Kay:

Hey there, Questers! Welcome back! Today is August 5th, and this is Episode 153. We have a Beyoncé quote for you today, and this one’s right out of one of her songs. So, I’m not gonna sing it for you, but just roll with us, okay?… “I done got this body ready just for you, Girl, I hope he don’t catch me messin’ ’round with you, Talkin’ to myself in the mirror like, “Bi***, you my boo.”

Shi:

Oh my gosh, this is such a fun lyric! And, the evolution of it is just delightful. You know, you got the first sentence here, “I done got this body ready just for you.” And, you’re like, “All right, it’s like a normal physical attractiveness type lyric.” And then, the next line, “Girl, I hope he don’t catch me messin’ ’round with you.” And so, you’re like, “Hey, we got some sexual orientation situation happening here, and possibly a cheating situation…” And then, you get the final line, “Talkin’ to myself in the mirror like, ‘Bi—, you my boo’.” And, you realize, “Holy smokes! This is a body positivity, self empowerment, self love message!”…And, we LOVE it!

Kay:

Well, from the queen herself, I feel like we can all feel Beyoncé’s confidence just radiating off of her. If you’ve ever seen Beyoncé on a stage, or maybe you watched her at the Super Bowl, you can attest that her fierceness is something you could cut with a knife. She is just such an incredible woman, and she’s broken so many bounds within the entertainment industry. And, she’s really shown a way, and done a lot of work for black women, and done so much work in the empowerment space for black women as well. And, we’re just so proud of Beyoncé. And, I think this quote really captures that essence of being a confidence queen, and that power in loving yourself SO much that you might even be sweet talking yourself in the mirror!

Shi:

I admire her confidence a lot! And, her ability to share this message into such a lyrically entertaining way is pretty amazing too. I am sure it feels vulnerable to talk about loving yourself. I mean, we all have the right to look at the mirror and like the way we look, but it feels like that’s the “wrong” thing to do sometimes, and like society is going to look down on you – as though it’s much more productive to look in the mirror and talk down to yourself, or point at yourself, or belittle yourself. And, certainly, that’s what most of us tend to do when we look in the mirror. So, for her to come out as this A-list celebrity with this God-like aura of confidence and certainty, and then to share that with us is incredible. Like, here’s what it looks like in practice to love yourself!…You look in the mirror and you say, “you by boo” – like, it’s you and me – it’s me, myself and I – and, I LIKE who I am, and I got this body ready just for me, because I like to treat myself like the royalty that I am!

Kay:

Now, once we understand that this quote is Beyoncé talking to herself, then this, “I done got this body ready just for you” line in the stanza, really gets to underline this space of thinking that it’s okay to dress up and look good for yourself, if you want to. I think there’s a lot of societal pressure around dressing up or looking good for somebody else. And so, if you get yourself ready just for you, then that’s something special, and that’s something extra. I’ve seen a lot of ladies doing posts recently, (especially on TikTok – which I’m a little addicted to, right now), there’s been a lot of women doing posts recently where they will say something like, “Look, you know, I’m out in the club, and, boys be like, ‘Oh, your makeup! You did it so nice just for me!’ And, I’m like, ‘No, I feel good when I do this makeup.’” Like, I feel better if I know that my eyebrows are finished, and I feel better if I know that I have eyelashes on, and that’s OKAY! So, whether it’s looking in the mirror and down talking to yourself, or adding on those societal pressures of, “I can’t look pretty,” OR, “I have to look pretty,” or whatever it is – it’s really about getting that body ready just for you!

Shi:

That also reminds me, you know, in this intentional lyric, she never says “this outfit”, or “this makeup”…she says, “this BODY” ready just for you. And, if you’re getting it ready for yourself, that means a healthy body. It doesn’t mean the way it’s dressed…It means that the habits you display on a daily basis are reflected in the mirror back to you. And so, this means healthy in terms of exercise, in terms of nutrition, in terms of sleep, in terms of water intake, and in terms of those basic, basic things. That’s how we look at ourselves and have self respect and love, because we’ve been taking care of ourselves so that we can get to that point where we look in the mirror and say, “I done got this body ready just for you, Girl, I hope he don’t catch me messin’ ’round with you, Talkin’ to myself in the mirror like, “Bi***, you my boo!”

Kay:

All right, gang! So, in honor of the queen herself, we have a queen quest for you today. And, even if you are a King listening to this, this is a non-gender-binary, queen-royalty-quest! So, we want you to get yourself ready as if you were royalty. That means you might dress up, or you might dress down, but, however YOU feel your most royal self today – get out there and get dressed! Are you ready?

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!