I am over hating Nairobi and starting to fall in love with it much to my surprise. I was realizing on my matatu ride home today that the things that bothered me so much about the city are the things I am starting to admire now-like the crazy crowds, matatus, etc. Of course this always happens when you know you have to leave a place or person that you have spent significant time with, no matter how much you think you might not like it/them, you start to find the little things you love and will miss. It is unfortunate that it took me so long to adjust, I consider myself to be a pretty adaptable person, but now that I feel adjusted, I find myself with one month left and the thought that I might never come back to this city that I called home for 4 months of my life and walked in and around every single day for 120 days or so.
And I have another thing to discuss. I am embarrassed to be talking about the Tyra Banks show in my blog while I am in Kenya, but Chipa and I watch it almost every day and it really bothers me. The goal she always talks about is getting women to be strong and empowered and to feel good about themselves. So all these girls and women come on her show and their whole life is “horrible” and “ruined” because they have some physical deformity like one small breast or acne or whatever. So you would think if Tyra was trying to promote women being empowered or proud of who they are, she would talk to them about that. But instead she gives them makeovers or plastic surgery and then everything is “so much better”. It drives me crazy! She even had an episode where women talked about their flaws and then they had the option to “flaunt or fix” them and every single woman chose to “fix”, or get some kind of surgery or makeover to change their appearance. I think Tyra could do better at empowering women by making them feel better without these transformations. She always says things like “Stephanie has low self esteem because she has acne”. Stephanie does not have low self-esteem because she has acne, she has low self-esteem because she hasn’t been taught to be proud of who she is! Lots of people with acne have self esteem. I guess that is what you have to expect from a supermodel.
yeah. what you said.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more on your comments about Tyra. Also knew that you would eventually come to love your Niarobi.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in SA.
Love, dad
mom and dad always post at the same time...weird? yes =]
ReplyDelete<3 Laura
Look, it's a little family gathering on your blog!
ReplyDeleteAnd in comes the interloping uncle, sticking nickels on his greasy forehead and what not.
ReplyDeleteI just want to add someting about acne, about which I have extensive expertise, having endured it from age 14 to about age, oh, what am I now? 50 thousand?
I'm not saying that what self-esteem I've managed to salvage over the years is proportionate to how much clear skin I've managed to gain. You're right that it's possible to have acne and still have some self-esteem. James Woods seems to have survived quite well. But unless you've had really horrible acne, it's easy to underestimate what it does to a person's psyche.
It's your face, essentially your public identity. I remember acutely how hard it was to look people in the eye, back when my face looked like a prairie dog warren made from diseased plums and bacon. I never spoke up in groups when I had a really bad breakout, because I was sure all anyone could see were my zits. And if I met a fellow acne sufferer, it's all I could see of them. It really screwed with my social life.
I'll never forget the relief I felt in my late '20s when Accutane came along and I had clear skin for the first time in more than a decade. My personality cleared up (well, some) along with it. I still get the odd zit now and then, and every few years, it'll be some horrible cystic thing--and I'm right back to wishing I had a bag over my head.
I was always amazed by Oliver, who had terrible acne for several years (worse on his back than his face), because at the time, he said it didn't bother him, and he seemed socially secure. But he talked to me recently about how damaging it was to his relationships to girls, how he felt completely hideous and unlovable. He blames his acne on growing up in Kansas City. If only it were so simple. I'd have moved anywhere to get rid of it. I might even have gone on a makeover show, if such things had existed.
I don't know about Tyra or cosmetic surgery or any of that. But I feel for anyone who looks in the mirror and sees the kind of ravaged, literal self-image I used to see looking back--and then has to take that face out into the world. It's remarkably painful.
Have I gone on about this enough? Let's see... diseased plums and bacon... yeah, I guess that's about it.
Hi, everybody!