Beyonce Knowles 'Pretty Hurts' Analysis

“Pretty Hurts” is the opening track on her self-titled album, and I believe that this makes a statement towards the contemporary feminists’ issues of today. There are many different social problems that the song tackles. Beyoncé is known as a feminist, and on each of her albums some songs are about female empowerment such as, “Single Ladies,” “Irreplaceable,” and “Run the World (Girls).” The theme of “Pretty Hurts” can be interpreted to be

Beauty pageants have been around for a long time, making people believe that nothing could go wrong in such events. Nevertheless, when I consider women who glide across the stage, I recall skinny women, in specific, who appear to have unrealistic features such as: perfect teeth, skin, and bodies, putting pressure as only women who appear that way are in magazines, television, and movies. Subsequently, this begins when young women participate in beauty pageants. [ Dante Ultius] Society today thinks that entering young children in beauty pageants can help self esteem. Society believes it will make them feel beautiful, perfect, socially involved, discipline, self confidence, and so on. Well it turns out thatś the exact opposite of what they think. Putting children in beauty pageants at a young age can cause health issues like depression, low self of esteem, anxiety, eating disorder, and also the absense of a normal childhood. Research shows that over the past 10 years, there has been a 270% increase in the number of girls being hospitalized for eating disorders, some of these girls are as young as 7 years old [Kelly Kammer]. Competitions can display adult body dissatisfaction in their later years, and that it is also possible for them to suffer from various eating disorders [Psychologist Martina Cartwright].

Significance: In regards to the significance of these claims, the examination of how women are objectified spans a wide spectrum from appearance to persona. To hone in on this, the reading “No More Miss America” provides clear evidence as to why beauty pageants are a negative influence

Beauty pageants are an unnecessary entertainment of society because they set unrealistic beauty standards for an audience of easily influenced young women. In the world of beauty pageants, there is only one kind of beauty. This one kind of beauty is "Barbie": tall, long-legged, tiny waist, straight white teeth, long thick hair. These beauty pageants can be misleading and harmful, not only to women without this body type, but also to society as a whole. The standard that beauty pageants strive for is not an all-encompassing idea of beauty, but one that is shallow and looks only at a woman's physical appearance. In a study released in September 2013, 131 female beauty pageant contestants from 43 states completed an anonymous study. 26% reported that they had been told or perceived they had an eating disorder, 48.5% reported wanting to be thinner and 57% were trying to lose weight. Beauty pageant organizers have striven for years to ensure that contestants have an opportunity to show their skills before they are crowned a "beauty queen", but the reality is that a woman not fitting the unrealistic ‘Barbie’ physical standards of beauty competition would never be considered to win a competition.

Vulnerable girls can get the incorrect message sent out from the media and pageants; leaving the girls insecure and embarrassed of their body and face. Megan Seely stated in her article “Is the Miss America Pageant Good or Bad for Women?” that “We cannot ignore the negative and harmful impacts of this event has on thousands of women of all ages who struggle to find their

look and point at gay couples, it is human nature to feel singled out and targeted. This song states that We are beautiful no matter what they say/ Yes, words can't bring us down, oh no. It is trying to help the stereotypes understand that being beautiful is more than the image, it is the inner beauty. Gay people may become ashamed of there orientation because the socially acceptable way to be is straight. This is a double standard of the lyrics, because it states that even if people do act in rude and unkind manners, the gay people will still consider themselves beautiful. But this

Beyonce uses pathos, the first of the three appeals in her song by using very descriptive phrases. When she states, “I’d listen to her, `cause I know how it hurts,” Beyonce is telling her audience that she understands what it is like to be hurt, and that if she were a boy, she would treat her women better because she could understand where she was coming from. This tugs at the listener’s heart because you can see that she has been emotionally hurt from a past relationship. Also, many people can relate to what she is disclosing. It is human nature for people to get emotionally damaged in a relationship and therefore her feelings are empathized. She also uses syntax by the way she orders her words by telling a story. If the song was not in story form, it would not produce the great impact that it does.

One of the contestants in this year’s Miss USA pageant made national headlines last week even though she didn’t ultimately win the competition. Social media users praised Miss Indiana for having a “normal body,” rather than being a “complete twig” in her bikini. “I think the normality that everybody keeps talking about is just the fact that I’m relatable,” the contestant, whose real name is Mekayla Diehl, said in an interview with People Magazine. “I’m confident in my own skin. I didn’t obsess over being too skinny or not being tall enough.”

Beyonce has been surrounded in controversy in the last few months, but she is no stranger to controversy. In 2013, Beyonce sampled the audio tapings of the Challenger explosion and faced backlash from the media. Family member’s, colleagues, and friends have commented on Beyonce’s choice in featuring the clip in her song ‘XO.’ June Scobee Rodgers, the founder of Challenger Center for Space Science Education and widow of the Space Shuttle Challenger Commander Dick Scobee. “We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO'. The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families,

In the pageant world being fat and over a certain weight is considered ugly and unattractive. For this reason, many teens in the pageant world may develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. They purposely starve themselves in order to stay at the "appropriate" weight in order to win. Many times glam beauty pageants require young girls to wear tightly fitted dresses, so extra stress is put on young girls to stay thin. If they are not the enough they get judged and bullied by other competitors as everybody who competes in these pageants are here to win so they pick on each other. Getting picked on makes the person who is getting picked on feel un worthy and may make them

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

In the summer of 2014, American pop artist Meghan Trainor released her debut single, “All About That Bass.” The song, which aims to empower women of all body types and promote “body positivity,” became an instant hit on Top 40 radio and music charts. While positive aspects of the song include calling out the media’s usage of Photoshop on women and attempting to reject the standards of a thin-centric society, the song and its music video have received criticism from feminists, specifically on their heteronormative and “skinny-shaming” elements. In this paper, I deconstruct the song and video by using intersectional feminist and queer approaches. I am particularly interested in how Trainor’s song “idealizes” and prioritizes certain bodies over others, and my analysis will focus on how the song’s themes represent common (cis)heteronormative, Eurocentric, and fat oppressive tropes that construct the “idealized” fat woman.

The song and music video has generated a lot of views and likes on Youtube. However, the embedded messages in the lyrics and the music video is not so positive. Its definition of beauty is rather objectifying because it portrays women as artificial, shallow, and arrogant bimbos whose priority is to maintain a physical appearance that resembles a Barbie doll.

(1980) found that the percent of average weight of the models declined significantly. For example, in 1960; the average weight of Playboy models was 91% of the population mean. By 1978, mean weight of the models has dropped to 84% of the population mean. A similar trend was apparent among the Miss America Pageant contestants: Prior to 1970, mean weight of the contestants was approximately 88% of the population norm. Following 1970, mean weight of the contestants had decreased to 85% of the population norm.

One of the most common reasons that make beauty pageants objectifying is that the contestants are judged solely on their physical appearance. While that may have been true a few years ago now