Beyoncé – Pretty Hurts

Textual Analysis

Language

• “Pretty Hurts" is a self-empowerment pop song discussing society beauty standards and analyzing female body image. Beyoncé decided to record it to show the negative effect of beauty pageants and expectations on how women should look. The theme of "Pretty Hurts" is related to third-wave feminism; it is intended as a self-empowerment anthem for women as Beyoncé sings negatively of beauty stereotypes and expectations on how women should look which are often "impossible" and created mostly by the society.

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• The song opens with an audio snippet of a beauty pageant judge asking Beyoncé, "Miss 3rd Ward... What is your aspiration in life?" to which she replies "My aspiration in life would be... to be happy." The seven-minute long video depicts Beyoncé playing a beauty queen who represents Third Ward, the area of Houston in which she grew up It opens with a sound of a poignant piano and shots of Beyoncé with short hair looking at herself in the mirror with her face covered in make-up. It then transitions to high angle shots of female contestants preparing for a beauty pageant backstage, combing their hair, fitting their dresses and analyzing their bodies. Which connotes to them being superior to Beyoncé.

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• A host announces Beyoncé as "Miss 3rd Ward" and she appears on stage, smiling and singing the first verse of the song a capella. This shot is a lot longer in comparison, this could have been used to emphasise her realisation of how beauty pageants are wrong. An applause follows from the crowd as the judges take notes about her. The music starts and Beyoncé is seen during the preparations for the show. The scene transitions to a judge, played by the fashion model Shaun Ross, working with the models during which Beyoncé is seen taking diet pills He measures her abdomen with a tape and hits her thighs showing her how she should behave when she appears on the stage. The second verse follows during which she is seen exercising at home and measuring her weight appearing unsatisfied.

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• We then see the host call Beyoncé on the stage and praises her for her performance at the competition asking the crowd to applaud to the "beautiful and poised" ladies in the competition. He then asks, "Miss 3rd Ward, your first question. What is your aspiration in life?" the line which is also heard during the beginning on the album version. She replies, "Oh, my aspiration in life? That's a great question. I wasn't expecting that question" as her voice repeating the question is echoed and the scene then cuts to her drowning in water, symbolising the pressure of looking a certain way and looking unhappy with the beauty pageant culture. After that, she answers, "My aspiration in life would be to be happy". The chorus starts again and Beyoncé is seen destroying all the trophies she had previously won, further emphasizing their meaningless.

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• During the bridge of the song, the pageant contestant is seen at a hospital with a plastic surgeon injecting botox in the previously drawn lines on her face. During that scene Beyoncé is wearing a white straight jacket to represent that she is trapped by society's beauty standards. At the end of the video, Beyoncé loses the competition to an albino woman after which she happily congratulates her. The last scene shows her looking happy and smiling with little make-up on her face. The last thirty seconds of the video transition to a footage of Beyoncé as a child winning an award for Female Pop Vocalist on a television show.

Ideology

• The man ideology that is presented in the music video is self-empowerment and self-worth. The video emphasizes society’s beauty standards and over analyzing the female body.

• In the video we see the lengths these woman go to to conform to what society sees as ‘perfect’, e.g taking diet pulls, pulling at their skin, making themselves sick, cosmetic surgery, spray tans, choosing outfits, doing hair and make up.

• The music video is very real and relates to the target audience directly. The lyrics also work with the mise-en-scene and contribute to the representation.

• For example, the lyrics ‘perfection is a disease of a nation’, ‘ain’t no doctor or pill that can take the pain away’. All these lyrics represent a powerful message about how society’s pressure to look ‘perfect’ can make people feel.

Institution

• Beyonce is signed to Columbia Records a conglomerate of Sony Music. Beyonce’s latest self titled was released at midnight on December 12th 2014. Despite not marketing the album or mentioning it, it went straight to number 1 in many different countries and even caused twitter to break.

• “Pretty Hurts” is from a her fifth (latest) studio album. The song is about self-empowerment and discusses beauty stands and analyzing female body image. Beyonce decided to record it to show the negative effect of beauty pageants and expectations that women have to be ‘perfect’.

• Upon it’s release it received positive reviews from music critics who commended the lyrics and Beyonce’s vocal performance.

Audience

• Due to the message of self-empowerment and self-worth this song will appeal to mass audience. However, I believe it was appeal in particularly to her young female teenage fans. This is due to the fact that they are surrounded by these images of how they are supposed to look and might more passive and consume them, rather than the reject them as this song suggests.

• This song may also appeal to a male audience as it captures women in revealing outfits (Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze).

• Beyonce is trying to give the impression that society (and her audience) should stop objectifying each other so much and that beauty shouldn’t be a competition.

• Beyonce also led a campaign on social media called ‘#WhatIsPretty’, which she asked fans to post pictures of what they thought was beautiful using the hashtag. The pictures would then be on whatispretty.com for 4 weeks.

Representation

• In the music video Beyoncé is playing beauty pageant character persona. However, I believe that she her based the character on herself and perhaps her own insecurities.

• She is a representative as a woman who is struggling with her body image and the pressure from society. Due to the fact we see her struggle, it makes the audience believe that even pop stars such as Beyoncé also feel the pressure from society.

• The other characters in the video also represented in the same way giving the video verisimilitude.