This Mirror

She stares right through this mirror

She moves back casually turning to one side

Aggressively feeling her stomach, her thighs, her arms

She steps closer but this time to observe her face

Wondering why she had so many freckles

Why her nose was too flat

Why her cheeks were not high enough

Why her eyes could not be blue, like the girl who sits beside her in her english class

She continues to wonders

Pointing out every flaw

 

Models posing sexually on a magazine intrigued her to be just like them

The little girls on pageant runways made her conscious of her look

She thought, “maybe I’ll feel pretty then”

Her obsession became worse

Eating once a day or maybe not eating at all

Her stomach weak

Her arms frail

Her face craving attention

What did society do to her?

 

The next day she stares at this mirror again

The image of the model in her fashion magazine molded in her head

Her face contoured

Colored contacts to hideaway her natural eyes

Mini skirt with a scandalous top

And this time she was satisfied

Maybe not completely satisfied, but it was enough

 

Her little sisters asks what happened to her

That she looked different

That she missed her brown eyes

That she missed her pudgy face

That she missed her

 

She looks back at this mirror

and this time terrified

 

Summary:

For my final project, I chose to create a poem. The poem would be formulated into a story about female advertisements and its effect on women. I wanted to focus my idea on a mirror because it seemed very relevant to the idea of “looks.” I’ve always thought a mirror was a powerful object that can either bring positivity or negativity to someone’s life. In this scenario, I wanted to use the mirror as a negative object. We constantly see today girls in the bathroom looking at themselves in the mirror, putting on makeup, fixing their hair, or just simply taking a look of how they look.  I molded a story of a girl becoming insecure and self-conscious about the way she looked. She becomes heavily influenced by magazines, TV shows, and other sorts of social media. So, I incorporated in those aspects as well as eating disorders to exemplify her obsession of appearing some sort of way and what society defines as acceptable. I chose to embed the thought of how advertisements are only making females aware of their physical appearance in order for them to be considered attractive. Those were the main concepts I wanted to identify in the poem to highlight that as my importance. The story connected with my topic of women’s role in advertisements and the destructive mentality it has engraved into females mind. My audience was supposed to be directed towards females, but I thought this could also be relatable to both genders. I feel like physical appearance is something this generation takes in seriously and I wanted the story of this poem to reflect that. Overall, I thought a poem would be an effective medium to draw in the audience through an emotional level. When something is experienced emotionally, the concept becomes captivating which is what I hope this poem does to the audience. I also thought a poem would do an excellent job in leaving the audience with something to think about in the end. I hope that the poem gave the audience something to think about without it sounding demanding or harsh.