In Mauritania, anorexics looking for love would be out of luck
April 27, 2008 by angelique
Filed under Women's Health
There is a place along the northwestern coast of Africa called Mauritania. I had never heard of it before, but conducted a quick Google search for cultures that revered larger women and Mauritania came up immediately.
According to an AP report picked up by FOX News last year:
“In Mauritania, to make a girl big and plump, ‘gavage’ _ a borrowed French word from the practice of fattening of geese for foie gras _ starts early. Obesity has long been the ideal of beauty, signaling a family’s wealth in a land repeatedly wracked by drought.
Mint was 4 when her family began to force her to drink 14 gallons of camel’s milk a day. When she vomited, she was beaten. If she refused to drink, her fingers were bent back until they touched her hand. Her stomach hurt so much she prayed all the animals in the world would die so that there would be no more milk.
By the time Mint was 10, she could no longer run. Unconcerned, her proud mother delighted in measuring the loops of fat hanging under her daughter’s arms.”
Apparently, men in Mauritania find ”skinny” to be ugly, disgusting, unappealing. Thus, girls and women are encouraged to eat until they feel sick. (No bingeing is allowed, of course.) It’s become such a problem that the government has intervened, hoping to stem this tide of obsession with an unhealthy body type.
Sound familiar, my fellow Americans?
It’s 2008, and I find the value placed on a woman’s body so saddening.
I don’t care if you’re talking about obese or emaciated figures — it’s all disgusting. When the h*ll will this horrid objectification stop?
Ironically, I feel ashamed to admit that when I saw pics of the women from Mauritania, my first thought was, “Dear Lord — they really should lose weight and get into shape. They can’t be in good health.”
No doubt about it — I’m part of the problem, too. But I’m actively working on changing my mindset. Please join me…
Wow. That’s crazy. Those poor girls!
I know. As terrible as an ED is, imagine being forced to drink 14 glasses of milk a day. BLECH.
14 gallons? = 48 quarts. Nearly 50 liters. A day?
14 gallons = 56 quarts. thats 53 liters.
A. & Mike:
I know. It’s unfathomable, but I know that bulimics are able to eat ungodly amounts of food and drink. The only difference between them and these girls is that the bulimics throw up the food/drink. Unfortunately, the Mauritanian girls are not allowed to do so.
It’s abusive in so many ways that I cannot begin to imagine the pain (emotional and physical) that these gals have to endure just to be “beautiful”.
Gosh, reading this story makes me sad and sick. Forcing yourself to not eat or eat too much to transform your body is simply not the right. And yes, the objectification of women’s bodies have gone on way too long.