Pretty

Original writing by Candice Rutledge
with excerpts from “Pretty” By Katie Makkai
and “Shake the Dust” by Anis Mojgani

Pretty

This is for the fat girls of today

and those women who passed out 

deforming their rib cages with corsets 

to obtain the perfect hour glass shape.

And those who plucked their hair line

to have a more attractive facade.

This is for those past who stuffed their 

bellies to advertise fake wealth,

and those today who can do 

nothing but empty them.

and the ones who are 

offended by their own anatomy. 

This is for those who have painted their skin white

or sat in a bed built of lights in hopes to stain it.

For the gym class wall flowers 

and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers

Because society told them there is 

something wrong with presenting their body. 

This is for the bra stuffers

and the starvers. 

Because we’ve all wondered

Will I be pretty?

That pretty question is asked at conception

and it hangs from our mothers’ lips 

with pounds of worry.

From birth we’re dressed in frilly clothes,

with bows gelled into our hair

and holes puncturing our ears.

Will I be pretty?

Will I be pretty?

Will I be wanted? Worthy? Pretty?

But when puberty strikes baby faces

nature naturally deforms our features. 

Teeth set at science fiction angles,

crooked noses, cracked voices, 

awkward body transitions, 

faces fingerprinted with scars 

and pimples. 

How could this happen? 

Don’t worry... They’ll say.

We can fix you.

And now you’ll spend the 

rest of your life being fixed. 

You’ll use ointments, lotions, and pills

to fix your face. 

Mineral powder and liquid 

to cake on a thin mask,

bright or dark colors to bring out your eyes,

a dash of pink because your 

natural blush just won’t work. 

The most expensive hair products 

and salon care to change your color

or add a glimmering highlight. 

Heating tools to fix the fringe 

that you’ve been cursed with. 

Steel bars encase your teeth

and force them to get in line.

Then there is the special 

toothpaste and mouthwash 

to give you the perfect white smile. 

And if that’s not good enough

we’ll feed you bleach. 

Then we’ll introduce you to razors

So you can damn any hair that isn’t 

growing on your head. 

And if that’s not good enough

we’ll give you hot wax to yank it out,

but if you really want to be perfect

and rid of it forever. we’ll give you lasers. 

And to fix your shape we’ll give you

bras that make you look bigger

and pills to make you look smaller. 

Special foods to help lose weight,

special shoes and clothes to wear

because they’ll help flatter you

so you look presentable. 

There are ointments and lotions

to make your future wrinkles go away

lip-glosses to make you 

have a kissable plumpness. 

Exfoliators to scratch off 

the dead weight on your face. 

Gyms will be open 24 hours a day

so you can constantly fix your figure. 

But if the pills, and the running,

the bra stuffing, and lip plumping 

still can’t fix you we’ll offer you a knife,

an injection, or suction. 

This is for the girls who haven’t seen 

their own face in years. 

Who can’t remember their 

natural hair color

and paint their faces daily.

This is for everyone who is

crest-fallen because not enough
strangers found you suitable to sleep with.

This is to my some-day future daughter,
With eyes swollen shut from insecurity begging me
“Mom will I be pretty? Will I be pretty?”
I will wipe that question from your mouth
like cheap lipstick and answer,
“No! The word pretty is unworthy of
everything you will be, and no child
of mine will be contained in five letters.”

“You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative,
pretty amazing. But you, will never be merely ‘pretty’.”