Thesis: One of the most discussed subjects in modern society is the ideals of beauty. There are different ideas of beauty all over the world. For instance, in America more people finds girls who are skinnier to be more attractive but in Rebecca Popenoe’s Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty, And Sexuality among a Saharan People, she studies another culture ideas of beauty, and they are different from ours. We even see in the media what makes a woman beautiful and what doesn’t. However, while investigating this ethnography, I realized that the ideas of female’s beauty affect them in more ways than one and the gender roles in the community of Azawagh are very fundamental. Their religious ideal, their kinship, and their cultures play a huge role in throughout the entire ethnographic report. I will be exploring evidence from the book to show how these gender roles shape and construct the backbone of the Saharan people.
Intro (roadmap): The ethnographic report compares the western ideals to those of the culture that praises fatness as the ideal body type for women. This study, in depth, also addresses the Azawagh Arabs traditions in relation to sexuality and bodily ideals specifically dealing with the female body. The book explains the process involved in fattening the women by feeding them with plenty of cereal in form of porridge and milk. There is a form of immobility feeding employed where movement is discouraged and women confined in tents. This ethnography explains the visual beauty they derive from being fat and the appreciation of their men for this bodily state. The book also explains the social life of the Azawagh and how the women are confined to the community, while the men orbit around them and travel outside. The report go...
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...nce (food) is going very well, likely meaning he is wealthy. Basically the women are sitting, immobile, within the tent and they have the control but are the domesticated center of their household. This means the men need a lean body for moving outwards to engage economic activities such as herding and trade which is important for their wives and their wealth. But the woman has the control over their husband, by waiting till the night to discuss what the point is on their mind as that is in the time where a man can’t refuse them, their yearning and sexual desire forces them to listen pretty much. The men need to tend to their wives needs in so many ways since the importance of innocence and captivity is ideal in the society.
Works Cited
Popenoe, Rebecca. Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty, and Sexuality among a Saharan People. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
The center of discussion and analysis about the sex/gender system focus on the differences between African, European and Creole Women. The sex/gender system describe by Morgan focus on their production, body and kinship. European women are seen as domestic, African women’s work overlaps between agricultural and pastoral. They’ll work in the field non-stop, even after giving birth. African women hold knowledge about the pastoral and agricultural work “in the planting and cultivation of fields the daily task of a good Negro Woman” (145). While Creole women were subordinated, with the job of produce and reproduce. When it came to body, European women’s bodies were seeing as fragile. After birth the rest for a while before they could stand back again or return to their activities “European observers believed the post-delivery period of abstinence lasted three months, and others commented up two- to three year period o...
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
In Miner’s essay there exists a large focus on the immense and self-depriving issue of physical modification. The native people’s culture believes “that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (Miner 471). This is a comment on American, and perhaps on a broader scope, Western, society’s involvement in body enhancements and modifiers. This shows that Miner argues that humanity is from nature, but society places them apart from it, thereby allowing for this modification. The Nacireman view of weight loss, weight gain, breast enlargement, and breast
In the field of academia, ethnographic studies are often overlooked as a serious source and reviewed as literature for the mass populace. Because of the often common language, fluid writing styles, format, and production of typical ethnographies, it is much more appealing and attainable to popular culture than the research within a scholarly journal or anthology. Although, perhaps instead of deeming ethnographic work unworthy of a scholarly title due to the appeal it possess, historians should relish in this relativity new form of research for its popularity. Ethnographic studies provide readers with a rare and untarnished micro historic view of the customs of a particular culture or individuals within said culture. Opposing most academia, these studies can sometimes be void in political agenda and personal biases, providing the audience with more objective material. Ethnographies often allow readers to see private and intimate moments within the milieu of the subject which is not often reserved for public life, which is the typically sphere of scholarly study; because of this tendency, individuals and groups which lack a strong public voice are frequently the foci of ethnographic studies. Throughout history women have often been the victims of such marginalization, with a recent focus on Eastern and Islamic women. Considering the previous, Muslim women and gender have been the center of contemporary ethnographic studies, giving a voice to non-Westernized Muslim women and providing a natural research of gender relations with little bias or political agenda.
