Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé Song Info
A frank and very personal take on what beauty is, the Sia-written opening track of Beyoncé’s groundbreaking self-titled album offers the very first point of social relevancy in the record: perfection and the impossible standard of beauty set in society is corrupting the nation. We all try so hard to reach that singular, narrow-minded idea of “perfection” despite the fact that beauty itself is subjective. Directed by Melina Matsoukas, the first video in the so-called “visual album” has Bey playing a beauty pageant contestant who does everything in her power to look flawless — but still can’t achieve perfection. “Well I think we definitely wanted to speak to as many women as we could and all the pain and struggle that we go through as women to maintain this impossible standard of beauty,” Matsoukas explained to MTV News. “We wanted to give it a darker edge and take it there and not give you the Disney version of that struggle. And Beyoncé was more than willing to go that far with it. And I applaud her for that.” At one point, a frustrated Bey knocks down her wall of trophies, which is supposed “to represent knocking down those beauty standards and falling into a victim of that.” In the end, even as hard as Miss Third Ward tries to beat out her competition, she loses. That idea came straight from the pop star. “Originally, I had her win and I had it mean nothing,” she said. “And then she didn’t want to win. And then, actually, the woman who wins is an albino woman. And we thought it was really important and interesting to break those ideas of what the classic beauty standards would be and to do this with this beautiful albino woman, I thought was really great. And to show ‘Yeah she’s not perfect, she doesn’t always win and you put your best foot forward and you may still lose.’”
