This video relates to bell hooks’s Oppositional Gaze, as she imagines an alternative genre of filmmaking which black women, who have been forced into an oppositional gaze by a white-dominated, phallocentric mainstream film industry. Simultaneously, the role of the woman is left in the dust, unloved, unappreciated, and endlessly trying her best all the same. making him breakfast in the morning before work). The role of man, occupied at different times either by Beyonce or her partner, is afforded the capability of being disloyal and of ignoring the attempts of his partner to be sweet and caring (i.e. With its title, as well as the line, “But you’re just a boy” (which Beyonce soulfully sings at the moment of re-becoming herself) the song positions Beyonce and her partner along archetypal gender lines, each figure a metonymic stand-in for men and women more generally. The song (and the video as well) alludes to the varying degrees of mobility and flexibility within male-female relationships.

It is during this fight that Beyonce switches roles again, becoming herself once more.

Ultimately, the two figures fight because He calls Her out for not remaining loyal to Him in their relationship. Meanwhile, her partner sits at his desk job looking at wedding rings and refuses an invitation from his female co-worker to go out with her. She becomes a police officer who ignores her partner’s breakfast in the morning and flirts with her co-worker. (Links to an external site.) In the music video for Beyonce’s 2009 song, If I Were A Boy, Beyonce switches gender roles with her boyfriend for one day.

Beyonce if i were a boy songs