Non-Target Audience Frustration

Recently we've spent a bit of time talking about Beyonce and impact of the Formation video as well as her Super Bowl halftime show performance. Not to be left behind, SNL created a horror movie-esque trailer for a movie "The Day Beyonce Turned Black," lampooning and hyperbolizing the reactions that quite a few white people have had to Formation.

This raises lot of interesting questions for me in regards to target audience. On a broad scale, we like the idea that the stories we tell are universal in some way - that no matter who consumes media they'll be able to relate. People 'lost their damn minds' at Formation because they found themselves unable to relate. "Hot sauce in my bag"? I have guesses, but no real idea. And that does come with some sense of frustration - why isn't Beyonce making music that I find accessible?

But it strikes me that maybe the media I consume is not as universal as I think it is, and I'm just now experiencing that exclusion lack of consideration from the other side. I guess that I just assume that I am universal.

I'm experiencing it again, a small bit in reading A Walk Through Victoria's Secret. Part of our discussion had been around lingerie and breasts, and as a gay man, I generally don't have much input, which is frustrating.

The best I can do during these situations is sit back and listen, which is going to be a challenge.