Lily Myers’s Slam Poetry: Performing Protest in “Shrinking Women”

Abstract

“Shrinking Women” by Lily Myers is a slam poem that won the best poem at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) in 2013. The poem is a strong expression of protest against the existing gender discrimination in all spheres of a woman’s life, with special focus on the issue of maintaining the right weight, perfect figure which defines their relationship to food and their bodies. She highlights the issues by giving the example of the women of her family, her mother and her grandmother and how she is accidentally inheriting the same relationship, the effect of which can be clearly seen on her self esteem and the confidence of her body as she is taught to accommodate. The present paper aims to study by a feminist approach the gender stereotypes and expectations that exist in the society and how Lily Myers uses poetry to protest against them. The paper will also study the unrealistic expectations placed by the patriarchal society on women for maintaining their bodies, unable to do so, often leads to body shaming which directly leads to shrinking of their confidence and self-esteem. It will highlight the patriarchal process that ultimately leads to internalisation of ideas about beauty, space and silence, which are accidentally absorbed by the younger generations of the family.