Wubetin FileGa..
December 19, 2008 at 1:19 pm 2 comments
“Mauritania, here I come!”
That’s what Oprah declared when a beautiful interviewee from the land of plenty (of dimpled arms, force-feeding parents and overweight divorcées who have sex around the clock) told her that Mauritainian men preferred their women the way their dogs liked their bones, with meat on them. Plenty of meat! The bigger the better.
After taking a longer-than-usual time with her Mauritanian guest, saying there was hope for all of us and singing “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day” in an impressive voice (atleast I think it was ‘it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day’ too many emotions were flying hither and thither that I spent most of the time examining my nails), the first black billionaire with a sunny disposition turned to her audience and said “you see… (with a voice that suggested another ‘you see’ was pending) beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”. Proving, once and for all, a point I’ve been forced to make a couple of times. That you don’t have to be a genius to be a billionaire in this country – and apparently, in America too.
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Perhaps no one feels MotoMoto better than a Mauritanian when he makes his way to the prettiest hippo singing “I like em big, I like em chunky, I like em round, with something something”. Maybe a culture that celebrates divorce and treats middle-aged divorcées as an eye-candy sounds too good to be true. But how can beauty be in the eyes of the beholder when society is dictating the terms of who should be considered beautiful and who should not? When parents are giving appetizing medicines, meant for camels of all people!, to their 8-10 year old girls so they could land a husband sooner than the 8-10 year old girl next door?! When American women are still spending billions of dollars a year over beauty products that, a study showed almost a decade ago, would take atleast 6 African countries out of debt by the hand?!
“Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”! Isn’t it about time we discard this FairyProverb and tell our kids the truth, so they don’t end up with a broken heart as many a young woman has?!
Feel free to differ.
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1.
Ras X | December 19, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I differ on many
a.
Africa. If the AU got together with Barack, they could bail out the U.S. in a stroke of the pen. More money then all of Americas’ war put together (including Revolution and Civil Wars) is what the bail out came to over 3 months. All it is, is a signature with the promise to pay back, fake money that doesn’t exist. Credit. Although I do like the exchange of Real Looking women in America for the triple R’s in Africa.
b.
Brothers. Deep down, we only care about the attitude of a woman. Believe it or not, beauty just happens to be something we are told is important, just like woman are. Yet, can anyone tell anyone why big breasts and big butts are sexier than small ones. A million dollars says there are none. In fact, I bet there was a time in history when beauty was considered far different than what it is today.
c.
Cougars. Celebrating divorce and thinking middle aged divorcees are eye-candy is not too good to be true. They are actually the biggest threat to single young woman trying to land men left and right.
d.
Divorce. If we celebrated marriage and divorce in opposite manners as it is now, we would stay true to common sense. I actually agree with you on this
e.
Empress Taitu. She is number 5 on my list of top ten women of the century (any century).
f.
Fairy Proverb(funny, good description of “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”). Yeah, going to need a lot more than that. Good thing to, gives writers a chance to tackle it. Where there is on Fairy Proverb spun on its head, there’s another one lurking.
g.
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble. I just read about the traditions in Mauritania. I’m just going to say, its not what I thought. Enough to drive some one mad.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18141550/
2.
abesheet | December 20, 2008 at 6:37 am
Well.. well.. well..
Somebody has done his homework ;). How are you Rasye? How is the family: mistoch, lijoch, kebtoch? 🙂 .
To come to your detailed comment, I should have perhaps given a prelude (is that the word?) on why I found Oprah’s “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” more ridiculous than i usually find it. This show was entitled, i believe, “standards of beauty from around the world”. Atleast, that was the gist of it. Through her either fans or agents from various cultures, she gave us a sneak-look of what their particular brand of beauty is/was. And what they did to achieve it. I haven’t gotten to that part but my sister Blen has told me the Mursis of Ethiopia, who put clay in their lips to win a heart, have been showed earlier. Imagine, then, how disappointing and confusing it looks when she bounds in, complete with dancing shoes and flower basket, “celebrating” the fact that “beauty was in the eyes of the beholder”! As i told my husband when discussing the show, if beauty indeed was in the eyes of the beholder, Oprah should have given us what qualifies as “beautiful” to each and every SIX BILLION man/woman/and child on the planet. I’ll get into the best of your points on Monday.. when i don’t have to pay a birr for 5 minutes in an internet cafe that takes not less than 20 minutes to open a page.
Enjoyed reading your comments though ;). Keep visiting brah.