Photo: Screenshot
Beyonce has revealed the beauty pageant themed video for her latest single 'Pretty Hurts', which contains a fairly damning indictment of the pressure on women to look perfect.
'Pretty Hurts', which was written by Sia, is the opening track on Beyonce's self-titled surprise album and is the fourth single to be taken from it.
The video sees Beyonce as Miss 3rd Ward, a contestant in a beauty pageant in which many of the women are suffering with blatant insecurities. One pinches at the non-existent fat on her rib cage, whilst Beyonce exits a toilet cubicle tellingly wiping her mouth.
Watch the video for 'Pretty Hurts' below
Part way through the video, legendary actor Harvey Keitel cameos as the presenter of the pageant, and asks Beyonce, "What is your aspiration in life?" After much thought, she replies, "My aspiration in life would be to be happy", before the video erupts into an even more explicitly damning exposition of society's beauty standards.
Speaking to Vulture, the video's director Melina Matsoukas said, '[Beyonce] told me what she wanted to do with the pageant world and I obviously like to take it there. I was like, 'Let's get into the toxic world and what we really do that is so damaging to ourselves, and use it as a microcosm for our society.'"
'Pretty Hurts' was released in the UK on 24 April.
