The Body Politic
Dressed
for success
with the tops of your breasts
or your bare naked chest
washboard abs and pecs
visible to all the rest
in the name
of displays
of the results of your endless quest
for top “health and fitness”
To obtain
and maintain
the perfect body
Your sexuality
not your personality
constantly consumed publicly
While others choose to dress modestly
Their minds, opinions and personalities
in the foreground
Not like yours – well hidden in the background
The neverending stress
of the need to look your “best”
plastic surgery rendering faces and bodies a total mess
Hair so full of dye and bleach
its texture resembles that of a bird’s nest
Mutton so desperately wanting to look like lamb
Aesthetics and ideals?
A total sham
All of this to avoid becoming depressed by continually striving to be ogled and gawked at by your preferred sex?
Puking up what your body hasn’t yet had the chance to digest
so your idea of physical perfection will somehow magically manifest
You think that walking around half naked is the epitome of progress
and their modesty is a tool to repress?
East vs. West?
I speak not in jest
The profit margins of countless industries rely on your dissatisfaction with yourself
your appearance
and your unhappiness
and your notions of your own liberation and equality compared to those
whose lives
and worth
are regarded as something less
than yours
Now tell me who’s oppressed
AN FRAOCH 