The next episode of David Letterman’s phenomenal interview series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, isn’t up on Netflix until Friday, but this short clip of Jay-Z talking about Blue Ivy might be all we need. (Okay, this clip of Jay-Z talking about his mother coming out to his pretty great too.)
For so many women, it can be hard to assert ourselves in the moment when someone talks to us in a way we don’t like, be it demeaning or dismissive or aggressive. This isn’t limited to women, of course, but in general, we spend our lives having it ingrained into us that we shouldn’t make waves, shouldn’t be a “bitch,” should give people the benefit of the doubt that maybe they “didn’t really mean it,” to put others’ feelings before our own.
That’s why I love this story about Blue Ivy. In the clip, Jay-Z is “painting a picture of how healthy [his] children are (at this present time).”
“Me and my daughter talk,” he says, “like I told her get in the car the other day because she was asking a thousand questions and we had to leave for school,” he told Letterman. “So we’re driving and I just hear a little voice, and I turned around. She said, ‘Dad, I didn’t like when you told me to get in the car, the way you told me’ — she’s six — ‘It hurt my feelings.’”
I’m sure growing up the child of Beyoncé and Jay-Z might give one a leg-up in the confidence department. But I’m happy when any girl, any woman, any person, recognizes it’s their right to stop a conversation and say “I didn’t like that. It hurt my feelings.”
(via Vulture, image: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARAS)
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