Are you an Image or a Reflection?

So, I chose two slam poetry videos because I couldn't decide between them.

The first one is by a girl named Kayan James:

I love this because she's so young and so unafraid to challenge the ideas of beauty and the values we hold. As a teenage girl, every line she speaks can relate directly to me. It's amazing and resonating, to listen to her beautifully accented voice blaring out that "Weaves and facades will not hide you in this transparent world," and, "If Covergirl would have made identity, she would have used it too... but they didn't, so she covered girl like the title." She is wise and witty at the same time, and the final line is super convicting:

"Are you an image, or a reflection?"

The second is called "This is for You."

I chose this because I think it's really interesting that there are three performers, and you can just tell they all really believe in what they're saying. There is so much passion and anger and apology, it takes your breath away, and I'm not a feminist, but it was really refreshing to hear how much respect they have for and are trying to communicate to women. And even though I don't agree with everything they say, they way the main performer performs almost makes me want to change my mind. It's aggressive and uplifting and really well done.

"No matter how low your self-esteem is, you do not jeapordize their existence." 

"Crazy, sexy, from the petite sisters to the big mamas, sexy and fuckin' crazy to think you have to do anything to change that."

And only now, after I've posted them both one after the other, do I realize that their messages are totally tied together: one is about abandoning the shallow ideals society has set for us, and the other is about accepting and respecting and abandoning the idea that we should have to change ourselves for the sake of shallow society.