If I wasen't a boy.

Being the male that I am, I can safely say that I did indeed like Beyonce's song, "If I was a Boy," and understood what it was saying about our society. I agree with her commentary on gender roles. Beyonce hits the nail on the head in this respect and how we are are expected to conform to them. The song has two conflicting ideas that represent how 'boys' are supposed to act, in a negative way, in society and how Beyonce, and women, would like them to act and how some guys really do act. Beyonce sings, "And go drink beer with the guys and chase after girls I'd kick it with who I wanted" this is a social commentary on the negative way many guys act. They tend to act like jerks and to other guys it is a social norm for guys to just act that way. Then she goes on to show a different side, "If I were a boy I think I could understand how it feels to love a girl I swear I'd be a better man I'd listen to her 'cause I know it hurts when you lose the one you wanted..." Here she is explaining that most women would like guys to understand how they feel about what they do and realize that some of the things these guys do hurt a lot. In the video of this song, I thought it was very interesting how the first part of it has Beyonce in the more male role, being a jerk and uncaring, and then it is switched to the more traditional way of the guy being the jerk. A powerful part was towards the end when Beyonce says, "Why are you so jealous? It's not like I slept with them," a few second pass and then the guy she had been with through the whole video laughs and says the same thing, thus reversing the roles. It shows the duality of how we are expected to act in society one way that is considered the norm, but in reality it is a pretty crummy way live. I agree with Beyonce in the fact that a lot of guys are jerks, but there are many nice guys too like Beyonce wants. The moral that one could take from this song is to not follow social norms blindly, just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right.