unpretty

In my English class we just started our poety unit. In the recent years I've actually started to enjoy poetry, so when we got our reading assignments for the next few classes I looked forward to diving into the poems. Today we discussed a slam poem by Katie Makkai that is definitely one of my new favorite poems. It's entitled "Pretty" and it is so empowering, especially when heard from her reading it aloud, found here. I hope you love it as much as I do, especially this section:

"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 wear joy, wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag, beneath those 2 pretty syllables.

About men wallowing on bar stools, drearily practicing attraction and everyone who will drift home tonight, crest-fallen because not enough strangers found you suitably fuckable.

This, this is about my own some-day daughter. When you approach me, already stung-stayed with insecurity, 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 five letters.

You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing. But you, will never be merely ‘pretty’.”