Suggested roles of all types set the stage for how human beings perceive their life should be. Gender roles are one of the most dangerous roles that society faces today. With all of the controversy applied to male vs. female dominance in households, and in the workplace, there seems to be an argument either way. In the essay, “Men as Success Objects”, the author Warren Farrell explains this threat of society as a whole. Farrell explains the difference of men and women growing up and how they believe their role in society to be. He justifies that it doesn’t just appear in marriage, but in the earliest stages of life. Similarly, in the essay “Roles of Sexes”, real life applications are explored in two different novels. The synthesis between these two essays proves how prevalent roles are in even the smallest part of a concept and how it is relatively an inevitable subject.
8. Nawal El-Saadawi, "The Hidden Face of Eve, Women in the Arab World," translated and edited by Sherif Hettata, Zed Press, London, 1980, pg.33
In Ibn Battuta’s description of his time in West Africa, he frequently writes of his disapproval in the way women dress and behave in this culture. In traditional Islam society, women are typically under the tight control of their husbands or fathers, and cover their faces with veils so as to not draw any unwanted attention. However, in this region, Battuta notes that, “With regard to their women, they are not modest in the presence of men, they do not veil
Ofuso, H., Lafreniere, K., Senn, C., (1998) Body image And perception among young women of african descent: A normative context? Feminism and Psychology, 8, 303-323.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections On Cultural Relativism And Its Others." American Anthropologist 104.3 (2002): 783-790. Print.
Wemmers (1996) highlights that an effective criminal justice system also protects human rights. Victims are gradually being seen as the notable possessors of such rights that lead to reviews in our domestic system and also by international bodies. The protection of said rights, such as in South Africa where less express definitions between ‘victim’ and ‘human’ rights are being made by policy m...
This essay shall undertake a critical evaluation of the changes Western culture has had on Muslim woman in Morocco and how it has impacted their cultural norms. This shall be achieved by examining the changes in the areas of health, marital life, and education. Consideration shall be given to traditional Muslim life in Morocco and the changes that have been experienced in this country, before examining what may be described as a toxic infestation of Western culture and its effects and a conclusion reached.
To say the beauty ideal of Mauritania is “full figured” is a vast understatement, they take the Western love for an ultra slim figure and flip it upside down. The path toward Mauritania's definition of beauty is lined with what most of the world would consider child abuse. The women of Mauritania participate in the tradition of leblouh- intensive force-feeding. Parents send their young girls to remote “fat farms” in the desert where they are force fed up to 16,000 calories a day. These farms are run by “professional force-feeders” who beat and torture girls who don't comply with the strict eating schedules set out for them. One of these such professionals seemed confused as to how this could even be seen as child abuse saying, “"No, no, it's
Saka, Honorable. "The Doctor's Report." : African Beauty, Threatened By Western Civilization. N.p., 29 May 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
... study reports, “Although all women rate certain inner qualities as very important to making a woman beautiful, women in Italy and Brazil in particular place greater value than those in other countries in physical appearance, facial and skin appearance, and body weight and shape in defining a woman’s beauty” (Etcoff et al.). While each Italian or Brazilian citizen is free to formulate their own definition of beauty, their culture has played a part in influencing those opinions. In Brazil, where many suffer from eating disorders, being thin represents physical beauty. In Mauritania, on the other hand, overeating occurs not necessarily to look beautiful, but mainly as a symbol of success and happiness. Therefore, countries like Brazil and Italy, where anorexic figures are desired for physical attractiveness, play a role in influencing their residents’ ideas of beauty.
Have you ever wondered why we have more male African leaders than female? African women have always been active in agriculture, trade, and other economic pursuits, but a majority of them are in the informal labor force .Woman still hold the largest role in the culture. Actually they have a significant role on the African culture.By raising and teaching the kids culture and treating sickness , while the men are usually out working. Even though when men work woman also work and they do not nearly get paid as much as men .