The other day, we settled on an enduring truism about women. We were careful not to make that pronouncement ourselves; we allowed one of the most powerful and influential women in the world, Oprah Winfrey, to tell us: The common denominator of all women is to be validated, understood, and heard.
The same not-too-brilliant chat-up line that swept the university student off her feet, may also work for the lady professor. Strangely, most women agree that it is to men’s credit that women are decidedly minimalistic in the choice of men they keep as husbands.
Otherwise, if there was ever a third sex, women may not give men as much as a wink.
The foolish side of men
Women also associate with a certain root dysfunction–the lack of self-worth and personal value.
Women, perhaps, more than men, feel an overwhelming need to make their appearance count.
It starts with light pencil strokes on the eyebrows, bleaching into another skin, and elongating the nails.
It graduates to tummy tuck, nose jobs, and BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift). Recently, a young Nigerian lady courted notoriety for removing 20 of her ribs to flaunt her hourglass figure.
Another died after defying medical advice to go under the knife for the umpteenth time, to add more decoration to her curvaceous figure, which was already fabulous.
I hesitate to call out Moesha Budong, Tontoh Dikeh, Aba Dope, and other beautiful ladies who have gone under the knife for cosmetic surgery.
The ‘innocent’ ones who have not yet enhanced their body shapes or de-enhanced other parts, secretly nurse the desire to touch a part or two of their bodies to look good in the mirror.
Women, even 60 year olds, seek affirmation–often not from fellow women, but from men, who ironically, are happy to flaunt their pot bellies and coffee-stained teeth.
Yet, women insist they want to look good for their health and self-worth, and are quick to parry away suggestions that their body enhancements are to feed their hypergamy and exploit men’s weakness.
There is a king and a fool in every man, and often the foolish side shows through strongly when a man meets a beautiful woman. Everyman, including eunuchs, emperors and presidents, have fallen to the tantalizing allures of women’s curves.
The list includes former IMF Boss Dominique Strauss-Khan, a presumptive frontrunner for the France Presidency, who risked it all for allegedly sexually assaulting a hotel employee at a plush New York Hotel.
The Coca-Cola hourglass
It is a tall list, including an African health minister who was sponsored by his country to attend a conference on HIV, but ended up making a mixed race baby, as part of his conference policy outcomes.
Something will kill a man, celebrated actor Olu Jacobs predicted, and men have willingly offered themselves to be killed–on the altar of vain beauty.
In football and entertainment, men continue to trade their blistering careers for the fleeting pleasure only women can deliver.
Even in his grave, the Epstein files keep exhuming prominent names who are paying for their sins of the flesh.
Perhaps, the curse on men started with the prophecy from Genesis 3:15: ‘The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.’
Beyond our obvious suspicions, what are the real motivations behind the recent BBL armageddon and the body sculpting madness in Africa?
Presently, another BBL sculpture is under construction in Brazil, Turkey, Nigeria and Ghana.
Fat is taken from body parts where they are not needed, and surgically deposited into other parts, usually the buttocks and the hips, to achieve the appearance of a Coca-Cola bottle.
It is scary to watch as surgeons plunge long needles and other sharp instruments into women’s bodies.
It leaves them with scars–physical and mental.
It might sound vain for anybody to aspire to be like a bottle, no matter the content, but that is the reality of the West African woman.
Instead of working hard to look like a bottle, Ann Eliza Clifford, the wife of the American pharmacist who invented the Coca-Cola drink, pursued nobler dreams.
She sought knowledge at Wesleyan College, the first college in the world granted a charter to award degrees to women.
BBL dangers and aftercare
What is the pedigree of the BBL woman today?
And what kinds of men sponsor or settle for women with inflated buttocks, expanded hips, and stomachs that had been opened up and tucked in to sit atop their intestines.
The vain man is perhaps twice as vain as the BBL woman. What is the value of a breathing sculpture in a man’s life?
Women go unthinkable lengths to achieve the body curves men are happy to pay for.
The refrain is laughable: big ass for big finance; big boobs for big bank balance. It might look beautiful but BBL is clever marketing for investment.
On their part, men have followed in the tracks of vain women to build their own BBL equivalent, by pumping up protein shakes and steroids into their chests, and lifting heavy metals at the gym.
They flaunt their testosterone-pregnant bulging chests alongside the inflated buttocks of their women, as they both live like artificial sculptures waiting to die with an act of God.
Men’s BBL is all for the bungabunga. One died in France during a surgery to replace his penis with a bigger one.
Soon, the BBL cracks begin to show in these breathing sculptures, as the fat melts into awkward places.
The fat in the butt needs to be fed; that requires more money. Yet, having the money for BBL is only the start of a painful process of healing where sitting is a taboo.
To sustain the hourglass shape, the BBL graduate wears the faha (body suit).
She moves around at home with a catheter, to collect waste. The BBL aftercare is a lifetime management. What on earth are women here for?
Kwesi Tawiah-Benjamin
Tissues Of The Issues
bigfrontiers@gmail.com
Ottawa, Canada
