Artist: Beyoncé

Song: If I Were A Boy

Narrative:

This music video has a story. The lyrics of the song tells the female perspective of what she would do and how she would act if she were to be a man not a woman. The video conveys Beyoncé acting like a typical man in a masculine job (policeman) going about his usual day. Therefore Beyoncé is literally acting like she would if she were a boy. The story shows her devout, loyal boyfriend working at his fashion company (feminine job) being work committed. However, Beyoncé is not the same. Instead, she flirts with her co-workers and, using lyrics from the song: "I would turn off my phone, tell everyone it's broken so they think that I was sleeping alone." Translating this to a females point of view, Beyoncé is going to act single so nobody suspects she is in a relationship. Switching perspectives, it shows her boyfriend excessively ringing her obviously concerned about her whereabouts and reasoning for not answering, never suspecting her to be disloyal. When the boyfriend is out with Beyoncé and her work colleagues, he sees her dancing with her work partner who she is over friendly with, grinding on him, humiliating her boyfriend who is forced to watch. Beyoncé notices he's watching and starts to pay him attention, wanting to have her cake and eat it. However, once they're home, the two roles immediately switch. Instead of Beyoncé saying "it's not like I'm sleeping with the guy" it's the boyfriend saying "it's not like I'm sleeping with the girl."

 

Visuals:

The editing is in black and white to void the visual of any colour, causing the music video to appear dramatic and depressing with saturated colours. The mise-en-scene consists of a NY setting, stereotypical jobs and standards; feminine jobs for women and masculine jobs for men. However, at the beginning, it appears the man is taking the role of the woman and vice versa, smashing any gender stereotypes. The ending, however, shows the role switching back to the norm.

The editing has been used as a plot twist. When the roles switch once Beyoncé is confronted about her flirtatiousness, it causes all the audience whom are men to realise that harmless flirting is actually cheating and disrespectful. This is successful as throughout the video, the audience is supposed to be shocked at her behaviour and she is portrayed as the villain; she has a loyal, committed significant other who only has eyes for her, why would she throw that away? This is a common question asked to men who flirt with other women when they have the most perfect girlfriend. This causes any men watching to think about their reaction if their girlfriend behaved like Beyoncé did. The lyrics are very direct to how most men behave and their disrespectfulness. However, converting written lyrics into a visual conveys her message and forces the audience to engage with the text and wait for the ending as most morally decent people would want the boyfriend to break up with her. But by switching the roles at the very end, causing the man to be the villain, highlights how it isn't considered bad by society if the flirting came from the man not woman. Syncing this power balance in time with the lyrics "but you're just a boy, you don't understand" emphasises men's obliviousness to the severity of their actions; you would only understand if you were the victim.