BODY IMAGE Poem: Pretty Privilege, by Debra Tracy

Eleven.
Me and my best friend
walking down the street.
Catcalled.

Thirteen.
Boobs overnight.
High school boys
pitching pennies at me,
a carnival game I didn’t agree to play.

So I wore my dad’s shirts.
Big.
Boxy.
Tried to fold myself into the fabric,
small enough to vanish.

Thiry-four.
Bakered.
Seventy-two hours.
Security sat with me,
watching,
waiting for a bed.
I asked why.

He said—
Do you know what the tallest building in this town is?

This hospital.

The sitter leaned in,
patted my hand,
you’re too pretty to be here.

Sweet baby Jesus.

Release day.
Here’s your things.
Signed the papers.
Told me I was free.

I took the elevator up.
Not down.

Wondering
if they’d say it again—
Too pretty.
Too young.

Pretty.
Even in the fall

femalefilmfestival's avatar

By femalefilmfestival

The irony of this festival is that its goal is to not be around in 5 years time. To eventually not be relevant because there is zero need to have a festival geared for female talent and female stories because the stories presented in Hollywood and around the world are a balanced showcase of the human experience from both sexes. Our goal is to achieve a lot of success and then fold into oblivion simply because there is no need for this festival. This festival was created by the FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival as a simple reaction to a strong need to showcase female talent from around the world in a more profound way. When putting together the weekly festival, the administration noticed a lack of a female presence in the stories being shown at the festival. A classic example and analogy to the frustration is how the festival noticed that even the smaller roles in a screenplay were written for a man to play. There was zero reason for this in many stories. How a police officer, or a political campaign manager, for example with 3-4 lines in a screenplay was a "HE" character. Why? And these are the screenplays written by the winners! The talented one who have obtained agents and have began/beginning their careers as a writer.

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