The document discusses representations of gender in Beyoncé's music video "If I Were a Boy". It analyzes how the video initially reverses traditional gender roles by showing the male character taking on domestic duties. However, the roles eventually return to a dominant portrayal of men, with the video ending in a way that puts the man back in a position of power and control. The document draws on theories of how cinema positions audiences as male and how media constructs reality rather than accurately portraying it, to understand how the video both challenges and reinforces typical representations of gender.

1. Beyoncé – If I Were a Boy

2. Representation refers to the construction in any
medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of
‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural
identities and other abstract concepts. Such
representations may be in speech or written form as
well as still or moving picture

3. Laura Mulvey argues that cinema positions the audience as male.
This applies to the video we are analysing as the woman wishes that she
has the same status as a man and when listening to the lyrics and
watching the video we are able to tell that she believes that men are the
dominant sex. Through the use of camera, women are seen as objects
on the screen through the use of eye line match.
Stuart Hall argues that the media does not portray reality
accurately but they construct it as to what they see as ideal. This can be
applied to the video that we are analysing as the status amongst men
and women has been a social construct which has evolved to there
being more equal opportunities, however men are still seen as the more
dominant sex as for example the woman made the man breakfast and
she was expected to be fine with whatever he was doing – for example
the supposed affair.

4.  The entire video is filmed in a greyscale, this symbolically signifies the
oppression of women in the clip
 In the first half of the video, the domestic roles have been reversed, for
example: man provides the breakfast for the female character which
opposes the stereotypical household roles of the woman being a
housewife.
 The female character is seen to be in control and dominates the male
character through her physical job as a police officer. In terms of MES,
her uniform is very masculine which reaffirms the contrasting ideology
of the woman dominating the man.
 Through ideologies of feminism, the man in a relationship would be
dominant and would be allowed to do what ever he wanted to do. This
is opposed in this video through the trait of loyalty shown when he
turns down the invite to go out with the women after work
 As the roles between the man and woman reverse, a close up, high
angle shot is used to highlight how the man is now in control and that
everything has gone back to ‘normal.’