HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark Poetry - Body Hate - M Bruendl.pdf“Body Hate”
by Mikayla Bruendl
They don’t love their body and neither do I; my insecurities create a new reality where everything about me
seems so ugly. Enclosed by mirrors, that brings me tears, I watch as my reflections warp into my darkest
fears.
Mother is beautiful in daughter’s eyes, but she can’t help but criticize the width of her own thighs, hating
herself for eating that burger and fries. So daughters learn beauty is only as deep as skin, desire to be thin,
food must be sin.
Only the starving girls win.
And when your son refuses dinner you don’t ask why he’s getting thinner; because you know eating disorders
are a girl’s disease and stubborn teenage boys will eat when they please.
Ignore the signs; she says she’s fine. Perhaps it’s just her structural design. If the overweight girl loses loads
of weight the last thing you think is it’s been three days since she ate. In fact it’s great.
She is an inspiration. She finally cares.
Does it not bother you she’s slipping out of all the clothes she used to wear?
Forget the she’s starting to fade, her heart and soul isn’t what’s being weighed. Judge her for that number,
let the scale applaud her hunger, slowly slipping under, and then she starts to wonder.
Why?
Why did you teach her a little extra weight means she must not touch her plate?
Why must a woman be labeled "plus size" just because there isn’t a gap between her thighs?
140 pounds is not overweight, she’s just a normal girl who you are taught to hate.
How could the world be so far gone that they teach her fat is the worst she can be?
No one is born filled with self-hatred, it’s a result of society.
You were conditioned to look down on me for being bigger, and turned a blind eye as I was getting sicker.
And now you want to sexualize my curves because “thick” is the new goal, but you are not allowed to after
the years of happiness your previous craving for skinny stole.
What does that say to our children when you lay out what they must grow up to be? If they don’t fit the mold
is there something wrong with their body?
Now they must spend their life trying to be picture perfect because beautiful people realize food isn't worth
it.
Ask someone if they think they are pretty, I bet they'll say no, that’s all we've ever known.
There’s always something that could change, something that we will pay thousands of dollars for a surgeon
to rearrange.
Then one day we might finally feel pretty, ignoring what you see, and you think confidence is immodest
because perfection doesn't exist in reality. You all will say, “How dare she gloat?”
You rather watch her lose satisfaction and shove her fingers down her throat.
No matter how hard she tries, the mirror always lies. It reflects everything you say, that she needs to be
thinner, prettier, that fat isn't okay.
The mirror's image was tarnished by a fantasy, what we call true beauty only reveals a world so ugly.
We taught her she isn’t good enough and that she shouldn't like herself, but for the first time in 17 years
she's going to tell you to shut up because you and I are as beautiful as everyone else.