Beyonce "Pretty Hurts"

Beyonce Knowles is one of the biggest stars in the world. She has created her own style of music that involves funky beats and meaningful lessons. Our world has created an idea where women have to be thin and beautiful. The singer has become a huge role model to girls and women everywhere. One of her powerful music videos “Pretty Hurts”, is a controversial video that shows the cons of participating in beauty pageants. The video has a darker edge that shows women maintaining our society’s impossible standard of beauty. It touches on many issues such as eating disorders, body image problems, and self love problems.   

In the beginning of the video Beyonce starts to sing “Mama said you’re a pretty girl. What’s in you’re head does not matter. Brush you’re hair and fix you’re teeth. What you wear is all that matters.” These words imply that only your looks matter, and you don’t have to be intelligent to become successful. After the first verse, the screen shows other bachelorettes preparing themselves for the show. It is a powerful image because they are representing people who are actually like that. Some of the women are incredibly thin, or have had obvious plastic surgery. The camera soon switches back to Beyonce, and she is seen smiling happily because she was the correct weight to enter the pageant. Throughout the video Beyonce is in a very vulnerable state of mind. She is representing women who are struggling to keep up with our society’s idea of beauty. Halfway through during the chorus Queen B is starting to let her inner thoughts get the better of her and she is seen taking diet pills, and purging. It is incredibly sad to see that because so many women and girls go through that. 

The chorus of “Pretty Hurts” speaks the truth about some women’s minds. Queen B belts out, “Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever’s worst. Perfection is a disease of a nation. We try to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see. It’s the soul that needs the surgery.” The deeper meaning is that women focus on flaws about themselves and soon become absorbed into perfecting their own image. They don’t actually need surgery; they just have to realize that they are beautiful just the way they are. 

Later on in the video Beyonce is sitting in a doctor’s chair with surgery markings on her face, and also a nurse is injecting some substance into her face. ”Ain't got no doctor or pill that can take the pain away. The pain's inside and nobody frees you from your body It's the soul, it's my soul that needs surgery. Plastic smiles and denial can only take you so far. And you break when the fake facades leave you in the dark. You're left with shattered mirrors and the shards of a beautiful girl.”  She is finally realizing that what she was putting her body and mind through was wrong. Beyonce begins to smash all of her beauty pageant trophies. She is setting herself free and is beginning to truly love herself.