![beyonce if i were a boy what is it about beyonce if i were a boy what is it about](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/c8/e5/dac8e504f0e9848fdf5916043079f105.jpg)
It's the woman who suffers all the consequences of an adulterous relationship (until the man involved, in this case a priest, fesses up…but that's another story). Take the scathing treatment of Hester in The Scarlet Letter, for example. Its origins date back to times when married women were technically their husbands' property. It's generally agreed that for a long time, there has been a double standard in Western societies, which allows men to be more openly and freely social and sexual than women. The message is sort of like the inverse of Madonna's 2001 song "What It Feels Like for a Girl," in which Madonna openly addresses men with the message that they don't understand what women go through.Īlthough they lean on stereotypes of both men and women, there is probably some truth to what Madonna's and BC Jean are saying. Girls, on the other hand, don't have this kind of freedom-at least, that's what this line is suggesting. Their friends even stick up for them when they misbehave. In the context of the song, this line suggests that boys can do whatever they want and go wherever they want, and face no consequences for it. Plenty of people would disagree with BC Jean's choice to generalize here. This is a strong statement about gender, suggesting that men can get away with more than women can. In other words, she uses "If I were a boy…" to emphasize that she is singing as a girl. She's able to talk about a specific relationship, but also about the gender dynamics in that relationship. By imagining herself as "a boy," BC Jean opens up the possibility that the song is also about gender in general, not just another heartbreak song. "If I were you" would be a less lyrical line to open a song with, and also a less loaded and less interesting line. This is a fine example of why good writers aren't always literal in their approach. If BC Jean (real name: Britney Jean Carlson) had written a literal song, the line "If I were a boy…" would actually read more like "If I were you…" What's more, it becomes apparent later in the song that she isn't singing about being just any boy-she's actually addressing a particular boy who has broken her heart. In "If I Were a Boy," the writer imagines being a boy as a way to talk about how she feels as a girl. Like the line in "Fiddler on the Roof" where the impoverished main character imagines being a rich man, the lyric uses a hypothetical ("If I were…") as a way to highlight what the singer is. Likewise, songwriter BC Jean's opening line isn't really about wanting to be a boy.
![beyonce if i were a boy what is it about beyonce if i were a boy what is it about](http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/27600000/If-I-Were-A-Boy-Music-Video-beyonce-27608851-1209-680.jpg)
Gwen's mediocre version is solidly ironic, but the original song was an actual lament about the struggles of poverty. Gwen Stefani's 2004 song was actually a takeoff from the 1964 play "Fiddler on the Roof," a historical musical about poor Jews living in Russia at the turn of the century. Okay, so the scarecrow wanted to have a brain, the Barenaked Ladies wanted a million dollars, Gwen Stefani wanted to be a rich girl, and now Beyoncé wants to be a boy.īut wait, let's get all this straight. Waiting for me to come home, to come home.Is the grass always greener on the other side? Deep Thought So they'd think that I was sleeping alone In 2014, she became the highest-paid black musician in history and was listed among Time's 100 most influential people in the world for a second year in a row In 2009, Billboard named her the Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade, the Top Female Artist of the 2000s decade, and awarded her their Millennium Award in 2011. The Recording Industry Association of America recognized BeyoncГ© as the Top Certified Artist in America, during the 2000s decade. She is also the most awarded artist at the MTV Video Music Awards, with 24 wins, including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. She has won 22 Grammy Awards and is the most nominated woman in the award's history. Throughout her career, BeyoncГ© has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. The album established her as a solo artist worldwide, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and earning five Grammy Awards, and featured the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy". Their hiatus saw BeyoncГ©'s theatrical film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and the release of her debut album, Dangerously in Love (2003). Managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, the group became one of the world's best-selling girl groups in history. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of the R&B girl-group Destiny's Child. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, BeyoncГ© performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. BeyoncГ© Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and actress.