Last night I caught a few minutes of HBO's new documentary series 'Vice', which introduced a new worldly view of beauty to me: the women of Mauritania. These women are force fed in camps at young ages so that they can be as heavy as possible.
Photo: JOOST DE RAEYMAEKER/Marie Claire Magazie
OddityCentral.com reports:
"While the whole world is obsessed over getting thin, it seems there are far-flung places in the world today where fat is still considered a thing of beauty. Not in a good way, though. In the West African nation of Mauritania, it is so important for girls to be fat that they are sent away to fat camp – the opposite of the western version – during school holidays, to put on oodles of weight."
Here, in the Western World, we have become so obsessed with svelte, underfed views of beauty that lead to drugs, unhealthy eating habits, and a slew of eating disorders. Personally, I grew up in a house plagued with obesity and eating issues. Influenced by the outside world, I promised myself I would never allow myself to succumb to obesity. In turn, I developed an unhealthy view of my own body, plagued with my own body dysmorphia. I remember learning in grade school of the Russian Catherine the Great; and how she was known for her robust figure - a sign of opulence and wealth. I remember thinking - as a kid - GROSS. "I'll stick to skinny, thank you very much." But, again, this comes from my world's influential view.
When someone like Kate Moss rules the fashion world, admired by the world as beautiful, obese is not often our view of pretty. This is a woman known for her svelte figure, substance use and abuse, and we define her as a top-tiered version of beauty. No one viewing Miss Moss as a beauty icon is sending their children to weight-gain-camps. Period.
Despite our own skewed views of beauty in the Western World, I was pretty horrified watching and learning about the women in Mauritania and their view of beauty.
OddityCentral.com continues to explain:
"According to women’s rights campaigner Mint Ely, girls as young as five are subjected to the tradition known as Leblouh each year. Leblouh is an attempt to groom young girls for potential suitors, involving the consumption of gargantuan amounts of food; even vomit, if it refuses to stay down. Ely says that in Mauritania, a woman’s size indicates the space she occupies in her husband’s heart. So to make sure no other woman can ever have room, girls are sent away for Leblouh at special farms where older women will administer the necessary diet. It’s rather appalling to know that 5, 7 and 9-year-olds are expected to consume a daily diet of two kilos of pounded millet mixed with two cups of butter and 20 liters of camel’s milk. Their daily consumption comes up to a whopping 16,000 calories.
"This process is usually done during school holidays or in the rainy season when milk is plentiful. Torture methods are employed in case the girls aren’t eating as much as they are expected to. Fatima M’baye, a children’s rights lawyer, says, “The girl is sent away from home without understanding why. She suffers but is told that being fat will bring her happiness. Matrons use sticks which they roll on the girl’s thighs, to break down tissue and hasten the process.” Some other torture methods include ‘zayar’, where two sticks are inserted on each side of a toe. If a child refuses to eat or drink, the matron will squeeze the sticks together, causing a lot of pain. If successful, the fattening process will cause a 12-year-old child to weigh 80kg. “If she vomits, she must drink it,” says M’baye. “By the age of 15, she will look 30.”
16,000 calories a day?? I can't imagine a binge-fest equalling to such numbers. And not only that, but these girls are restrained, forced not to move for days at a time.
Take a look at this horribly inhumane process:
Decrease mobility, gain more weight. It's all a ploy to fatten these girls up like a duck farm, restrained in cages, fattened with hormone injections. This brings Foie Gras to mind. (Wikipedia.org defines Foie Gras: "French for "fat liver" - is a food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened.. By French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck fattened by force feeding corn with a gavage... Its flavor is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of an ordinary duck or goose liver.") Foie Gras farms in California, for example, have been made illegal due to the inhumane practices of fattening up these ducks.
Take a look at Foie Gras, yet another horrible inhumane process:
The real question for me is: Human Foie Gras, appetizing or not?
For me, not so much. While I implore the Western World to reclassify what our own version of pretty is, veering away from unhealthy, overly svelte model land, I can't imagine indulging force-fed practices as the solution.
Thoughts or opinions?
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