viz.

H/T Beverly Mireles

The Beyonce video above was launched this month as a part of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move Campaign" on behalf of the National Association of Broadcasters. The video mobilizes inter-cultural rhetorics in support of public health, most obviously with the shift mid-video from hip hop to Latino-inflected dance moves and music. The 'flash workout' indicates the need for solidarity among minority populations most affected by the state of food and exercise culture in America. Healthy bodies and race relations, the video communicates, are the same cause. The flag waving at the end of the video underlines a populist appeal.

Of course, it's not so simple as Michelle Obama , Beyonce, or the NAB would have it. The class signals in the main video, such as the cafeteria workers joining the flash dance, seem wishful thinking. The young women in the "Behind the Scenes" video talk about their unhealthy diets with self-reflection, but it doesn't seem the problem gets solved with Beyonce flippantly (petulantly?) taking a bite from an apple in the main vid.

For the most part Beyonce's fully energized and empowered movement authenticates what would otherwise a paradoxical performance as school girl. The school girl costuming becomes a way for Beyonce to occupy and enable--rather than exploit--the nubile teen sexuality of the young people participating. And although for a lot of the video it's hard to see past Beyonce to the young bodies moving behind and beside her, there are some grainy shots of the young subjects taking their own videos with flip cameras. These few shots keep the flash mob from merely becoming Beyonce's glorified back up dancers. All in all, it's not perfect, but I think it's definitely salvageable and interesting cultural work.