Chloe Bailey: Being sexy is just being confident
It is difficult to see an amazing musical duo go their separate ways. It is equally hard to watch young artists grow up. This is how I feel about Chloe x Halle. Halle is starring in the live action Little Mermaid movie coming out next year and Chloe will co-star in the thriller Jane. Chloe has also launched a solo music career along with a more sexually expressive image. As usual, there have been equal amounts of praise and backlash for Chloe. Folks have a hard time when a woman has a firm grasp on their sexuality. In a conversation with Elaine Welteroth for Yahoo’s! In the Know’s January cover, Chloe stated that Beyonce has helped her celebrate her body and sexuality. Chloe also said that being sexy is connected to being confident. Here are a few highlights:
“I can honestly and genuinely say it was Beyoncé who made me look at my body and say maybe it is okay to have my body. Maybe it is okay to have a plump butt. Maybe it is okay to have to shake and jump to fit in my jeans,” Chloe shared with In The Know. “During the ‘Bootylicious’ era, I would go and see her flaunting her curves and be like, ‘She looks damn good!’”
In her cover interview for In The Know’s January 2022 digital cover, Chloe opens up about her insecurities as she steps into the spotlight solo while learning to celebrate both her body and sexuality — no matter what anyone has to say about it.
Elaine: Whether you intend to or not, you’re challenging why it makes us uncomfortable for a woman to be overtly sexual. So, I wanna ask you, what is it like to embody that mirror in a sexually repressed society?
Chlöe: Well, one, that’s incredible that you think that’s what I’m doing, but there are so many incredible women I have looked up to that have done that long before me. Donna Summer, Kelis, Beyoncè, Nina Simone. There has never been a point in time that a society has ever been comfortable with the woman being powerful in the skin that she’s in. So I just have to give kudos to every woman who’s inspired me, every one of my peers right now who’s saying, “I love my body. I feel sexy.”
When I hear the word “sexy,” when I want to be sexy, when I want to feel sexy, I don’t really think of that as a bad thing. I don’t think of it as being promiscuous. That’s just being confident. A man can sit up there with his shirt off, ripped, and, like, flex his pecs and all that shit. That’s sexy. But he doesn’t get ridiculed for doing that. It’s when a woman pokes her ass out, when she poses a certain way so her hip curves more, or when she puckers her lips and has her boobs perched up in her bra, that’s when it’s a problem. You know?
Elaine: Do you feel like you are under a different level of scrutiny because of your curvy build as a young Black woman?
Chlöe: Well, it’s not just me. It’s any Black, beautiful woman. Any woman, period. It’s something all of us go through in our life in any field. It’s just more multiplied because of the platform that I’m given on social media. No matter what women do, no matter how talented we are, no matter how screwed on our head is, someone will always have a problem because we choose to celebrate our body and the skin that we’re in. No matter if you have a slim figure or if you have a more curvy figure, you shouldn’t dim your light, period. We shouldn’t form ourselves and do certain things just because of what we think the world will say. It’s not fair to ourselves to do that because it’s more work thinking that way. It’s easier to just be yourself and have fun and be free. It’s more stifling and more suffocating when you’re calculating what you can and can’t do just because other people can’t.
It has been such an honor to watch Chloe and Halle grow into the formidable women that they have become. I have also enjoyed watching Chloe really embrace her body and sexuality. Chloe is going through the natural progression of maturation. She is 23, which is around the age that most of us begin to experiment with our image and sexual expression. I agree that being sexy is connected to being confident. It is difficult to be sexy without confidence. As for the people who were shaming Chloe for embracing her body openly and pushed her to tears during an Instagram live last year, they can kick rocks. They were the main people talking about how fine she was.
The more women fully embrace their power, the less control the patriarchy and by extension society will have over them. I also agree with Chloe that the backlash is attached to her being a Black woman. America loves to attack women who demonstrate body autonomy. They seem to have it out for Black women who openly embrace their sexuality (hello Janet Jackson, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and Lizzo). I am happy that Chloe is not dimming her light for anyone and I am looking forward to her solo album. Have Mercy is on heavy rotation on my Spotify and if it is a preview of the album, then Chloe’s solo album is gonna be lit!
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