Why Beyonce’s feminism scares Huckabee

Editor’s Note: Carol Costello anchors the 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET edition of CNN’s “Newsroom” each weekday. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Story highlights

Carol Costello: Huckabee, others slamming Beyonce for her sexuality in performances

She says Catholic cardinal said feminists drove priests from altar, contributed to pedophilia

Costello: Scholar: Some view powerful black woman with Beyonce's values as threat to their worldview

CNN  — 

Ladies, stop flaunting your sexuality. You’re scaring people.

Carol Costello-Profile-Image

Beyonce, I’m talking to you! Daring to flash your lady parts in front of great big sign that reads “feminist?” What are you thinking? Queen Bey, don’t you realize your racy lyrics and dirty dancing are emasculating a whole generation of young men, promoting lesbianism (so implies Sandy Rios, FOX contributor), and celebrating “gangsta culture” that causes the collapse of black families.

Mike Huckabee – that is, wants-to be-President Mike Huckabee – spelled it out in his book, “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy.” He writes: “Beyonce is incredibly talented – gifted, in fact. She has an exceptional set of pipes and can actually sing. She is a terrific dancer – without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object?”

Yes, Bey, your hubby, Jay Z, is “pimping you out.”

Even some conservative women were taken aback at that one. “Shouldn’t he be focusing on bigger things? Like national security?” asked Crystal Wright, the editor of Blackchick.com. “Beyonce is a great mom,” she told me. “She got married before she had a baby. She’s a great businesswoman. Maybe he (Huckabee) needs to come to terms with the fact we live in the 21st century.”

I know! So, what is up with all this Beyonce bashing?

“Poor Beyonce, I know, she’s like, ‘I just put on my bodysuit!’ – what she did was amazing!” says Anushay Hossain, a global women’s rights expert and editor-in-chief of AnushaysPoint.com. She told me, in a fabulously spirited way, that some people bash Beyonce because she sends out the “scariest” message possible: “Feminism is cool.”

Yeah, Anushay, feminists might be cool, but you might not realize they can also project evil on unsuspecting victims. After all, don’t they play a role in the pedophilia of some priests? Or what a new movement terms the “Emangelization” of the Catholic Church.

Thank goodness the Washington Post’s Terrance McCoy exposed Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke’s “manifesto.” The good Cardinal told a website called the New Emangelization that he believes the “radical feminist movement” of the 1960s and ’70s drove the “manly priests” from the altar.

“There was a period of time when men who were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these disordered men sexually abused minors; a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.”

Wow! I can’t imagine why Pope Francis ever demoted Cardinal Burke to the spiritual adviser for The Knights of Malta.

“A number of men – and women – reject feminism because they fear that it will destroy the social order that they are comfortable with,” Frances Negron-Muntaner told me. She’s the director of the study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University. As for the fear of all things Beyonce, she added, “A powerful black woman with Beyonce’s values may be seen by some as a threat – to their racial and gender privileges, world view, and way of life.”

Ah, I totally get it now. I just didn’t know I, as a feminist, was so damned powerful.

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