The song starts out with the three, lone chord progressions that are repeated until Beyoncé starts singing. Though, before she starts singing, you see the backstage and final preparations of beauty queens before they head out onto the stage. As Beyoncé is a contestant, the viewer is able to follow her struggles getting to the stage, from physical fights in the changing room to emotional turmoil of her struggling with not even knowing what she wants in the future.
And yet, with all the hard work that the viewer has seen Beyoncé go though, she is not crowned as the pageant winner. It is here, that the words "pretty hurts" hits home, as Beyoncé is clearly not okay with winning. At the end of the video, after tearing down and breaking all of her past trophies, the viewer sees and old clip of child- Beyoncé winning her first pageant, where she thanks the judges, parents, and Houston.
The video brings several topics of concern, one being social commentary as what people, mostly girls, would go through, in order to be pretty. Throughout the whole video, from the lyrics to the lighting, it is obvious as to what is going on.
Many people are subjected to endless societal expectations of beauty, which in turn can lead to very dire consequences, such as eating disorders and low self-esteem. The video becomes a social commentary through showing these actions of Beyoncé's character, though not only applicable to beauty pageants.
For one, society has come to develop a standard of what beauty is, and if you do not meet those standards, you are considered not pretty. In this case, the pageants represent the media's way of depicting what beauty is, by being pretty and talented.
Pageants have been a part of the American culture for a long time now, pulling the many beautiful and talented women into a contest to determine who is the most beautiful and talented women there is in that specific area. Even though the event is a long-standing tradition, it doesn't mean that the tradition is a good one. Throughout the video, Beyoncé is constantly trying to fit the perfect mold of what "beauty" is, constantly working out, taking pills, and throwing up to maintain a certain body shape.
The lyrics throughout the song echo a different commentary that is very detrimental to not only the body, but also the mind: perfection. The chorus hits hard with "pretty hurts, we shine 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", commenting on the most painful thing in becoming "pretty", is thinking that you are not pretty and changing yourself to fit society's "pretty".
Beyoncé does a wonderful job in exemplifying problems of young girls and women of today with the "Pretty Hurts" music video, pulling on heartstrings with the cold reality of trying to be something people expect you to be, even if it does look perfect. If Beyoncé thinks I'm perfect the way I am, I should also believe in myself to be perfect. That no matter what society says, I am pretty, but without the hurt.
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