I want every parent, teenager, young woman to see this.....Katie Makkai - Pretty

[tpsbmam]

Run time: 03:28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0   Posted on YouTube: November 03, 2007 By YouTube Member: crzylbrlchick Views on YouTube: 182216   Posted on DU: October 25, 2010 By DU Member: tpsbmam Views on DU: 1152

 
Awesome!!!!!

Summary & very rough (semi) transcription: Katie Makkai goes on a righteous rant about the emphasis we place on little girls being pretty. It starts out with her singing "when I was just a little girl, will I be pretty...will I be pretty....will I be PRETTY....will I be wanted, worthy, pretty. But nature left me with numerous imperfections (she goes through them)....her mother says we'll get it all fixed. But, she says, this is not about her mother -- she too was raised to believe the greatest asset she could bestow on her awkward little girl was a marketable facade. By 16 I was pickled with ointments, etc and was lying in a hospital bed faced packed with gauze cushioning the brand new nose the surgeon had carved, belly gorged on 2 pints of blood I had swallowed under anesthesia...like my body is screaming from the inside out "what did you let them do to you?" All the while this never-ending chorus....will I be pretty, will I be pretty, like the mother unwrapping the (gift) her $10,000 bought her, pretty...

And now I have not seen my own face in 10 years. But this is not about me -- this is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in, about women who will prowl 30 stores in 6 malls to find the right cocktail dress but haven't a clue where to find fulfillment or how to wear joy, wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag beneath the tyranny of those 2 pretty syllables. About men wallowing on bar stools drearily practicing attraction and everyone who will drift home tonight crestfallen because not enough strangers found you suitably fuckable. This is about my own someday daughter when you approach me already...with insecurities begging, "Mom, will I be pretty?" Will I be pretty? I will wipe that question from your mouth like cheap lipstick and answer, "No! The word pretty is unworthy of everything you will be and no child of mine will be contained in 5 letters! You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing but you will never be merely pretty.


(Sorry if this has been posted previously -- I just saw it for the first time.)

[prairierose]

1. Thank you for posting this here...

what an amazing young woman to have seen through the fog of our misogynist culture at such a young age and created an stunning response.

[Tumbulu]

2. thanks for posting- a message for all of us (nt)

[ProfessionalLeftist]

3. Wow. Very well done! n/t

[Althaia]

4. astonishing

with all the misogyny currently being spread by the Right, this message is sorely needed.

[kas125]

5. All three of my kids are boys, but this poem/rant brought

tears to my eyes. I posted it to my facebook page for anybody I know who has young daughters to see. Thank you!

[knixphan]

6. K&R