Deformation of the Southern Lady

The scene at 0:33 in which Beyoncé twirls a parasol and sits dressed in in all white garb and a manner that would be associated with the traditional antebellum South was, for me, a tangible example of Baker’s discourse on mastery of form and deformation. Beyoncé is mastering form in the luxurious clothes and poise,…

truth in beauty standards and style, advertised.

In Houston A. Baker Jr.’s description of the strategies mastery of form and deformation of mastery, biological graphics and visualizations are used to explain how readers can distinguish one from the other. Specifically, he references H.B. Cott’s zoology categorizations and explains how animals with allaesthetic characteristics—biological masks that are induced to “enhance inclusive fitness”—are either…

Fashion and Survival

Baker aptly contextualizes his theory of  mastery of form versus deformation of mastery within the primal language of survival— that is exactly what these methods are to the black community: survival skills. In Beyonce’s music video for “Formation,” she demonstrates her knowledge of both tactics. At 0:36, Bey grounds a dance routine in a narrow hallway surrounded by dated pictures…

Beyoncé’s Message on Police Brutality

Houston Baker, described differences between mastery of form and deformation of mastery in, “Modernism And The Harlem Renaissance”. Mastery of form might be something that you are able to achieve and be the best at, you are the insider. Baker further states that, “the mastery of form conceals, disguises, floats like a trickster butterfly in…

“Power play in the gaze”: The role of position in establishing power structure in Beyoncé’s “Formation”

As she coasts past in the scene from 1:00 to 1:06, Beyoncé retains eye contact with the camera; her cool, deliberate gaze reeks of confidence and poise. This attitude seems at first to echo the shift in tempo of the song, the blank absence of the repetitive, almost claxon-like beat that has dominated the listener’s…

A Contrast & Reminder

“What happened at the New Orleans?” This question begins Beyonce’s “Formation” music video. The video then flashes to a scene with Beyonce standing atop a New Orleans Police car in the middle of a flooded town. There is a stark contrast between the drowning city and Beyonce who is dry and dressed presentably. This is…

Wearing the Mask

In Beyoncé’s Formation video, Houston Baker’s concepts of “mastery of form” and “deformation of mastery” are greatly depicted. There is a scene from 3:18 to 3:23 in which Black men and women are wearing masquerade masks. The masks made me think of blending or fitting in to the surroundings, which aligns with Baker’s explanation of…

Portraits of Reclamation

Beyoncé’s “Formation” abounds in mastery of form and deformation of form, but one of the video’s most powerful phaneric masks is developed in the short span between 0:38 and 0:41. This brief clip begins as Beyoncé and four fellow black women occupy the hall of a plantation-style home. As a plantation style home, this space…

Juxtaposition of Imagery to Portray “Unabashed Badness.”

In Beyonce’s Formation, there is a stark juxtaposition between the flooded cityscape (in which Beyonce is position on a police car poking above the water level) and the empty swimming pool in which she dances along with her backup dancers. This creates a feeling of trickery, as the water is all-too present in a location…

“In the Making”: Proclaiming Black Strength in the Midst of Tragedy

Houston Baker distinguishes between the “mastery of form” and the “deformation of mastery” in black matter (literature, poetry, art, etc.) by applying the biological concept of allaesthetic characteristics to modern black expression. Baker connects the mastery of form with “cryptic” allaesthetic masks, positing that mastering any tradition involves learning a series of codes to conceal…