"Pretty Hurts"

“Pretty Hurts” by Beyonce helps establish depth to a narrative and represents a woman who is struggling with her body image and pressured to be the American Ideal. 105 million views later, this music video on her newest album Beyonce, addresses how destroyed our society really is. 

The underling message of this video is that beauty can’t only come from the outside. This music video depicts what it takes to be “beautiful” in our society today.   In reference to the video, “beautiful” means tan, miserable, and skinny at any cost. In one scene it flashes to a girl eating cotton balls as food to fill her up. Throughout the video Beyonce is constantly looking at her waist line and how to get thinner. Bulimia, substance abuse, and self hatred are portrayed all as a norm in the life as a beauty queen. I found it ideal that this video was filmed at a pageant because beauty pageants are the epitome of “beauty” in society today. On the stage, all the constants look happy and healthy but the music video gives an insight on what it is like behind the scenes and what it takes to look like that. Is it worth it? Well, when Beyonce is asked what her greatest aspirations were she hesitantly answered, “to be happy.” As shown in the video previously we see that she is far from happy. Everything that she put herself through was not worth getting second place…or even first place.  Maybe this was a coincidence because by her getting second place instead of first this is trying to portray that it takes a lot more than a pretty face and a good body to win. It’s what is inside that matters most like her personality, compassion, and thoughtfulness.

I thought it was ironic but not surprising that the pageant host was a male figure. This expressed male dominance in the video because it was a male figure that was measuring Beyonce’s waist earlier in the video. Another thing that I found interesting about this video is that it had very dark undertones which set the mood to be depressing and sad. In every scene but the actual pageant awards it was very dark and musty which sets the tone throughout the video to show that she was not happy living her life as a beauty queen. She emphasizes the struggles in being a person, especially a girl, in society today. 

Beyond the music video, and pageant world, we as a culture and faced with issues of bulimia, substance abuse, and insecurities on the daily. I think this video had a powerful message to convey and I hope it has helped people realize that it matters more what is in the inside not on the outside and that you do not need a size four waist and plastic surgery to make you beautiful. I think Beyonce and Columbia Records did a very good job in getting their point across in the video. It is one of those videos that you could watch the music muted and still understand the point by just watching the video.