Beauty Expectations Of Gambia's Ideal Women

Thesis:
The thesis of the essay was to show how beauty expectations change around the world, specifically comparing Africa’s (Gambia) ideal women with North America’s (Canada) ideal women. This was shown with the quote “There, it is beautiful – not shameful – to carry weight on the hips and thighs, to have a round stomach and heavy, swinging breasts. Women do not battle the bulge, they celebrate it. A body is not something to be tamed and molded” (paragraph 6). This quote supports the above thesis, because it shows how different the beauty expectations are in Africa (Gambia) compared to North America (Canada).
Tone:
There were many different tones throughout the essay like pity and disappointment. The author’s writing expressed pity when she saw the European tourists after embracing the beauty expectations of Gambia. The authors view is shown in the following quote, “The European tourists on the beach began to look strange and skeletal rather than ‘slim.’ They had no hips. They seemed devoid of shape and substance.

Although the end of the essay is sad, it does bring up a valid point in paragraph 6 with the quote “I began to believe that Africa’s image of the perfect female body was far more realistic than the long-legged leanness I had been conditioned to admire,” about how unrealistic the beauty expectations in North America are compared to Africa. The quote continues to explain how women in Africa are encouraged to eat and not limit themselves, solely for the reason of meeting unrealistic beauty expectations. This is very different from North America, where many women starve themselves in order to be as thin as possible, as that is the image that is often portrayed in the media. If people who are insecure about their body were to read this, they may realize the ridiculousness of North American beauty expectations, and learn to ignore them and be their own