While researching on the topic about silicone awareness and the desire for women of color to want to have a large buttocks, I thought about the influences besides Hip Hop that could make these women feel that way.
The first example that came to mind is a personal story I'd like to share. It's about my older cousin named Sarah ( name has been changed to protect her identity).
My family and I are very close. Every holiday we always have a get together that involves food, laughter, games and overall just catching up with one another. My family is full of kind, loving, hard working people so when we get the chance to get together, it's always a memorable event.
In my family, most of the women starting from my mom to my grandma, aunts, cousins are blessed behind (LOL). Meaning that most of the women in my family were naturally born with a large buttocks...except one in particular, which was my cousin Sarah. Around the time that I was in my teenage years, my cousin Sarah was in her early twenties. She had brains, she was beautiful and very ambitious, but my family never seemed to forget to remind her what she lacking the most, which was a large buttocks.
I remember my mom and cousins teasing her saying " what happened to you girl, your mom has something behind her so how did that miss you?" or they would say " you shouldn't wear certain pants because it's not helping your situation behind you", and they would die of laughter. My mom and cousins were obviously playing around with her, but I always wondered if the comments really ever got to her.
A couple years later, I assume she got tired of being cracked on because she came to a family dinner one night, and something was different about her. My mom and cousins noticed right away. They asked her " what did you do? Where did that butt come from? What have you been eating? ". Immediately my cousin answered proudly saying " I bought padded underwear".
Pictures of padded underwear's
Again, my mom and cousins started laughing loudly in the house. They were shocked! One of my older cousins said " I can't believe you did that, but it looks good on you". Another cousin said " Yeah, I see it now, I noticed you had a little more shape behind you". Not too long after she shared the news with everyone about her new padded panties, they started to ask her " what are you going to do when a guy comes over, and then realizes that you were wearing padded panties"? Everyone started laughing again.
She laughed and just brushed off the answer by saying " I'll deal with it when the time comes".
Reminiscing on that story and the way my family reacted is a perfect example of how Women of Color in our society may get the idea on why they should get silicone injections. I'm glad that my cousin didn't go down that road and that she ended up getting padded panties, but what about other women who choose to go down that path, unaware of the potential danger that comes with that surgery ( Ex: Apryl Michelle Brown).
When I started doing this topic about how women of color are pressured to receive this surgery, and what measures they take or they money they pay to get this done, I called my mom and reminded her of the comments that she said to my older cousin Sarah. My mom started to feel bad and she didn't think twice about how much damage that could do to Sarah, or how large of a role she played along with other family members when it came to her wanting to purchase those padded panties.
It's been about a couple years since I've heard my family make about Sarah and her buttocks. Maybe it's because I'm not around as often because I am away for school, which causes me to miss out on family events. My mom promised me that she wouldn't tease Sarah about her buttocks, and that she would spread the message to my other cousins. Even though Sarah may never forget what was said by our family and that they were just playing around with her; judging by the stories I've read of women who get this surgery, that those memories and negative messages could last a lifetime.
I hope my message really made a difference for my cousin Sarah, and to all the other women who can relate to this story, or just even in general. We shouldn't tease our family and friends for having a "flat" or "pancake" buttocks, but we should uplift them with words of encouragement and praise for what good they have done or are in the process of accomplishing.
I think that Sarah is a wonderful cousin, and I look up to her as a role model. She is finished university, finished law school and is now a full time lawyer. That should give my family something to talk about, instead of what's lacking behind.
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