Step One: As part of my work with young people, one thing we ask teens to prompt analysis of music videos is to consider is the expectations it sets for certain groups. When you listen to the lyrics and watch the visuals, what is glorified and what is shunned?
Rap videos are particularly notorious for portraying woman as sex objects. They feature half naked women dancing around their male masters. It tells young girls "you're sexuality is what you are worth." And here we have Beyonce. She is no rapper, yet she still seems to present her body as her most valuable commodity. Ask any male what he finds most attractive about the video. Ask any female of what aspect of Beyonce she is envious. After watching this video, chances are "intelligence" isn't at the top of the list.
What you may hear is her "confidence". What concerns me about this answer is that Beyonce achieves her confidence through having what Hollywood considers a perfect body. Effectively, it tells women that they cannot be confident without going out of their way to shape themselves to fit the expectations of this video.
For a song that starts off with 7 repititions of "All the single ladies", it sure does put a lot of emphasis on the not only the importance of marriage, but the roles it entails. Beyonce touts not needing "permission" and being able to "act up" because she is single, but does that mean that she would otherwise be expected to seek permission and behave accordingly if she was married? It's almost as if Beyonce thinks being independent and being married are mutually exclusive attributes. This is epitomized in her line "Pull me into your arms, say I'm the one you own."
For current times, this song seems quite old fashioned. It presents marriage as a goal for women, and and tells them "if your significant other doesn't want to be married now, exploit yourself until you find a someone who does."
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