Beauty and the Beast

These two subjects--beauty and the "beast" (or the environment)--might seem a bit different, but they are two aspects of Jordan that I confronted a lot the past year.

When it comes to beauty here, fair skin, light hair, light eyes, and big eyes seem to be the ideal. I've come to this conclusion after hearing so many comments from both Jordanians and Syrians on my own looks--my super pale skin, very big eyes, and green/blue eye color. These have always made me a bit uncomfortable, like the time when my Syrian host mother's sister and nieces came over to stay in our house and the sister told me point blank (and in front of her daughters): "I wish my daughters had your color skin." The only retort I've found to these kind of comments is "well, in the US, everyone wants to be tan and I sometimes get made fun of for my pale skin." The worst part of all of these beauty evaluations is that it's hard not to get wrapped up in it. As my friend Alina describes, Jordan (and Syria and probably other countries) is a "society of mirrors." Many girls have stories of the point blank "oh, you've put on weight" comments we've received during ours tay in Jordan. It definitely goes against American over-politeness norms!

Maybe there is some American-ness wrapped up in my uncomfortable reaction to an overt discussion on skin color, but "fairness" and "whitening" products abound on the market to achieve this ideal. I once had an interesting high school English teacher who was fair and a bit overweight and swore to us that she had been born in the wrong century. If she had been born in 18th century England, her body type would've been ideal because it would show that she was upper class and not a farm hand--overweight from all the food and lack of exercise, and fair from no exposure to the sun. Now in the US, however, tan and thin mean you have time and money to achieve this body type and are, thus, markers of having more money. This point really stuck with me, especially as I started going abroad to places like Asia and the Middle East that are only beginning to redefine some of their class systems as they move farther away from the farm economy and into cities and start acquiring more wealth, bigger houses, and lots of crap to go into them. I think, in some ways, it could be argued that maintaining fair skin is important in some of these world regions (India included) to maintain a distance from living and working on a farm as families might have done in the recent past. One corollary to this with men is growing a very large pinky or finger nail. I saw this a lot in Vietnam and people have argued with me it's for drugs but I think I read or talked to someone once about how the impossibly long finger nail was to show that they don't do manual labor (but maybe also drugs?).

Another perspective on this larger issue comes (of course) from my friend Alysa who isn't made uncomfortable by these comments. In a discussion on this topic, she once remarked, "I actually think it's really beautiful that people are drawn to beauty found in difference."

Photo courtesy of Sarah

 

So what do these discussions on beauty have to do with "the beast" or the environment in Jordan? Not too much except that I also spent a lot of time thinking about the water and trash problems in Jordan (which, in a sense, go hand in hand). Water shortage in Jordan is reaching new and more serious levels as the government is now accessing a water supply in the south of Jordan called Disi, near Wadi Rum. When I drove back from Wadi Rum along the desert highway last summer, I could see pipes being installed to carry this water all the way back to Amman. The quality of water is another issue entirely--drinking tap water is not an issue and we always used water coolers and water delivery for our drinking and cooking water. This is not an expat thing, either, it's something Jordanian families do as well.

Added to this water problem is the huge amount of litter and trash found everywhere in Jordan. Littering is not a "bad" thing in Jordan and you'll see people just drop trash on the street wherever they want to. Likewise, even going to a natural park, there's often more trash there because people will go to picnic on weekends and then just dump all their trash at the picnic site. It's something I could never get over during my time in the country, but as I said to others, how can a country focus on trash and street cleanliness when they don't even have a clean water supply for the people?

 

Disi water pipe installation on the way back to Amman

Warning side at the Dead Sea Spa and Resort

"Balash Kees" campaign sign showing a
bag discarded in Jordan's national dish, mansaf.

Dumping site outside the national Department of Statistics

I was amazed by it

 

I'm hoping that with initiatives like the "Balash Kees" (stop using plastic bags) campaign, norms and attention will be changing to the environment in the near future. Maybe it'll be different when I return?

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