"If I were a boy"

In the song “if I were a boy” by Beyonce Knowles, she sings about a relationship as if she were a boy. She describes how she would treat a woman and how she would act in her role as her significant. The song starts off how she would act like every other guy and just do what she wanted, and not have a care on how she feels or what she thinks. She describes about how she could go out and cheat and have her male friends stick up for her and deny all rumors. She was saying in her song that she would turn her phone off, so she couldn’t be reached by her loved one. Males usually use an excuse when a woman can’t get a hold of them by their cell, they say it’s broken or they didn’t have reception. Men have the privilege to be able to turn off their phone and not care about missing calls. Well, that's the privilege Beyonce is trying to suggest that men have. In reality, men are slaves to their cell phones as much as women are. Towards the middle of the song she turns it around and says how she would treat a woman if she were really a boy. She would treat them like they would want to be treated. The song goes into descriptions such as; I would listen to her, wouldn’t take a women for granted, knows what it feels like to love, and knows how to stay faithful. The end of the song is saying you’re pretty much just like every other guy and won’t understand any of what she has to say about being a better man. She knows what it’s like to be mistreated in a relationship and she puts everything into it while the guy, just treats her as if she didn’t even exist. Beyonce does use the appeals we have learned about such as logos, pathos, and ethos. She wants her audience to get an understanding of these lyrics and how it affects many relationships our society. She wants to state how a relationship should work with both sexes. Many people are in the same type of relationships with their partners. I like the idea/purpose of the song. It shows the inherent privilege involved with being male in a male-dominated world. It's often said that men don't have to worry about what they look like, what they wear, how they smell, etc... Men often get to spend time at the bar while their partners are at home taking care of the children or the home. Men are supported by other men who may hold positions of power within society, thereby allowing men to "stick up" for one another effectively and even though many individual relationships.
The first appeal is logos, she tries to reason and say I will be a boy for just a day and sees how you really do have it when I am not around. I think she’s trying to say that she would have a better life if she were a boy. It’s an easier way of life. Guys worry about fewer things than women and don’t take everything to the heart. The video is a great visual of how it’s like living as a guy for a day. She explores what it would be like if she did all the things he did to her every day. The woman in the song has been taken for granted, but at the same time she doesn't want to let go and lose everything that she once had. It's unclear at the end whether she is final about not taking him back or if there is a note of hope that someday he'll realize what he's been doing to her and become a better man.
The song has much pathos, appeals that you take to heart. I believe the song artist really did a great job with the descriptive lyrics. She pulls the audience in and they can relate to it in some way. There are many people in similar situations. They wish they could just be treated better by their significant others and they want to realize how much hurt and pain they go through when they our out misbehaving. The chorus is an important idea to think about and it goes far beyond men understanding women and vice-versa. Here, Beyonce sings about the empathy she would have if she were a man. Because she knows the feelings described well, from direct experience, she would be able to know those feelings as a man and then be a "better man" from it. She would inherently know how to treat a woman if she were a man because she would know how she wants men to treat her. With this empathy, she would be a better man.
This song definitely has writer’s authority and credibility. She has made many albums, been in movies, and advertisements this song has real meaning, to her audiences. You can say this has a lot of rhetoric to it, meaning persuasive. The song is a role of reversal. She’s making us aware of how men think and can manipulate women in a relationship. While on another note trying to say we shouldn’t be putting up with this type of behavior. She is definitely an influential person. Her music and voice are so strong.
By watching the music video I got a better sense at the rhetoric of the song, especially when we switched roles from women to male. I understood more of the concept and the point she was trying to make by the video. You could tell that when she was acting as the male that she didn’t care if her husband was at home doing the right thing such as being faithful, waiting for him, and loving him. At the end though she switched back to a women and you could tell she wasn’t happy with the things were going and that he will never understand the things he has put her through. This video really got the message out there about how she feels about the relationship and how it should be. I think the song may be a little sexist, because not every guy is out there being unfaithful and mistreating females. There are a lot of females out there doing the same thing as this male in the song. It is not always the male doing wrong in the relationship. This song may be a little misleading, but it usually is the male that messes up. In general this song is very symbolic and represents a lot of relationships around the world. The song has potential by changes the ways of a male, maybe if they care about their significant other enough they will realize how much they are hurting them and stop, but by the end of the song she sings “but your just a boy” so she’s say that you won’t every understand how it feels to be treated like this day after day. By her coming up with these contemplative lyrics she got her message out to females in similar situation and could relate to them. The song made females aware that it is not only them that are having these issues in many that are in the same predicament.
by sidra bortner