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Analysis Of Beyonce

Decent Essays
In today’s society, we commonly hear phrases such as “Everyone is beautiful” and “Size doesn’t matter” yet women are constantly bombarded with idealized images of beauty they are told they must attain to. In Beyonce’s song titled “Pretty Hurts” released in 2013, she highlights the pressures put on women to adhere to society’s unrealistic beauty standards which exist to alter womens’ perceptions o fhow they view themselves. Since women are continuously pressured to meet impractical expectations of beauty, rather than being satisfied with themselves, they critique and attempt to change their physical flaws in fear of not being accepted. Through the use of various stylistic devices such as diction, contradiction, metaphor, and mood, Beyonce reveals how society forces women to conform and uphold to impossible beauty standards which further reinforce the unfair expectations of gender roles.
In the chorus of the song, Beyonce sings “Perfection is a disease of a nation”. By referring to perfection as a “disease” this is powerful diction given that diseases are often contagious and negatively affect people’s everyday lives. She uses the word ‘disease’ to reveal how society promotes unachievable beauty standards for women while also using the word ‘nation’ to highlight how widespread and sickening beauty ideals are that they affect an entire population. Her use of diction conveys how society influences women to meet ideal beauty standards so that they can fulfill a feminine gender
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