Walking the Wall

My sisters and I…the beauty of women. We aren’t all the same, we are each individuals and we are beautiful in our own way. Sitting at the airport waiting to pick up my friend I saw a family waiting to meet someone as well–they were women and their faces were more lined than is average for their various ages–especially around the eyes. Their family member or friend came out of the gate and as a unit every face in the group broke into grins and I couldn’t help but to grin along with them like a fool. Their wrinkles were all smiling and laughing wrinkles, it was obvious the way they simply fell into place–lines cutting like sun rays from their eyes and their mouths. They were beautiful.

A young girl I know went into a doctor’s office beautiful and came out not so beautiful–in her own eyes. She is 12 years old, she is smart, funny, sassy, and beautiful, she is short and curvy and she is beautiful. The kind of girl who wears funky skirts, t-shirts that say “adorable” and a purple feathered boa flung over one shoulder. You cannot help but smile when she walks by because every step she take said she understood at a deeper level that she was, just as she is, beautiful. Then someone told her she was fat, someone she has been taught to respect and believe, someone who disrespected her body in a way completely unacceptable and she cried all the way home, forgetting that she knew deep down inside that she is, beautiful.

We cannot allow ourselves to forget the beauty of women–all women. We cannot allow our girls to stop listening to the voice that inherently knows their own beauty until people, society, the media, the world, steps in and says, “oh no, you don’t fit this mold, you are not, not beautiful”. We mustn’t forget, we need girls growing up wearing funky skirts, shirts that say “gloriously me,” and wear puple feathered boas flung over their shoulders.

We Have Forgotten the Beauty of Women–

Tall and willowy, slender and pale;

Short curves and big boned Vikings of old.

Hips that lie flat and curves full and round

Breasts heavy globed or

Pert upturned bowls.

We have forgotten the beauty of women—

Dark hair, light hair, red hair and white;

Skin freckled and pale or ruddy and warm;

Rich milky browns, dark deepened ebony

Green eyes and blue eyes

and hazels and browns.

We have forgotten the beauty of women—

Graceful limbs and decisive strong motions

Short steps and long steps and smooth dancing movements

Solemn looks longing, and quick sparkling wit

Wide laughing mouths

and slow lazy grinning.

We have forgotten the beauty of women.

by Kelly B