The Fight For Beauty

This poem kind of goes along with my last post, talking about beauty in this world. I got really fired up one night talking to a guy friend about movies in our culture and how it has become a normal thing to see nudity in movies, and usually boys don't think much about it because it is virtually everywhere. Personally I feel like it is degrading to women, and it subconsciously puts us up against a standard that we will never be able to attain. If the boys of our generation, the ones we are supposedly going to marry, have seen a million other nude women in movies and tv shows, what is going to make me special to my husband on our wedding night, especially since I'm not near as perfect as those women?? And the answer is nothing. Every girl wants to be seen as special, but thanks to the media of our time, this is a very hard thing to come by...

I want to be the one girl in the room that stands out.
The one that catches his eye
And makes him want to learn more about me.
I want to be intriguing, mysterious, and breathtaking.
I want to be different.
But this standard of perfection I've been placed against-
Not by me or him, but by everyone else-
It's tearing me down.
It makes me think I'm not good enough,
That no matter what I do I'll never measure up.
Every woman just wants to be loved for who she is,
Not be judged by her inadequacies.
The best treasures must be sought out,
And are never found at the surface.
So why are we being taught the opposite?
Those girls, the ones plastered always before us,
They're not real.
So why would I ever want to be like them?
Because they are the object of desire-
The ideal woman.
The words that define us: short, tall, fat, skinny, pretty, ugly...what is their purpose?
We use them only to compare ourselves to others.
And in our hearts, all the girls in the world, they cry out one question,
And they've been seeking the answer since the day they were born:
Am I Beautiful??