It’s no surprise that women have had to fight tooth and nail for everything that we want to accomplish in this world. I’m not saying men don’t have to fight for what they have, but just not in the same way as women. You see, unfortunately this is a man’s world, and while women are continuing to try and shatter the glass ceiling, it can be a little discouraging when there are setbacks. Society has this warped image of how women should look, act, dress, etc. including young girls. Pink was not afraid to bring this topic up during her touching acceptance speech this year to her daughter at the VMAs.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Pink fan or not, her speech speech brought tears to my eyes due to the context. Let me start by saying, I personally love Pink’s music, she has songs to listen to when you need to just sit and cry, songs to scream at the top of your lungs with your friends in the car, and even those songs that you need to listen to when you’re angry. No child or woman should look at themselves and think, “I’m the ugliest girl I know.” This statement came from Pink’s daughter, who’s just six years old. Yup, you read that right. She’s only six and already having these thoughts about herself. Like I’m sorry, but what?! Willow sweetie, I’m so sorry about whoever said that and put that thought into your head that you’re the ugliest girl you know and look like a boy. I’m right there with your mama when she thought, “Can I kick a 6-year-olds a**?” You’re way too young and to be having these thoughts. Their opinion of you is completely wrong, so pay no attention to them. Keep your head up and just know that you’re a beautiful young lady.
I’m not a parent, so I can’t even begin to think of how Pink must’ve felt when she heard these words come out of her daughter’s mouth. To show Willow that she was perfect the way she is and that she doesn’t need to change, she went home and made a PowerPoint which contained Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Annie Lennox, Prince, Janis Joplin, George Michael, and Elton John. Pink says that they “were androgynous rockstars and artists that live their truth, are probably made fun of every day of their life, and carry on, wave their flag and inspire the rest of us.” This being said, I completely agree. So many things have been said about all of these artists, but they stayed true to who they were and I personally find this extremely inspiring. At some point in our lives we have looked at ourselves in the mirror and wanted to change something about ourselves. A good portion of the time these thoughts came from someone else pointing out something they don’t like and feel inclined to tell us that we need to change.
Pink then went on to say that she thinks she looks like a boy, and then proceeds to point out that she doesn’t change all these things about herself in order to please other people because she’s still selling out arenas all over the world. Right there she proves that you don’t have to change a thing about yourself in order to be successful. Instead, you can take all the things that people are saying about you and use them as motivation to prove them all wrong. While the negative comments might be a minor setback, they don’t necessarily have to keep you from achieving your dreams.