‘Glamour’ Took Beyoncé’s “Becky With the Good Hair” Line a Little Too Literally

Culture

The themes and underlying messages in Beyoncé's visual album, Lemonade, will continue to be parsed through by pop culture critics, and some will also press the verse: "He better call Becky with the good hair." Whoever this beleaguered Becky is will be up for a rude awakening if and when the BeyHive latches onto her true identity (though it probably isn't celebrity chef Rachael Ray, for goodness sake), but we shouldn't take the verse too literally, either. 

That's the fatal mistake fashion magazine Glamour made, when the publication's U.K. site decided to publish an article about, well, their two employees who are named Becky. Apparently, they have good hair. 

Glamour

Bluntly, Glamour blatantly missed the point of Beyoncé's verse and even the connotation of "good hair," which, as Urban Dictionary describes, is a loaded term directed toward African-American women, and the name has had negative connotations dating back to 1847. Thus, it's probably not all that relatable to two white staffers, and their straightened hair. 

While Glamour promptly deleted the story and apologized in a tweet, the internet certainly doesn't forget. Not only is the article in its entirely still available here, but the Twitterverse was less than forgiving for the magazine completely missing the mark. 

That said, given Glamour's propensity for ignorant, offensive articles — like "13 Little Things That Can Make a Man Fall Hard For You," including throwing out sports statistics and cooking mac-and-cheese with sausage bits — perhaps this shouldn't come as a huge surprise.