Beauty

I envy the perfectly smooth deeply black skin of some of the girls here, while they get worried whenever I spend too much time in the sun, as they think “the whiter the better”. I would love to have a huge “afro”, loads of tiny black curls to occasionally plait elaborately. But little girls ask me to touch my hair, as it’s the same as that of dolls and they look at me in astonishment when I suggest that I’m thinking of cutting it very short (how can you!!!). While I’m worried about gaining weight, around here telling you “oh, you are getting “bigger”!” is considered a compliment and big “bottoms” are much appreciated by most men. Being tall might be the only thing we all consider a feature of beauty.

In men, beards and moustaches are highly appreciated: I’ve seen the ugliest men become “interesting” just because of the right amount of facial hair!

Also, while a man is expected to keep in shape to some extent, a belly is considered a trait of prosperity and probably richness and thus far from being considered a big no-no.

I guess it all has something to do with the fact that we usually consider beautiful what we don’t have (or have in limited quantity). And I also think it’s a matter of moving to the right place in order to be the next beauty queen! ;-)