The Beauty Battle: A Poem About the Culture of Competition

2016-12-26 The Beauty Battle Poem - watercolor image of face with paint dripping down, in browns, oranges, pinks, purple, and blues

They came ready to battle,

And said “it’s what we’re supposed to do!”

Prepared to fight till death,

Because their town had told them to.

They faced against their sisters,

In each hand there was a sword.

Their minds were set on winning,

The badge of beauty, their reward.

They barely knew each other,

For their town had done away,

With the place they used to gather,

To talk and laugh and play.

And so the sisters fought each other,

Unsure what they were fighting for.

And the judges sat and watched them,

Ready to silently keep score.

But just before they raised their swords,

And began this brutal game,

One girl threw her sword aside,

Said “this is crazy, we’re all the same!

We do not have to fight for beauty,

In order to survive.

From beating one another down,

True beauty does not derive.

Why would we compete for beauty?

It’s not a scarce resource!

It’s uniquely there in all of us,

It is not won through force.

The town likes us to go to battle,

Because they think it’s fun,

To watch us cut each other down,

But I, for one, am done!

These judges have no authority,

Unless we say they do,

And I say they haven’t got the right,

To say whose beauty’s true!

If we put down our shields and swords

And come together we’ll realize,

Far greater than any badge of beauty,

Is friendship as our prize.

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