Words for Society
Location
I’m not the average girl from your video
And I ain’t built like a supermodel
But I learned to love myself unconditionally,
Because I am a queen
These are the words by the phenomenal India Arie, from her song, Video
These words, these powerful words, were meant to speak to so many young women
These words were meant to let these young women know that even though you do not look the way society declares that you should look.....
You are still beautiful
You are still phenomenal
You are still the queen you were always meant to be
And no matter how much hate and negativity is thrown at you because of your appearance...
You are the way you are for a reason, and that reason is greatness
Now, I would like to say that this poem is for you, yes you
You, society
Who day in and day out, demoralize and destroy the self-confidence of our young women
Cause them to think that they are not beautiful because ...
The color of their skin
The length of their hair
The color of their eyes
The structure of their face
Or the shape and size of their body
Does not fit into your standards
Your standards
Yes your standards
That constantly cause young women to take drastic measures to change who they are
To transform their natural beauty into some unobtainable artificial vision
And even when they are done altering themselves to get your blessing
You still tell they are not beautiful
You still tell them that they are worthless
You still tell them that they will never have an ounce of beauty
Well I'm here to tell you that you were wrong for what you did
You were wrong for constantly telling them lies
You were wrong for taking their self-confidence and reducing it to nothing
You were wrong to cause them to even contemplate if they beautiful
You were wrong for doing this to every young women, including me
You caused me to wonder about my own beauty
You cause me to wonder does my thick, wild hair fit in
You caused me to wonder does my cocoa brown skin even stand a chance
You caused me to wonder does my size 22 even compare to her size 2
You caused me to want to change everything about me so desperately
But now, now that I know the truth, I don't
See now I know that you were and still just jealous
Jealous of mystery that lies in my wild, thick hair
Jealous of softness and smoothness of my cocoa brown skin
Jealous of the waves and the motions of my curves and my rolls
And that jealousy causes you to do the same thing that you did to me to every young woman
Yes the jealousy of the natural beauty that they have that you will never be able to obtain
And you will never be able to obtain it because of your jealous, hateful, ugly soul
And that's the truth
Now young ladies
Now that you know the truth to why society has made you feel so hideous and worthless
Know that whatever they tell you isn't true
Know that you are beautiful
You are phenomenal
You are amazing
You are royalty
Know that even though you don't look like how society paints you to look or like everyone ese you see
You are still beautiful
You are unique
And that uniqueness makes you a queen