Media Messaging of Body Standards
By: Melissa Uhran

​​​

​East Fork:

A Journal of the Arts​​


Adolescent prancing,

Wild locks of hair and crashing laughter.

Dreams of love in her eyes,

Running, tripping, and rolling in the earth.

No care for appearance, 

Allowed for the fur to grow on her legs and under her arms.

Her natural beauty was pure, special, and unscathed,

A priceless diamond before

Imprisonment.


It was destroyed and consumed,

By harsh light.

World view engulfed her,

In lush fair skin and plump breasts.

The voices screamed for sculpted curves,

Luscious lips, and doll-like eyes.

The images that broke her,

Were unscarred, unmarked, yet un-living.

Everywhere she ran to escape,

Though it was too late. 

The unloving spectators,

Watched as poison injected itself,

Through film, literature, and art in the street.

All for valuable papers,

Crinkling in their pockets.


Lust for individuality faded,

To lust for beauty.

Eyes glistened,

Glossed over with indifference. 

Cries in the peak of night,

Of wonder and confusion,

as they lost themselves.

The poison was relentless, 

Night and day. 

Maybe Man could wisp away,

In her arms show her truth.


From curled position,

Lost her form of identity. 

Alas he was poisoned as well,

With sexual desire in his eyes.

He pursued only to pray upon,

The images’ influence burned. 


Mother, sister, and friend,

Witness and subject of drowning,

In blushed features.

Hastily keeping up,

With the perky grins,

Expected to win diamonds on finger.

False ideas created by themselves.