Scars to Your Beautiful

Until now, I've mostly written here about pop classics and other music I'm not embarrassed that I like. All that's about to change, however, as I embark on a new series I'm calling:

Top 40 Nonsense That Makes Me Weeeeeep

You might recall from days of 0.00243056 yore that I didn't cry for a year or so because of hormones.
Maybe a year ago, I had another hormone shift and got my tears back in full force. That plus going through some relationship ups and downs, plus driving pretty regularly for work, equals a new hobby for me: CRYVING.

Rural Vermont doesn't have a ton of radio options, but no matter where I roam, I can usually count on finding a commercial pop station playing one of the handful of tunes I've come to rely on for easy tears. It's almost like they're formulated to manipulate my emotions and make me more susceptible to advertising or something.

Today's installation is by Alessia Cara, about whom I know practically nothing. This song begins harmlessly enough by describing an unnamed "she" who might be a fashion model or someone else who values being found attractive. You can already tell it's going to be a Feminism Lite self-worth anthem.

 

[This video version is a little different from the radio version in that it has people interrupting the song to talk about beauty standards, and it reminds me of those Dove ads.]

But something happens to me when the chorus starts. I hear "But there's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark," and something happens in my chest. At "You should know you're beautiful just the way you are," Cara is singing directly to my soul. Then comes "And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart," and it's all over. I'm sobbing. Because OMG it's truuuuueeee.

So many trans and gender-nonconforming folks get harassed, dismissed, outcast, and even killed because this world wants us to conform to some bullshit gender binary/biological determinism, and we do what we need to do to survive, and also fuck having to do anything to please a cissexist world. And fuck this US regime that is determined to starve us out and force us underground. We've always been here, and we're not going anywhere.

Also this: "I wasn't born in the wrong body, I was born in the wrong world." -Alok Vaid-Menon

 Seriously, watch this, it's so important.

Thanks. ILY.