Jessica Valenti called<\/a> Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s recent self-titled release \u201cthe album that is going to launch a thousand women\u2019s studies papers.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many papers have been written so far, but I do know that the timing couldn\u2019t have been better for my teaching theory in gender and women\u2019s studies this spring.\u00a0 There\u2019s even an essay question about it on our exam today.<\/p>\n We began by talking about the marketing and the message:\u00a0 Seizing control of the means of production (Marxist feminism) and embedding unmistakable feminist messages like the sample of Chimamanda Adichie\u2019s TED talk<\/a> on feminism.\u00a0 And simply telling girls that they are, indeed, flawless when they wake up:<\/p>\n