The music video for "If I Were a Boy" was directed by Jake Nava and portrays Knowles as an NYPD officer. It begins with Knowles and her husband reciting words such as "honesty" and "commitment". It later shows Knowles on patrol with her male partner. The video tells of the ways a both men and women hurt each other in a relationship. Knowles stated: "It's about all of the little things that mean so much in a relationship[...] At the end of the clip, you realize that I was acting out his life, and it all starts over again. He was a cop and everything that happened was really him doing the same thing to me."