Last week the one and only Mrs. Carter surprisingly dropped a new self-entitled album: “Beyonce.” This work of art includes many inspiring and phenomenally well written songs, including my personal favorite, Pretty Hurts. My good friend Jasmine recommended that I listen to this song and it is AH-MA-ZING. The lyrics are so applicable to many of the issues I am currently dealing with, and as a sociology major, the content of the video is fascinating. Beyonce, in this song, is reinforcing, as well as shining light on the fact, that society has unrealistic beauty standards for women and that the only way to come close to “achieving” them is through harmful means to both your mental and physical state. The hook of the song specifically emphasizes how our society’s obsession with perfection is damaging to women’s souls:

Pretty hurts, shine the light on whatever’s worse
Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts (pretty hurts)
Pretty hurts (pretty hurts), shine the light on whatever’s worse
Trying to fix something but you can’t fix what you can’t see
It’s the soul that needs the surgery

I am so moved by how Beyonce is standing up against these unrealistic expectations and attempting to create a new definition of beauty. Other female celebrities should definitely take a note from her and her ability to motivate and inspire so many women.

I also can’t help, but be inspired by her marriage to Jay-Z. They are such a successful, motivated, and loving couple, it is almost like they can do no wrong. I truly believe that the world would be a completely different place without them. We should all be happy that they found each other hahaha and we should all aspire to find a love as true as the one between these two…ladies our men should always see us as their Queen: