Trappings of Beauty
I’m always discovering new horrible things that women have done in order to fit into beauty standards now and in the past. Whether it is the recent Western Barbie-doll ideal, Muslim women spending their lives hidden from the world, or Chinese children having their feet bound or many, many others; men (and the women they use as enforcers) have forced women to go through entire lives of abuse and shame in order to look the right way.
So when I read this article on the BBC News site about girls in Mauritania being force-fed, it struck as a bit of a novel approach to the abuse, but I don’t think it is any different from what young girls and women all over the world deal with every day. Why can’t we just accept that people are different and quit trying to force everyone to conform to these arbitrary ideals? Our depraved obsession with destroying anyone who falls outside of certain parameters is going to end up destroying all of us. No one fits into them and anyone who claims they do is a hypocrite.
She argued that in the end the girls were grateful.
“When they are small they don’t understand, but when they grow up they are fat and beautiful,” she said.
“They are proud and show off their good size to make men dribble. Don’t you think that’s good?”
No, I think it is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read. It’s right up there with “Do it to Julia!”
It’s so very sad that so many cultures, ours included, focus so much on women looking a certain way. All sorts of bodies are attractive, and that is secondary to health anyway. I think the only way to overcome this is to emphasize to women and girls that they are unique people who have intrinsic value. It’s harder for me to fall into the body image trap when I’m busy with the things that interest me and the people I care about. Women need to know that there is much more to life than fitting an arbitrary idea of beauty.
Very sad, just like the Alley McBulemic standard set in this country.