At the same time as they talk about the brutalizing effects of Beyoncé's nudity, both O'Reilly and hooks capitalize upon it. O'Reilly's segment on Beyoncé (featuring a politely exasperated Russell Simmons, who had hoped to talk about his book) includes numerous sultry images from the video, undoubtedly because some Fox New producer figured that showing semi-nude images of Beyoncé would appeal to viewers, whether because of prurience or moralism or both.

For her part, bell hooks was first skeptical that Beyoncé had control of the image on the Time cover, and then (when Janet Mock assured her that no one is putting out Beyoncé covers without Beyoncé's approval) suggested that Beyoncé "is colluding in the construction of herself as a slave.” I think hooks has good points about the cover overall; Beyoncé is presented as child-like and vulnerable in a way that fits with images of black women as disempowered, available for men, and abused. "It's not a liberatory image," as hooks says. But libertory or not, it's Beyoncé's image hooks herself is using, just as it's Beyoncé's image O'Reilly deploys to generate moralistic panic. Hooks was speaking in an academic setting, and the Time cover was not shown, but still, Beyoncé's sexualized body functions in her argument as prop, one that effectively amplified hooks’s words and ideas.

When you talk about Beyoncé, people listen—which is why hooks's comments about the singer have gone viral, while the rest of the discussion (which included author and activist Janet Mock, filmmaker Shola Lynch, and author Marci Blackman) has largely been ignored. O'Reilly, hooks, and certainly me, exist in a media environment where people will click on anything having to do with Beyoncé, especially if it is something having to do with Beyoncé and sex. If you can add violence in ("devastation" "terrorist"), you've got the trifecta of profitable attention.

I don't mean to question the sincerity of O'Reilly's concern about media sexualization, nor to suggest that hooks wanted her comments to go viral. But intentionally or not, they both end up using Beyoncé's body to broadcast their message of a more conservative or radical world. Moralizing against sex is sold, like everything else, via sex. At the same time, of course, outrage and rebellion is a big part of what celebrities have to sell, as Thomas Frank has noted. If the ever-savvy Beyoncé ends up as a part of O'Reilly and hooks's marketing strategy, then their various forms of anger and condemnation are definitely part of hers as well.

O'Reilly and hooks share one more point of critical agreement: They both seem unable, or unwilling, to consider Beyoncé as an artist. O'Reilly expresses outright skepticism that her video should be seen as art. Hooks speculates that Beyoncé's appeal is not just her beauty, but her money—completely leaving out the possibility that people might be interested in this musician because of her music.