W. Somerset Maugham once said, “the greatest tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.” Growing up, it is not uncommon to hear about women being mistreated by men, and in recent American culture, women have pushed for equality and independence in the job force and relationships. Being a pop icon, Beyoncé is known for creating music videos that fight for certain social causes. In one of her music videos, “If I were a Boy”, the director converts the original film to black and white to evoke the audience’s sympathy and anger, and to specifically target gender inequality and the treatment women receive from their male partners. 

Beyoncé’s entire music video is shown in black and white to help connect more with the audience and their emotions of pity and displeasure. By not including any coloring in the video, the director is able to manipulate the mood and help define the hypocrisy of men in relationships and gender inequality. Black and white coloring clearly defines opposing principals or issues and in this case, the black and white overcast defines the issue of the hypocrisy in relationships. The two opposing colors helps make a deeper connection to the idea of men and their double standards, by making the man almost be seen as a villain, and the women is ultimately the victim. In the beginning of the video, both male and female are wearing black and white. Beyoncé is wearing a white tank top, while the man is wearing a black one. Black and white not only mean opposing issues, but here black represents evil, authority, and power, while white represents innocence and purity. When the music begins, Beyoncé is now wearing black, while the man is wearing white portraying Beyoncé as unfaithful and the man as loyal. This helps connect more with the topic and the lyrics because she sings about becoming the stereotypical male role in the relationship, which in the video is a police officer. This idea connects with the audience through their emotions because women are typically the ones being abused, but in this case the victim is the man, so the audience feels pity for him. When the roles switch, it makes the audience feel more sympathetic for the man, and question why a woman would poorly treat a man, when he treats her correctly. Due to the black and white overcast, the police uniform appears more black then navy, connoting the job as evil because the job requires strong, powerful, truthful people. It is the police’s duty to protect the law and uphold the truth, but the evil connotation of the uniform helps shows the audience the hypocrisy in Beyoncé’s relationship with her husband. By doing this, the director makes it clearer to the audience that the idea that the way men mistreat women and have double standards plays a bigger role in relationship inequality. When the roles are switched, the audience feels a deeper connection with the man, while many disapprove of the female’s poor actions to the man. When in reality, women are the ones being mistreated by men, yet no one feels for her or understands why she is upset. 

The black and white setting throughout the entire music video also resemble a “gray” area, where the action is wrong or right depending on the context and supporting details. Men typically see no wrong with how women are treated, but when the roles switch and the man is being mistreated, majority of society sees it as wrong, and that is the “gray” area of the video. When Beyoncé is playing the man’s role of going to work, ignoring her husband calls, and flirting with other guys, the actions are viewed as wrong, unfaithful and cheating, but when these actions are committed by a man, they are viewed as a normal occurrence. It isn’t uncommon to hear about girls being poorly treated by men, and it is expectation that women may be mistreated by a male partner so it shouldn’t be surprising when an action like cheating occurs. This “gray” coloring appears more in the scene right after the climax, when the couple returns home from the party after the woman has been dancing with another man. Beyoncé sits at her vanity getting undone for bed while the man is upset and questioning her. When the woman says, “Why are you so jealous? It’s not like I’ve been sleeping with him” the man replies with shock, “What” and the women repeats it back. There is a dramatic, suspenseful pause to make the scene more intense, and to connect more with the audience and how they feel about the situation. After viewing the mistreatment that occurs in the video, the audience feels guilt, anger, and sympathy. The pause makes the audience reflect on the situation and realize that the women’s treatment to her husband is wrong. After the pause, the roles switch back and the man asks, “Why are you so jealous? It’s not like I’ve been sleeping with her.” Beyoncé, is left crying at her vanity. The dramatic pause right before the roles being switch reaches out to the audience and their pathos. It makes a clear statement that men mistreat women, and that if the roles were switched it would be seen as wrong, but in reality the way men mistreat women is seen as common. Beyoncé tries to tell the audience that men are portrayed as ruthless, heartless beings, but only because it is society expectations and it reveals to the audience that there has been a role switched in order to help the audience better understand the theme more. By switching the roles unexpectedly on the audience, it makes them reflect on their feelings and attitude towards the beginning of the video. It helps make the issue clearer and point out that if men were treated the way they treat women, men would disapprove of the actions which makes them hypocrites.

In Beyoncé’s music video, “If I were a Boy”, the director uses colors such as black and white to help highlight this issue of hypocrisy and inequality in relationships. In most situations, men believe their actions to women are not wrong, but when the roles are switched and the men receive poor mistreatment, society disapprove of those actions and feel sympathetic towards the man. The video uses black and white coloring to symbolize hypocrisy and miscommunication. The coloring helps show the two characters’ roles switch, and represent evil and purity. Though the video mostly focuses on relationship inequality, it also underlines society inequality. Women have always been the bottom of the barrel, receiving less minimum wage, less jobs, and the predisposition of being a house wife. Times are changing, and women are constantly fighting for more rights and equality. Though there has been many changes in recent events such as, women going into combat, women business owners, and recent women running for government positions like presidency, there are still many changes that need to be done. 

