The Beyoncé Pregnancy Backlash Is Unwarranted 

First of all, let me be clear. I’m in no way one of those fanatic nonsensical Beyoncé fans who would sell their first-born child just to meet her.

I love her music, I think she’s a class act and categorize her as one of the most talented artists of our time—but I’m grounded in reality. With that said, news of her pregnancy with twins on Wednesday incited a lot of joyous emotions for me. In addition to being a great way to kick off Black History Month, I’m also aware of Beyoncé’s initial struggles to have children and how great of a mother she already is to Blue Ivy, her 5-year-old daughter.

For Black Twitter—who has spent the past two solid months grappling with the decisions of a brash tyrannical president—it was great news. We celebrated by sharing the photos Beyoncé released, making up baby names, stalking down her brassiere and even predicting where she’ll perform this spring while pregnant. We were excited, and quite frankly, deserved a moment of joy in these dark times.

But as sure as grass is green, not 48 hours since the announcement was made, here come white women and their fragile (fears, oops, I mean) tears.

Refinery 29 was the first to call King Bey out in a piece titled, Beyoncé’s Pregnancy Announcement Was Wildly Tacky — & I’m Okay With That.

“Beyoncé wears a burgundy Agent Provocateur brassiere, a pair of silky blue briefs, and what looks like the mosquito net I draped over my childhood bed,” says author Rebecca Farley. “More than a few Twitter users made the comparison to a JC Penney ad. (This is not a shot at JCPenney, which is a rad retailer.) The Instagram is over-the-top — there are too many colors, the flowers look fake, the panties don’t match the brassiere — and that is absolutely titillating.”

Oh, really? Ok, well, it’s totally understandable for some to be more private than others about life changes. “Tacky” is a strong word, but we can let that slide.

But this afternoon Leandra Medine, a privileged fashion blogger who’s regularly flown around the world for fashion shows, wrote a piece titled, The Problem With Social Media Announcements: You Never Know Who You’re Hurting.

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“I checked Instagram (which is always when bad stuff happens) to learn that a very pregnant Beyoncé was posing among various floral arrangements on a backdrop that resembled a blue sky,” she says about initially seeing the news. “Amelia called it the news (and photo spread) that could save us all in 2017. That is probably true for a lot of people but for me, it was a curiously annoying reminder that I’m not pregnant… But her photos perfectly underline the problem with social media announcements: you never know who you’re hurting.”

Medine goes on to say that it’s her own self-inflicted pain that causes her to feel this way, and it’s not Beyoncé s fault for sharing her joy, but nonetheless she feels some type of way.

And here, ladies and gentlemen is where we pause for the cause.

As Black Twitter has already pointed out, there have been MANY occasions when white celebrities announce their engagements and pregnancies to much ado. For Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge by marriage, journalists camped outside for three weeks to get the first shot of him.

So is it that Beyoncé is doing too much with all the photos? Is it because Beyoncé has surpassed Selena Gomez for the most liked in Instagram photo? Or is it that a Black woman, who’s praised for being unapologetically proud of her blackness, is getting glorified by her community? 

Because the excuse of ‘I’m sad about someone else’s joy’ or ‘these photos are just tacky,’ can’t be worth tapping the keys on your MacBook for. 

The saddest part about this sentiment is that in a time where our basic rights are in jeopardy, we’re being discouraged to lift each other up. It’s called internalizing. If you’re not secure enough to be happy for other’s when you’re not happy, go ahead and project your upset somewhere else.