Poetry Slams are one my favourite forms of personal expression. It is listening as someone pours out their innermost thoughts and emotions, sharing them for their own inner peace as well as to bring awareness to listening ears. Not going to lie, this particular poetry slam brought me to tears :'( ... it is THAT moving.

This is a notable poetry slam done by Katie Makkai, called "Pretty". A great synopsis of the poem comes from Lisa Wade (reference link at bottom of post): "..inspired, perhaps, by Wollstonecraft’s words, Katie Makkai fights back against the word “pretty.”  After a childhood subject to its tyranny, she imagines telling her own daughter to reject its pull, beginning with “The word pretty is unworthy of everything you will be!” (2011)

THIS IS A MUST WATCH!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0

The message she presents is in itself  culture jam against the beauty industry and the media ideals set for to women around the globe. Makkai narrates as a young child and the pressures the world (and her mother), about a universal battle between the "norms" of society that we as women feel so compelled to chase after. I see this poem as a radical movement towards self-love rather than self-compromise. What is it about society that still draws us into these unrealistic beliefs? If we can acknowledge that the media's preception of "normal" bodies and beauties is not normal at all, why are these norms perpetuated?

Link to Lisa Wade's article and the transcript of the poem :
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/04/19/katie-makkai-on-pretty/

woot woot everyone,
-- OwlEyes