Posts Tagged ‘culture’

Fat Ties the Room Together

cantbreathSome men enjoy the sensation of sinking into a comfortable couch after a hard day at work, while a doting wife massages their shoulders and asks about their day. Why not combine the best of both worlds and come home to a big, squishy woman you can relax on?

I can only imagine how good it must feel to sit back on those massive thighs (perhaps the remote and some beer conveniently tucked away in the folds) while your head is propped up by the cushiony breasts that magically transform themselves into any desired shape.

In the article, Squishy Goodness, I mentioned how a nice layer of fat transforms even the sickliest pet into the ideal companion; the same theory goes for women, or at least the ones in Mauritania.

The curator of the library in this plump loving region, Seif I’Islam, was quoted in an online article  saying that “A man’s goal is to marry a woman that fills his house. She needs to decorate it like an armoire or a TV set.”  We all know how hard it is to find the perfect lady that just  ties the whole room together! right?

I can only imagine how convenient it must be have your furniture walk around with you when going to IKEA too… (“roll yourself next to that dresser, honey…no, I don’t like it…ok, sit on that carpet over there…ah, perfect!”)

Parents have their daughter’s best interest at heart when they force her to wake up in the middle of night for a quick meal of fatty camel’s milk. Why waste precious calories sleeping when you could be eating instead? Wealthy men want to show off their women…and the bigger, the better.

Only impoverished lowlifes enjoy the company of average sized girls whose bony frames makes any room seem barren. Not only that, but running into a skeletal woman may leave some bruises, while the welcoming, rubbery, layer surrounding the obese elite will cushion every fall, kick or punch. And who could live in a place without the relaxing vibrations and thundering footsteps of the perfect woman making her way through the rooms of the house?

A perfect lady is a sought after commodity and, just like any piece of art, requires a lot of work: It takes Mauritanian women years of overeating to turn into the rippling, masses of flesh that the old fashioned (and tasteful) people find so attractive. Fat is a sign of class, since only the richer families can afford to fatten up their daughters.

The tradition of force feeding the little girls usually starts before the child’s 5th birthday. Of course, the 15 gallons of camel’s milk forced into a kid’s stomach every day are going to be uncomfortable. But in the parents’ eyes, it is all worth it. If a child can’t handle the meal, she is usually punished (it doesn’t help that throwing a tantrum burns calories either, but such is life) and forced to drink some more…

After a few years of hard work, the daughter is hyperventilating and slick with sweat as she proudly flaunts her bulges in the town square with the rest of the more well-to-do ladies. Oh, happy day!

good american breakfast

Foot Binding Isn’t All That

Most four year olds just want to play with their toys, run around making as much noise as possible and maybe harass their parents after watching a commercial about the newest kind of McNugget. Getting their toenails cut down to nothing, and then having their toes broken isn’t really something on a kid’s priority list, but this is exactly what happens when it comes time for a girl to start beautifying her feet in 10th century China.

Basically, each toe gets ceremoniously broken, then a 10 foot long bandage is wrapped around the toes which are pulled as far back into the heel as possible. Sound fun?! Good, because its not over! These events would repeat themselves every 2 days with the bandages getting pulled in tighter and tighter. But it’s not all bad. This tradition typically happened in the winter when feet were numb with cold anyway.

This foot-binding trend continued for a thousand years (till the 20th century) and some older women are still seen with their undersized feet carefully bound and hidden away in tiny size 0 shoes that wouldn’t even fit over my big toe. Obviously, tiny pointy pixy feet that force their owners to shuffle around painfully on their heels (also known as the lotus gait) were quite popular. (I really want to know what kind of sadistic person thought of the idea, by the way)

In fact, the Qing Dynasty has a few sex novels that describe almost 50 ways to erotically play with a lucky lady’s bound feet. Of course, the bound feet have to stay in the colorful pointy lotus blossom shoes, because underneath that pretty cloth shell is a stinky rotting foot that would pretty much ruin the moment. When exposed to fresh air I’m sure the foot would explode into a green cloud of foot fungus and stink (bound feet had crevices impossible to clean).

My feet are so damn big.  Size 9.5 would have been considered an abomination in China, I’m sure.

Nowadays high heels are the the modernized version of the pain-for-beauty concept when it comes to feet. High heels were originally designed for riding a horse (NOT to walk around), so the foot would angle forward and not fall out of the stirrup. You didnt WALK on the heel, you’d get carried around while wearing them…and rightfully so because walking on heels is a pain in the ass and everywhere else too, for that matter (but they sure do look good).

Playing with Food

Food, Sleep and Sex – A few things on every one’s priority list, whether you admit it or not. I figured as the first blog for a website, why not try and write about something everyone can relate to. Since porn is pretty easy to come by online (sex…check), and you’ll probably fall asleep reading this anyway (sleep…check), why not bring up food?

While finding a way to procrastinate at the day to day desk job, I came across a pretty interesting site revolving around weird edible concoctions from around the world.

Crunchy fried ants are a favorite treat while at the movies in Columbia, for example. While camel tendon soup sounds pretty damn good for most patrons at restaurants in China.

The adequately titled http://www.weird-food.com/ lets people describe some of their weird culinary encounters or missed childhood meals, since things like monkey toes and fried bats are sort of hard to come by nowadays. Who would have thought that ant grubs-”ghetto caviar”-make an excellent dessert?

Ok, I was never going to speak of this moment again…but I did eat a bug once…and not a little one either. And it didn’t  happen because a fly buzzed into my gaping mouth while I rolled through a swarm on my bike. It was totally intentional.

I remember popping that deep fried cricket  in my mouth without hesitation. Thankfully all I could taste was the soy sauce it was fried in. I chewed and chewed while my friends watched the little cricket legs get stuck in my teeth. I couldn’t bring myself to close my mouth or swallow. The man who was generous enough to give me the treat, sat in front of the giant metal bowl full of the same covering his mouth, trying not to laugh. This was in Cambodia and one of the better experiences I had there.

It could have been worse: At least I didn’t have to watch what the Hungarian went through. He looks back and remembers how co-workers killed the first pig of the season not too long ago, draining its blood into a frying pan, then mixing the stuff in with scrambled eggs for a lovely breakfast celebration. What a great day at the office! And all natural red food coloring!

SEAsia 085 by muhawi001.After reading through recipes involving guinea-pig stir fry, Newfoundland Seal Flipper Pie and Hog’s Head Scrapple (I’d rather not describe the stuff), and overcoming a slight case of nausea, I was just simply amazed at the global variety of foods (and at the amount of free time I had at my disposal).

I have to accept the fact that I’ve just distanced myself from what’s really in a hotdog (I don’t wanna know) and what surprises lurk in those cans of tuna fish or even bagged bread! It all makes me wonder what else I may be missing…not just food-wise, but in general.

At this point, curiosity has gotten the better of me though, and I’ll wade through all kinds of information without hesitation, even if it does make me a little sick.