American Woman

Believe what you want about me
You're going to anyway
Because society has given you
This flawed perception of me

If I'm too fat for you, then
I need to be thin
If I discover the slender side
of my physicality, then
I need a psychiatrist
and a cheeseburger.

If i wear my clothing modest
you spit the words frigid-nun
all over my sensuality
Smear my sexuality
with a virgin label

Yet when I celebrate the beauty
of my own human body
you exploit me and use me
for consumerism and capitalism
then turn around and label me
whore, bitch, slut
then justify your discrimination
with your lies

Give me the opportunity to be equal
just like you then
you use my motherhood
to deny me the ability
to rise any higher
Barely giving me the chance to be
balanced with you
but never the chance
to surpass

So look upon me how you will
See in me what
you've been taught to see
distort me in ways that
make you comfortable
Hide my identity in strewed lies

But you will not kill me, for
I am thriving under all of the smut
I am smiling under this plastic mask
Learning to love myself
Despite what you see
For I know
you are blind