The song "If I Were A Boy" by Beyonce depicts role reversals in relationships through a black and white music video. The video shows Beyonce ignoring her boyfriend who cooked her breakfast, smiling only when in the car with a male coworker. Scenes of Beyonce dressing and leaving for work without emotion contrast with her boyfriend happily setting a nice breakfast table. The overall story critiques how women are sometimes treated in relationships by showing a woman acting like a stereotypical neglectful man.

1. How is the star ‘image’ enhanced by key themes, semiotics and representation?
The song ‘If I Were A boy’ by Beyonce has been widely recognised a being a video which shows
the roles both men and women play within a relationship. Majority of the video is in black and
white which matches the relationship between man and woman, as it shows on two people in a
relationship and the importance of both people. The beginning of the video shows a woman
getting dressed in low key lighting and then follows her down to the kitchen, where her
‘boyfriend’ has cooked her breakfast. Beyonce does not seem interested in the meal as she
takes a bit of toast and then quickly disperses out the door. When in the car Beyonce seems to
cheer up as you see her smiling with her partner, which is a man. As Beyonce is out with her man
friend her boyfriend is working and trying to call her, when she receives the call she ignores it
suggesting she doesn’t want anyone to know whose calling or possibly does not want to be
bothered.
These two images show both sides of men and woman in a relationship, within the video this part
is the neutral part where no emotion is shown, we can tell this as there are no actions being
shown on their faces. In this section they talk about what a relationship should be like but when
it comes to the actual relationship how different it is. It plays on the words easier said than
done, as it’s easy to say what a perfect relationship should include but it’s hard to act it out.

2. This shot adds mystery as Beyonce is getting dressed for work. Her back is to us, this makes it
hard to establish what mood she is in and also she looks plain, there is no makeup and not a lot of
fuss over clothing. This tells us who has dominion role in this part of the relationship.
The emotion shown on the man’s face is happy and kindness in comparison to Beyoncé’s which is
not interested and unsatisfying. In this screenshot she is in front of camera directly which
gives us the idea she is the main focus and the man is in the back which shows he isn’t as
important in this shot. The man considerers the woman a priority and she does not consider him
a priority.

3. This shot shows the man sitting down getting ready to enjoy breakfast with his girlfriend/wife,
but she does not seem interested and begins to walk away. The setting of the table is
stereotypical as it has multiple plates and a centrepiece with fruit and juice, it’s a nice setting.
This makes the audience feel sympathy for the man as he has tried his hardest to provide a
lovely meal but the woman does not really care, typical role reversal.
This shot establishes what the woman does for a living, and helps us to begin to understand why
she is so emotionless and prefers not to care. This shot shows the woman leaving but not looking
back which is odd as most couples look back when they leave just for reassurance, but she just
wants to leave and get on with her day.

4. This shot shows the woman finally smiling when she is in the car with another man, a co-worker.
The overall story to this music video shows a woman acting like a stereotypical man in a
relationship. It shows role reversals and is there to help men understand what they do to women
is wrong and also explain to them women can do the same thing back.