Mauritania: Where Fat is Desirable

I've seen footage of Africans clapping people because they're fat. You can understand it in areas where getting enough to survive is a daily problem.

Not sure if that's the cultural background here.

Cheers
Mike.

The "slim-down" campaign will not work in Mauritania anymore than the "Fat is beautiful" movement will work in Western cultures. If food becomes scarce in the West and Mauritanians become swamped with junk food, then we will see a change. Until then, we have to accept that in our world, thin is in.

I wouldn't necessarily say that thin is in, but rather healthy is in. Everybody's perceptions of healthy are different.

Michelle,

If healthy were in, healthy people wouldn't be trying to lose weight to fit into smaller sizes.

It’s nice that this country is not inundated with mass media (yet), but what they do is cruel none-the-less. The pressure to look a certain way sucks no matter where you are.

:( Pressuring someone to be fat or to be thin, and insisting that is the only path to beauty, is NEVER okay.

@Lily T - The line about women not being reached by 'mass media' was actually more troubling than 'nice.' The point was that reaching OUT to these women is exceedingly difficult since women predominantly spend their entire lives in the domiciles, unable to be reached by government campaigns or even given the potential to share experiences with other women to make changes.

Needless to say, this is not 'new' and isn't only tied to wealth and prestige, a fatter women is easier to monitor and is deemed less likely to have the energy to engage in sexual activities before marriage and less likely to have sexual affairs with other men. The forced obesity is wielded as a chastity belt in a way.

The idea of thin=attractive is a fairly new concept. Through out history the female form was always represented as being bigger and more velouptous. This made sense as women who were fatter could have and carry children easier. I do not agree with the comment that it is a forced chasity on women. This argument does not even make sense when looking at what the article here is discussing. If the larger body is the most desired then it would make sense that the larger a woman was the more sexually desired she would be. Not the other way around. You seem to be falling for the myth that a fatter women would be lazy and once again less attractive which shows your biased western viewpoint. The actual culture of the Islamic religion is what forces women into docility, weight has nothing to do with this as we can look at the other countries in the world that have Islamics in them to see that while not every Islamic woman is fat they all must follow the guidelines set by their religion. This is no different than Chinese foot binding, Beauty schools from the 50's or modelling agencies telling young women to stop eating, remove ribs or shave bone. This has to do with becoming what society has deemed attractive at any cost to find a mate. While this culture does it in their way and while we may find their practices disturbing we also have to look at our own culture and see where and what we are doing to our young girls. Is it any less barbaric in nature? NO and by tricking ourselves into believing that it is, is what is allowing us to keep propegating the same ideas and behaviour behind it. Before we critize another culture we should be making sure that we are not being hypocritical and blind to the same behavior that is prevalent in our own society.

Their life expectancy is in their early to mid 50's.

Just sayin'

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mr.html#People

Robyn said:
The idea of thin=attractive is a fairly new concept. Through out history the female form was always represented as being bigger and more velouptous. This made sense as women who were fatter could have and carry children easier. I do not agree with the comment that it is a forced chasity on women. This argument does not even make sense when looking [...]

I totally agree with your entire post.

This is very similar to the Polynesian nations. Fat used to be beautiful. Some committed suicide, then face the horrible life of living thin, by throwing themselves to the sharks...

mia said:
I totally agree with your entire post. [...]

Thank you :)

Now that's an interesting post...

I can't believe those children have to drink 5 gallons of camel milk per day...yuck

Good for them, the west is always pushing their ideals on the rest of the world. We don't know everything.

Yeah, the kid, good for them that they are making their women obese.

I would be so hot there.

Living in East Africa is not easy for those who have an American ideal of a healthy body image (i.e., normal BMI). I don't know how many times I cringed, knowing I was overweight but hearing a Kenyan talk about my "strong body." Being large is a sign that one has enough wealth to have plenty to eat.

When I was in the process of losing 40 pounds, I had Kenyan friends who wondered if I had the slimming disease (AIDS).

Beauty and the appearance of health (not necessarily the same as being truly healthy) are culturally determined.

I would be very unnattractive there.