Bless Your Beauty
خليلي جمالك
This project was created with the Magnum Foundation, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, and the Prince Claus Fund under the Arab Documentary Photography Program.
Bless Your Beauty is about the pressure in Lebanon to be beautiful and sacred. Here, in a country notorious for its women, beauty is something to maintain at all costs and by any means necessary. The pursuit of beauty questions personal and collective identities and is deeply rooted in gender roles, religious influence, and westernization. It can be painful, both physically and emotionally. And for what? Through the lens of individual personal experiences, this project uses a variety of visual approaches to convey the beauty standards to which Lebanese women are held.
all women are starting to look the same كل النسوان صايرة بتشبه بعض
عملية سحاب zipper surgery
“I would never get sad over my appearance. God gave me what I have and that’s that. But these days, I don’t feel beautiful. No one feels safe from anything. So how can I?”
Voyeurs at female led protest calling for the imprisonment of known rapist.
900 replications of this billboard was placed across Lebanon in 2007. A year after the devastating 2006 July war with Israel. It offered plastic surgery loans with the tagline; “have the life you always wanted.” One year after a war funded by the US, we were sold the idea that looking western, looking like the woman on the billboard, would somehow give us a better life.
Journal entry, 2006 (8 years old)
In high school, there was an unspoken bond between girls who had self loathing issues, and would self-harm because of it. It was almost common practice.
For me, I thought it was a release for all the hatred I felt towards my body.
Journal entry June 4, 2008 (9 years old) Today after school mommy took my middle eyebrow hair off and I don’t have a unibrow! My bruise has 2 red spots and a bump.
Portrait of mom circa 1994
I visited the office of a well known plastic surgeon under the guise of “Lana". He examined my breasts and was almost disgusted by their appearance. Mocking them in Arabic and in French, saying; “Non non non c’est déformé. C’est déformé, ليكي كيف مثل كوخ” (No no no, they’re deformed, they’re deformed. See how they look like huts. ) “لازم تعملين هلأ، احسنلك. اذا ما عملتيين رح يشطوا متل الموز” (You should do them now it’s better for you. If you don’t, they’re going to sag like bananas.)
I preformed this experiment to see how far a doctor would go to make a woman like “Lana” feel insecure enough to believe that surgery was necessary. I left as myself, “Lara”, convinced that he was right, his comment still lurking in my mind.
“The first time I did liposuction I was 15… I was so small. The anesthesiologist shook his head in disappointment when I told him my age. I don’t even know how it is medically allowed. I had to redo the operation when I was 17 to smooth out the disproportions that came from the first procedure…”
”These holes and scars don’t feel mine. It’s not my fault they’re there. I was pressured into turning to a quick fix solution without realizing that it would have everlasting effects.”
“I know I’m not a beauty queen. But that doesn’t matter. I’m convinced by looks and my personality.”
“That’s something no one can take from me, my confidence.”
“When I turned 16 I asked for a nose job. It was a terrifying experience, I woke up in the middle of the operation to the doctor breaking my nose with a hammer. I still remember the noise it made.”
“ I think that’s why I got insane bruises. Because of how hard he was hitting my face. Even after all that pain, my nose didn’t even look the way I wanted it to. The way I was born was really the perfect nose for me.”
“Despite all the comments from people telling me to lose weight. I decide on what type of body type I want. Now it’s a major part of my personality, my strength, my power.”
Self reflection illustrations by Chermine
“ I used to obsess over the women I would see online. It took me a while to realize that it is genetically impossible to look like them. My ancestral line is deeply Arab. I try to use this rationalization as way to embrace my features as a part my identity. ”
Face filters made by different Lebanese women; 1. Baby girl @maya_kawas 2. Amal shine @amal_shede 3. داليا والتغيير @daliakarimoffical 4. f l a w l e s s @sallymaroun 5. Share Love @angiekassabie 6.Beauty @aya_awad7 7. Muse @nadinnassibnjeim 8. U @hibadagher 9. Caramel @fafiaabdelaziz 10. Gallops @angiekhouryme
“ The only beauty that is being judged is that of flowers.”
“You have a wide hymenal opening, as if you’re a girl who’s been having intercourse for 10 years!” “look, really look! It’s a 2 finger exam without you even saying ey! “ He advised her to have hymen reconstructive surgery as it is very obvious, that if she were to marry someone traditional, she had to do this in order to protect her future.”
شرف المرأة متل الكبريت، بس بيتشعّل مرّة. A woman’s honor is like a match it can only be lit once.
Zine
