She Was Pretty Until She Spoke…

A boy approaches you after you get off stage and tells you you’re pretty but says nothing about your performance…

A man approaches you in a vulnerable position while you’re out walking with your child and asks in a questionable tone “what you doing??” Then says you look nice…

Do you smile and take the compliment, happy that a boy or a man acknowledged your appearance and wanted to make comment on it?

Things have been happening over on YouTube👀

Ayanna Florence is a spoken word artist who has a poem titled “Boy Calls Me Pretty” this performance was posted on YouTube several times but the most recent is the one that caught my attention. The comments caught my attention and inspired me to make a video.

There were comments basically stating that she was pretty… until she spoke. That she got mad over a compliment and couldn’t accept it and move on, that she was too aggressive with her delivery and so on…

The comments on my video were also interesting on the topic. Someone asked “was this video worthy” which I responded with “Yes, to me it was. Like how you felt it was comment worthy.”

🤷🏽‍♀️ thanks for the engagement.

Taking things too personal, and getting bold with comments. Ayanna is a spoken word artist. She has every right to take an experience and create something from it, it’s not her “not being able to take a compliment and move on.”

Imagine working on something, performing something with so much passion, pouring your heart out, and someone just tells you you’re pretty…

Now, I did mention that some people like small talk and maybe something about the poem or poetry in general was coming up after the compliment but still, it’s not like she cursed him out and walked away. We don’t know what she did or if it was even her exact experience. And why not just say “hi I’m (name here) I really liked your poem and I also wanted to say you’re really pretty/beautiful.” Something along those lines might have been better.

Shortly after making that video I took a walk to the park with my son.

Heading to the park for a parent meeting and to record some writing vlogs while my son plays, a random man approaches and startles me while I was bent over looking at ripped pages from a book. “What you doing?” He asks.

I felt uncomfortable caught off guard and also called him weird as he rode off on his bike. I can hear folks now saying “so we getting uncomfortable and calling men weird for complimenting…”

Maybe he could say I’m the weird one, recording ripped pages on the ground with my baby in the stroller beside me but I was minding my business not bothering anyone. I didn’t approach someone vulnerable who clearly didn’t see me coming. His tone threw me off as well when he asked. He then says “You look nice”🤷🏽‍♀️ Thanks…

What you doing? Vs HOW ARE YOU doing? In a certain tone. Or how about, “Hi, excuse me… how are you? Hi excuse me, what’s that you’re doing?”

Have you been in a similar situation? I’m sure most of us have. Did you feel uncomfortable or flattered? How would you have handled the situation from either side?

If you check out the videos please don’t hesitate to comment, whether you agree or not.

#vulnerability #embracevulnerability #unfiltered #Lemon8Diary #youtube #youtuber #youtuberecommendations #poetry #poetrycommunity #poems