If I Were a Boy

In her song “If I Were a Boy,” Beyonce argues that many women are trapped in bad relationships and never take the time to question how they truly desire to be treated. To confirm this, Beyonce is attempting to look at her unhealthy relationship as if she were in her significant others shoes. She makes an effort to develop an understanding of what it is like to be the man in the relationship, and see how he can just passively mistreat a girl. Beyonce later discovers that she would treat others how she would want to be treated because she understands how it is to be hurt by someone. She also finds that most guys do not care whether or not their significant others are suffering because of their actions. Beyonce establishes credibility for her lyrics by using the three appeals: pathos, ethos, and logos. These appeals are utilized to influence her audience, not let a man control their lives, but live there lives the way they want, and find a man that can treat them better than they have been treated in their past. Also, the use of repetition and form are used to establish her points within the song. Lastly, she wants her listeners to visualize how it could be if they were the other person, and question whether or not their outlook would be different.
Beyonce uses pathos, the first of the three appeals in her song by using very descriptive phrases. When she states, “I’d listen to her, `cause I know how it hurts,” Beyonce is telling her audience that she understands what it is like to be hurt, and that if she were a boy, she would treat her women better because she could understand where she was coming from. This tugs at the listener’s heart because you can see that she has been emotionally hurt from a past relationship. Also, many people can relate to what she is disclosing. It is human nature for people to get emotionally damaged in a relationship and therefore her feelings are empathized. She also uses syntax by the way she orders her words by telling a story. If the