Beauty matters. Well, at least for some. From the clothes you choose to wear (and the ones you don’t) to the items you own, everything surrounding you changes how people perceive you, even things completely out of someone’s control. Pressures to adhere to societal norms can cause long-term harm for certain people, but others can take this concept in stride. Due to different upbringings, along with different environmental influences, it allows for a range of perspectives. “Girl” by Alexander Chee, a reflection piece on Chee’s experience with femininity, along with the Slam Poetry video “Pretty” by Katie Makkai about her experience with being physically desirable due to pressures with societal norms, bring to the surface the experiences women
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Both Chee’s and Makkai’s experiences have positive takes on the same issue, but both perspectives are taken from different angles. Chee takes the idea of being viewed in conjunction with insecurities he’s faced with growing up. He continues by bringing up this new found feeling and how it’s foreign to how he’s viewed himself when not dressing in drag:
This beauty I find when I put on drag then; it is made up of these talismans or power, a balancing act of the self-hatreds of at least two cultures, an act I’ve engaged in my whole life, here on the fulcrum I make of my face. That night, I find I want this beauty to last because it seems more powerful than any beauty I’ve had before. Being pretty like this is stronger than any drug I’ve tried (6).
Despite this positive viewpoint, Chee has also felt uncomfortable under the gaze at certain points, which still plays an important role in the overall experience of being viewed. The loving attention he receives while walking down the street can easily take a dark turn, and in his writing, he acknowledges there is always some sense of danger (9). Being a woman provides a sense of normalcy, especially when keeping the heteronormal narrative in
Both Chee’s and Makkai’s experiences have positive takes on the same issue, but both perspectives are taken from different angles. Chee takes the idea of being viewed in conjunction with insecurities he’s faced with growing up. He continues by bringing up this new found feeling and how it’s foreign to how he’s viewed himself when not dressing in drag:
This beauty I find when I put on drag then; it is made up of these talismans or power, a balancing act of the self-hatreds of at least two cultures, an act I’ve engaged in my whole life, here on the fulcrum I make of my face. That night, I find I want this beauty to last because it seems more powerful than any beauty I’ve had before. Being pretty like this is stronger than any drug I’ve tried (6).
Despite this positive viewpoint, Chee has also felt uncomfortable under the gaze at certain points, which still plays an important role in the overall experience of being viewed. The loving attention he receives while walking down the street can easily take a dark turn, and in his writing, he acknowledges there is always some sense of danger (9). Being a woman provides a sense of normalcy, especially when keeping the heteronormal narrative in