She is beautiful but doesn't know Her priceless gifts remain unseen. She hides behind cropped hair and unflattering clothes. Thinks perhaps being a boy will relieve the pressure. of being a girl.
This poem is a subjective observation based on my discussions with one teenage girl who is struggling with body dysmorphic Syndrome and now thinks she is a boy trapped in a girl's body. I do not believe this is the case. I think she has checked out because the pressure on girls to conform to a certain ideal is so great, it's almost impossible to feel like they measure up. This is something I hear over and over again. The girl I speak about here was always a "girly girl" until she hit teens. Her struggle with weight and a belief that she is not "pretty" is at the core of this identity crisis. I am in no way speaking out against people who may have genuine gender dysphoria.
It appears that she is struggling with identity and I wouldn't venture to say what the cause is. But, if you are counseling her, I think that it would be best if it comes out sooner rather than later. Perhaps all it would take would be for her to have help going to a prom so she wouldn't feel so insecure about her looks. My sister's granddaughter dressed up for her prom as a woman, but she has since, upon graduation declared herself lesbian and is living with her girlfriend.
Short, but eloquent in its statement of an unhappy truth we face today in America (and anywhere American capitalism extends), thanks to the unstoppable steamroller that is capitalistic-materialist commercial marketing. Personally, I agree completely that far too many young women who are struggling with this dilemma are self-deluded into thinking that their problem is one of gender dysphoria. The same is true, however, for many young men have the same doubts (false in a preponderance of cases, I feel) about their masculinity, and feel the same sort of toxic dissatisfaction over their own sense of gender identity for similar reasons. Aside from the socialising commercialism that overwhelms us in our daily lives (whose only concern is to SELL products and make profits, after all, despite any greater consequences), we can also thank the rampant social media plague that allows teen peers to dictate terms of compliance to a sort of immature peer review (influenced by marketing forces and pressures they are subject to). Anyone who feels we don't live in a VERY sick society, therefore, is, in my considered opinion, unwilling to face the facts that we MUST contend with each and every day. As respected jurist Joe Genshlea states the problem (if I may be permitted to loosely recall his words), "In today's America, deference to ignorance has become rampant and pandemic. Belief has been substituted for fact and reasoning in all public and private dialogues to the point where it is no longer certain whether or not factual reality still exists in the common frame of reference." There are a great many young women who suffer from this gender dysphoria syndrome you single out here and your prosaic observation sums it all up quite perfectly. True 'beauty' will always be in the eyes of the (enlightened, not ignorant) beholder, if only we can be strong enough to accept ourselves fully as perfect and complete in our original form.
The songs and art in this book are about our collective emergence after the pandemic and trauma of the last few years - comprised of 5 collections: World as Refuge, Where We Live, In Our Hands, Rhythms of Change and What We See & Sow.
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Ron