 The song opens with the singer using sexually explicit language to describe an evening at her home where she is cooking a meal for her love interest while being naked and alone , " I 'm in my penthouse half @-@ naked / I cook this meal for you naked " . Idolator 's Mike Wass interpreted these lines as showing the singer 's " emotional shortcomings " . The Atlantic editor Nolan Feeney felt that these lines showcased many of the singer 's recurring themes present on her other albums — " the empowerment that comes with being a strong , independent woman , and the fulfillment that comes with love and marriage " . Finney wrote that during the beginning of the song , Beyoncé seemed excited about her role as a wife in the kitchen , but afterwards as the events go wrong and she is left alone , the same role feels oppressive.The singer continues singing lines about jealousy and realizes her partner will not come : " I wish you were me / So you could feel this feeling / I never broke one promise , and I know when you 're not honest . " After the chorus , Beyoncé sings the lines " Sometimes I want to walk in your shoes , do the type of things I never ever do . I take one look in the mirror , and I say to myself , ' Baby girl , you can 't survive like this . ' " The protagonist can not tolerate the fact she has been underappreciated and goes on to put on a " freakum dress out my closet " ( a reference to her own song " Freakum Dress " ( 2006 ) ) and stay the night outside further singing about her own attractiveness . As she continues to describe her love – hate relationship detailing her emotions , Beyoncé sings the song 's bridge : 
