In The Eye of The Beholder

In the Eye of the Beholder

Droopy décolletage, dimpled thighs and belly roll are assets to reckon with somewhere... Sagging breasts are sexy in Senegal. Chubby thighs are the rage in part of Thailand Whereas, belly rolls are the epitome of desirability in some Saharan countries. "Indeed, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but standards vary, depending on where your beholder lives!" In many Arab societies, obesity means wealth.

Among the Tuaregs of Saharan Africa, fat is equated with fertility. Some doting mothers will force-feed a daughter to make her chunky, since if she doesn't have at least 12 rolls of fat around her belly when she bends forward, she'll be thought unfit for marriage. Force-feeding is also practiced in Mauritania, where a husband's machismo is measured by his wife's girth. Big is still beautiful in the west when it comes to breasts, but they must also be high. Elsewhere, the breasts' maternal function is most important making a firm, high bust unattractive. Senegalese women attach ropes to their breasts and pull on them to achieve maximum droop. In Papua New Guinea,

mothers begin pulling and rolling their daughters' breasts as soon as they appear, knowing no man would marry a woman with perky breasts. When it comes to other female body parts, small connotes femininity. In China and Japan, tiny feet are still favored, even though the old chinese practice of foot binding has been abandoned. But big feet are prized in the tiny African country of Gabon, and in many parts of the world, wide hips indicate fertility and sensuality. In some cultures it is not the shape of the body or a particular body part but the concealment of the body that creates sexiness.

Muslim women hide their hair and body in public, making the knee the sexiest feature of the figure in Iran. Besides concealment let us consider adornment. Ear piercing has for centuries been accepted in Western countries, nose piercing, the current rage among our Gen-Xer's has its roots in Indian Culture.

Kenya's Masai women not only stick their ears, the stretch them: After piercing, a young girl's ears are hung with heavy pendants. over the years, the weight eventually pulls the lobes down nearly to her shoulders, creating the desired aesthetic effect. In Ethiopia,

Surma and Muzi girls have their lower lips pierced and implanted with baked clay disks. As they grow, larger disks are inserted, to increase the size of the lip hole and enhance their chances in the marriage market. The size of a girl's disk indicate how many cattle her family require as a wedding gift. Tooth-brighteners and cosmetic dentistry trumpet the Western ideal loud and clear: white, squared-off teeth are most desirable. Not so in Melanesia,

where women chew betel nuts to make their mouths red and gummy. The appeal: Men find " toothless" women more baby like and therefore more (apparently) subservient.

In Japan, the pale perfection of the geisha' s face is enhanced by teeth lacquered black. Women in parts of Angola knock out their front teeth, but Baluba women in the Congo go one step further: they file their remaining teeth to a point. Decorating the body with paints both permanent and temporary has been a ritual all over the world.

This makeup is sometimes used to highlight an admired body part, such as a circle drawn around the breast. Baiga women of India believe tattoos are a powerful aphrodisiac and an important part of foreplay.

When they marry, a pattern is applied to their hands and dotted lines are tattooed on their thighs. Body hair removal is de rigueur in the western world. It's also long been a beauty ritual - and religious tradition - for many Moslem women. In North Africa where feminine body hair is considered unclean, girls are "sugared" (an ancient Arab depilation technique that resembles waxing, done with thick syrup) from head to toe on the eve of their wedding. Elsewhere, however hirsute is haute. Among the virtually body-hairless Chruki of Northern Siberia, pubic hair is a sign of great beauty in a woman, the denser the better, as is a female mustache in parts of the Ukraine. Western hairstyles change every so often, from the straight and slicked-back to the coifed, permed, frosted, and streaked.

In Africa and the Caribbean the change is less rapidly and requires more work, women devote hours to intricate plaiting, weaving, corn-rowing, and three-dimentional threading. And the Masai women of Kenya avoid extensive hair ritual all together by shaving their heads.