Everyone will experience a bad relationship, break ups, and many heart aches throughout their life. Growing up, it is not uncommon to hear about women being mistreated by men, and many believe it to be a big issue in the American culture. In Beyoncé’s music video, “If I were a Boy”, the director converts the original film to black and white to connect more with the audience’s emotion such as, sympathy and anger, and to underline the issue of gender inequality in relationships. 

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 their wronging’s to women. Black and white coloring normally means clearly defined opposing principals or issues and in this case, the black and white overcast defines the issue of the mistreatment women feel by their partners. 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. The two opposing colors helps make a deeper connection to the theme of men and their double standards, by making the man almost be seen as a villain, and the women is ultimately the victim. When the music begins, Beyoncé, is now wearing black while the man is wearing white portraying Beyoncé as the villain and her man is now the victim. 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 connects with the audience through their emotions because women are never portrayed as the wrong doer, but in this case the victim is the man, so the audience feels a sort of sympathy for him. Women are normally the victim of men, and in American society it is their job to understand men a ruthless, heartless beings. 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 black, connoting it as evil which is unusual because the job requires strong, powerful, truthful people.. By doing this, the director makes the concept that, the way men mistreat women and have double standards, plays a big part in relationship inequality more clear to the audience. When the roles are switch the audience feels a deeper connection with the man, while many disapprove on the female’s poor actions to the man. However, in reality the 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 can also resemble a “gray” area, where the action is wrong or right depending on the context and supporting details. American society and men themselves see no wrong with how women are treated, but when the roles switch and the man is the one being mistreated it is seen as wrong, and that being said is the “gray” area of the video. When Beyoncé is playing the man’s part, going to work, ignoring her husband calls, and flirting with other guys, it is seen as wrong and cheating; however, in American modern society it is common to hear about girls being poorly treated by men. It is an expected thing for women to be mistreated, and they must be able to cope with the treatment and not be surprised when something like cheating occurs. This “gray” coloring appears more in the scene right after the climax. When the couple comes home from the party and 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. By watching the mistreatment happen 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 most situations, men believe there is nothing wrong with how they treat a woman, but when the roles switch and they are the ones being mistreated, they disapprove of the women’s actions and others feel sympathetic towards them. In Beyoncé’s music video, “If I were a Boy”, the director uses colors such as black and white to help highlight this issue and to point out the hypocrisy of men and inequality in relationships.

