Opinion Piece: They Call it Beauty

The whole typical “damsel in distress” story of beautiful girl encounters a situation she can't handle, beautiful girl gets abducted and waits for Mr Prince Charming to come save her, is so out-dated. As women, we should have moved past conforming to those ridiculous expectations a long time ago.

However, it appears that the damsel doesn't get the knight in shining armor unless she's about to be eaten by a horrible, fire-breathing dragon. Seriously? Cut us girls a break, because I'm not about to go and jump off the nearest cliff, just to see if there's someone handsome waiting to catch me at the bottom. Can't the damsel just walk down the road, innocently ask the Prince for a smoke or something easy, and then start from there? Why the drama? The dragons and dungeons and ogre transformations at night? Seriously?? It's like we don't deserve a prince unless we're about to die or something.

Well listen here. I'm walking on two steady feet, with a smile on my face and a smoke in my pocket, so if you are looking for tears and trauma, then I'm not looking for you, I guess.


The following words express my opinion better as a poem than they ever could as just prose:

They Call It Beauty

Stylish girls
Braids long and shiny, sit about her shoulders, shivering with mirth when she laughs
Swinging softly as she turns to look at you
Clothes straining in all the right places,
Gripping every curve, holding her body so tightly it makes all the boys jealous
Lips glossy and inviting, eyes shadowed, eyebrows neatly plucked
Earings swing heavy from ears too used to it to complain,
A mask of base and blush and bullshit to hide the flaws so
On the surface looks smooth, powder soft and supple.
Fingernail talons, long and dripping red
Heels high, shaping legs, thighs, buttocks they wanna caress,
Crippling her so she can't walk away from you too fast,
Nice and slow so you can watch that ass bounce.
Breasts tightly bound and thrust on display
That's what all the boys want right?



They call it beauty
I call it.. surface deep.

My shiniest accessory is the vaseline on my lips,
How do I compare?
Long flowing, comfortable skirt, barely brushing my mismatched socks and dirty shoes
Ill-fitting top, a lil' stain on one sleeve, hope no one notices
Thick thighs, big butt, not quite that fierce, feline toned image they carry in their minds
Skin clean, no shine, no gloss
Hair like the weather, one day good, one day crap
I like having short nails.



How do i compare?
I have words,
I have thought,
I have enough between my ears to know that
If i'm being judged on whether my eye-brows are shaped in this months fashion or not, then you're Not worth my time
I have enough to know that if someone tries to rape me, degrade me, invade me,
My dirty chucks won't betray me
Like a scathing pair of heels will,
I know I can walk with confidence, never about to fall
I know the control I have over the state of my hair is insignificant in comparison with the greatness I intend to infuse into my life, bad hair day or no
I know that my kiss is that much sweeter, cos you can taste my skin
You don't have to worry about what I look like when I wake up
My face is not the powder and paste on the pillow, but the light in my eyes when i smile

How do I compare?
I know that if you can see me, you see a human being; not whether my clothes match,
Not the features of my body you want most to see naked,
Not a mask of jewellry and glitter and shine
You see me.
I've been feeling beautiful,
And no one can change that
Accept it, celebrate it, declare it, perform it.
Live it. Because every second makes it true
So stop listening to me, start listening to you...




Peace,
Jas

Womyn Rule =)

i'm tired.. and over a lot of things, including boys. part of the problem is probably that they are just that, boys, not men... not mature, not intelligent, not ready for what i have to offer. i'm now going to carry the mentality that they're not worth it, they're not good enough, they can't handle someone with a mind of her own and a body she's not willing to exploit for 'happiness'. i've got a few feminist quotes that make me feel better. this is the direction i find myself leaning towards, cos i'm sick and tired of men expecting, expecting, expecting, and i refuse to kill myself to look good for someone who doesn't have enough brain cells to appreciate me.

I think, therefore I'm single


Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their opressors. ~Evelyn Cunningham


Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy. ~Henry Kissinger


The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl." ~Shirley Chisholm

Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths. ~Lois Wyse

I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns.

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men. ~Joseph Conrad


You don't have to be anti-man to be pro-woman. ~Jane Galvin Lewis

Man endures pain as an undeserved punishment; woman accepts it as a natural heritage. ~Author Unknown

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. ~Timothy Leary

Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We're not inherently anything but human. ~Robin Morgan

The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. ~Lucretia Mott

How good does a female athlete have to be before we just call her an athlete?


I've yet to be on a campus where most women weren't worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing. ~Gloria Steinem

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes. ~Bella Abzug


Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry. ~Joan Baez, "Sexism Seen but not Heard," Los Angeles Times, 1974

There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody. ~Florynce Kennedy


There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women. ~Madeleine K. Albright


I ask no favors for my sex.... All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks. ~Sarah Moore Grimké


I am working for the time when unqualified blacks, browns, and women join the unqualified men in running our government. ~Cissy Farenthold


Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement. ~


We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.

It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.

Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, a good mother, good-looking, good-tempered, well-dressed, well-groomed, and unaggressive.


Easy is an adjective used to describe a woman who has the sexual morals of a man. ~Nancy Linn-Desmond


Scratch most feminists and underneath there is a woman who longs to be a sex object. The difference is that is not all she wants to be.


Not only is women's work never done, the definition keeps changing.


Several men I can think of are as capable, as smart, as funny, as compassionate, and as confused - as remarkable you might say - as most women.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.

(I got the quotes from quotegarden.com, btw)