Jonathan Motes
9/9/15
Pretty Hurts Review
Pretty Hurts is a music video for the
song of the same name performed by Beyoncé and produced by Columbia Records.
The video depicts the issue of the high standard of beauty placed on women
through the use of a behind-the-scenes look at a beauty pageant
competition. The music video’s greatest
strength lies in its ability to convey its important message via a tightly
woven combination of well-written lyrics and disturbingly powerful imagery, and
to that end, Pretty Hurts is a great
success.
The
music video opens up strong, showing the backstage preparations for a
high-class beauty pageant. It’s here that we get the first glimpse of the
overarching tone for the video; for what is supposed to be an event celebrating
beauty, there is a surprising and unsettling amount of ugliness that goes on
underneath the surface. The competing ladies uncomfortably prepare themselves
in an unpleasant changing room, a clearly hostile environment if the fights
between some ladies are anything to go by. The scene sets the tone remarkably
well and makes it clear what its underlying meaning is; that our standard of
beauty has risen to only accept utter perfection, a standard that, while
ultimately unattainable, is still highly sought after to the point of
self-destruction.
This theme is
further exemplified through the opening lyrics: “Pretty hurts. We shine the
light on whatever’s worst. Perfection is a disease of a nation… It’s the soul
that needs a surgery.” These lyrics perfectly encapsulate the issue of beauty
standards in this day and age; how we “shine the light” on our imperfections
and attempt to rid ourselves of them, often to extreme measures. The song
describes such a search for perfection as “a disease of a nation,” capturing
the toxic essence and widespread nature of this issue. This is exactly what the
video goes on to show, as it portrays the main star, Miss 3rd Ward,
undergoing the rigorous training to prepare for her pageant competition. The
training, as it turns out, is quite relentless. Miss 3rd Ward goes
in with a bright smile on her face, but as her instructor continues to point
out her flaws and imperfections, her smile begins to fade, and she starts a
challenging weight loss program and undergoes surgery to eliminate more and
more of her imperfections. The entire process is rather unsettling to watch,
and it really drives home the idea that the search for perfection is a “disease
of a nation,” how being “pretty” can actually be quite a grueling experience. This
all reaches its peak towards the end of the video, when the “disease” becomes
all to real as Miss 3rd Ward begins to vomit and destroy her
collection of trophies, essentially destroying her recognition and “reward” for
having undergone such pain all for the pursuit of beautiful perfection.
Pretty Hurts knows exactly what kind of
message it wants to send, and more importantly, it knows how to send it, using
poignant lyrics and potent imagery to reveal the ugly truth behind the beauty
of perfection. In this day and age, this is a valuable idea to get across, and
to do it so well is an accomplishment in and of itself.
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