Beyonce's Late-Phase Capitalist Decadence in "Upgrade U"
Beyoncé’s ‘Upgrade U’ is a masterpiece of paradox and late-phase capitalist decadence. It juxtaposes and merges the tension between the masculine and feminine, the Dionysian and Apollonian.
Beyoncé embodies the sensual and enticing woman, flaunting not only her body and beauty but also her success as a career woman. She promises to “upgrade” her man…oscillating between maternal “sugar mama” and emasculating dominatrix. She represents Apollonian wealth, power, and order, as well as playing the curvaceous Dionysian temptress, thus blurring the boundaries of nature and gender.
In one scene, she dances in the middle of a group of men dressed in business suits. Her movements are angular and structured. She is the leader of the pack, the CEO of the production. She is one among the men, as her success and power as a career woman has surpassed theirs. And yet she maintains her feminine charm. The dancers try to keep up with her while being enamored by her. They can’t take their gaze off of her. She emasculates them, and still captivates them with her sex appeal.
During her husband’s verse, she sits in a chair dressed as a man and emulating Jay-Z’s mannerisms. She demonstrates that she can take her husband’s place with ease and as she pleases. She can play the man…but then gives up the throne voluntarily to let him finish his verse, while she dances around him in an oversized shirt, panties, and heels, transforming back into her role as irresistible Dionysian temptress. Either way, she’s the one who holds the cards, thus inverting Betty Wright’s naive proclamation (in the song which “Upgrade U” samples) that “the girls can’t do what the guys do.”
In other scenes she evokes the chthonian “swamp” of the unpredictability and disorderliness of Dionysian nature, swimming in a dark pool of water with a baby alligator crawling around the edge, as she caresses her luscious hair and body. She then is seen in a white suit with oversized sunglasses writhing around in a white Bentley, flaunting her beauty and wealth once again.
Elsewhere, the camera closes up on her red painted lips, which in one moment are biting into a massive diamond, a ring, a set of keys, and in another, biting a golden nameplate spelling “UPGRADE.” This Freudian oral fixation alludes to the Great Mother, whose control all men are desperately, though futilely, trying to escape.
Beyoncé implies that our age is one of decadence, where the elite can facilely weave their way in and out of the confines of nature. She swims in a pile of golden jewelry, deciding whether she wants to oscillate back to the Apollonian archetype or remain Dyonisian. Will I flaunt my feminine curves or show off my success as a career woman? Why not do both, going back and forth as she pleases, as only those who can afford to can.