her show paralleled the work she was putting in to make sure that her body was up to her standard.

And in the documentary, there is a scene where she tries on a costume from the couple’s upcoming On The Run 2 tour and she’s able, for the first time, to fit it. The zipper goes up and everything. Beyoncé is so proud of herself that she tells her assistant that she wants to FaceTime Jay Z to share her accomplishment.

Her assistant calls, his assistant answers and Bey steps into the frame, showing herself in the costume. She exclaims that she got back into her costume and she’s able to zip it too.

And Jay offers a smile and says, “Alright.” In his defense, it was more of an “Allriiight” but also the lackluster tone we use with young children we’ve been encouraging all day. He didn’t share Beyoncé’s excitement at all. And the assistant hung up the phone and said to Bey, “Why don’t men get more excited about these things?”

I didn’t think much of the moment. But apparently, people online did. They thought a lot about it.

https://twitter.com/_chicnaija/status/1118712150560788480

Now, keep in mind this is the internet and people are in the business of trying to one up each other. So take the tweets with a grain of salt. But the point remains, they didn’t like his underwhelmed reaction.

I read a similar tweet to the ones shared above and I was actually surprised by the reaction. I didn’t think much of the scene because I didn’t think Jay was wrong for his reaction.

To me, it signified the fact that his love for Beyoncé isn’t contingent upon her weight. And I think that’s pretty sweet—and also a healthy way to view our partners as whole beings and not merely physical objects. After all, Jay Z watched his wife struggle through toxemia and preeclampsia to birth their two children. When you see someone risk their life to bring your children into the world, weight becomes a secondary concern. Not to mention in that Vogue article where Beyoncé spoke openly about the difficulties of her birth and embracing her new, fuller figure, she shared that her husband and children appreciated the thicker Yoncé.

By her own admission, Beyoncé has shared that she’s been unhealthily preoccupied with her weight and as her partner, perhaps Jay Z doesn’t want to feed into that by reacting too strongly to weight loss. He could have given her a bit more enthusiasm because it’s nice for your spouse to match your energy but expecting a husband or share your emotions all the time is a recipe for disaster.

Having seen men who verbally expressed their hesitancy to have children because they don’t want their wives to get “too big,” I can appreciate a man who is thinking about something else.

 

Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of “Bettah Days” and the creator of the website NoSugarNoCreamMag. You can follow her on Facebook and on Instagram and Twitter @VDubShrug.
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