The Maasai tribe is known for its strong skilled warriors with beautiful smiles, plaid garments, and high jumps that almost touch the heavens, but the women are just as fascinating and strong!
The Maasai women are proud and friendly. Their giggles are heartwarming and their words profound. They know their skin is radiant and enviable. Beauty and a positive self-image appear to be a birthright to them.
I spent over two weeks learning and connecting with the Maasai tribe woman of the Tanzania plains, learning their culture and way of life. I was searching for an answer to the age-old question that shapes society and our minds today: what is beauty?
In the Western world, we instantly have a programmed picture that pops into our subconscious. But what is the standard of beauty for nations not affected by colonialism or European ideals?
Their answer shocked me and honestly stunned me a bit, but it taught me a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful and rich. The ideal of beauty of these women is not measured by a certain look or body type but by FERTILITY! Forget designer bags, the hot “accessory” is a beautiful, healthy baby on your hip and back. To be able to birth to multiple children is a sign that your diet and lifestyle are healthy and your vitality is strong. Birthing children in the tribe is an honor and a duty.
So when they learned I was a childless millennial, I could see the wheels turning in their heads.
Then the dreaded question came.
I didn’t have to speak Maa to understand what one of the ladies asked me. The tone and body language instantly took me back to the holiday dinner table cornering, which I have become accustomed to since I turned 25 years old.
I’m sure most of us have heard some form of the question at one point in our lives.
“When are you going to have children?”
My mouth gaped open in shock. She was so direct and puzzled. She wanted an answer, quickly.
At home, this question irritates me so much. It is so invasive and insensitive, especially when so many women battle miscarriages and infertility.
Concerning the Maasai women the intention behind the question isn’t as shallow nor based on pressures from a society that often mistreats mothers. They wanted to understand why I, a healthy attractive Black woman who lives a complicated yet privileged life in the United States, want to make myself more beautiful. With all of the resources I have access to why would I not have children?
I must add that Maasai tribes have a goal of having 10 children in their lifetime. I could see her mentally calculating how many eggs I had left to hatch at my age.
What would our life be like if outward beauty did not weigh as much as our ability to birth healthy beautiful children and play our part in the tribe? Would we adapt and how would that affect our billion-dollar beauty business? I’ll end on the note that as I am writing this, I touched up my Juvia’s Place lipgloss.
