Watch this powerful video of Lily Myers and her slam poem, “Shrinking Women” which won Best Love Poem at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in April and how she brilliantly expresses the pressure that women sometimes have to go through.
“Women in my family have been shrinking for decades,” declares Lily Myers.
Her poem, in which she uses herself and her mother as well as her father and brother to explain the difference between men and women in our current era, clearly depicts how we often feel as females at some point of our lives, whether it is at home or at the workplace.
Here are a few lines from her poem:
That’s why women in my family have been shrinking for decades.
We all learned it from each other, the way each generation taught the next how to knit
weaving silence in between the threads which I can still feel as I walk through this ever-growing house, skin itching,
picking up all the habits my mother has unwittingly dropped like bits of crumpled paper from her pocket on her countless trips from bedroom to kitchen to bedroom again,
Nights I hear her creep down to eat plain yogurt in the dark, a fugitive stealing calories to which she does not feel entitled.
Deciding how many bites is too many, how much space she deserves to occupy.
After stumbling upon her awesome performance and reading her words, we felt extremely compelled to share it with you because it made us ponder upon the issue of gender equality. Although it is a subject that has been discussed repeatedly, is gender equality really progressing for the fairer sex? We reckon that while some fortunate and bold females have taken a stand for themselves and are willing to revolutionize the way the world perceives females, many are still fearful and are persevering every minute of every day.
We recommend watching the entire video to fully take note of her lyrics, or you could just view them here. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below!
