As a female teen who spends time with people in many different walks of life, I've heard many perspectives on what femininity is, how femininity should or should not be performed, and who should be feminine. These poems explore what the term "femininity" means to each author, the author's relationship with femininity, and how feminine nature intersects with different facets of their identities.
tell me Venus again/ not the one of myth/ the one of romance/ and soft waves that/ lap on your toes/ for that Venus is a/ construction of your/ idealization of me.
tell me of the planet/ tell me of a world we thank God/ we don't live on/ tell me of the pressures and the heat/ the acid and the volcanoes/ the greenhouse-gone-mad/ and tell me that womanhood/ is something delicate. tell me Venus again/ paint her fingertips ceramic/ chisel her robes satin, and you're lying to me once more. look me in the eye/ and tell me Venus again/ and I'll show you Venus. - Venus by Vita.
You can find more of Vita's work at vitavolopoetry.blogspot.com.
i'll talk about stretch marks. because they happen to us all/ but we still see them as ugly/ we try so hard/ to rid our bodies of the off-color marks/ that reside on our butts/ and breasts/ and stomachs/ and thighs/ when really, all they mean is that we've grown. because they're normal and safe/ but they're still treated like an illness -- on the wikipedia page for "stretch marks"/ there's a section on prevention/ like the little lines on our stretched-out skin/ are inherently bad./ because there's a stigma surrounding them and by extension,
there's a stigma surrounding natural growth.
but why don't we look at these bodies we're in and see the marks on our skin/ and think of the times we've had with them?
the goods, the bads, the in-betweens -- our bodies have been with us our whole life
(and they won't leave until we do)/ why don't we see them as stories --
"this is from when i grew another human inside me/ for months she was with me/ and she left these marks on me/ to make sure/ i never forget her."/ "this is me, growing up -- i graduated from girl to teen to woman/ and my body did the same.
it happens to the best of us/ (and the worst of us)/ we aren't kids anymore, we've grown up/ and matured/ and so have our bodies.​ and that stigma surrounding the little marks on our butts/ and breasts/ and stomachs/ and thighs/ is what we should work to get rid of,
not our stretch marks. - an excerpt of Striae Distensae by Erica Larsen. You can find more about her on Instagram as @ericalarsen_ .
At age fifteen, I soak up everything and I learn that/ I exist at the crossroad of Blackness and girlhood/ I am not the same shade of feminine as my pale-skinned girl friends/ In the eyes of some, I will never be girly, or pretty, or cute. There is no space for me to be Black and a girl in their minds
In their eyes, girlhood is weak, lesser, non-threatening, innocent, and unassuming/ And Blackness is its opposite: strong, spit-fire Sapphire, mature, and full of itself. I understand "Ain't I a Woman?" though I am not yet one/ I am a seedling of what's to come, and I condition the soil for my blossoming/ At age fifteen/ I whisper "Black Girl Magic" to myself/ I learn to define cuteness for myself/ I become as irrepressible as my hair. - an excerpt from A Darker Shade of Feminine by Mimi (yours truly).
Thank you for reading.