I am interested in discussing ideas of beauty and body image across cultures. I read a New York Times article about women and girls in Mauritania. It is beautiful and sexy to be fat, so girls are overfed. Sometimes they throw up. Some have even died from too much food. There are even medicines one can take to speed up the weight gain. Although only 2 in 5 Mauritanian women are overweight (less than in the US) in a Sub-Saharan Africa country, this is remarkable. Is it because being fat means that you are wealthy enough to have a lot of food? Some say it's because men can't see anything under the loose-fitting clothes Mauritanian women wear unless they are fat and curvaceous. But being fat is very unhealthy. It increases the likelihood of diabetes and heart problems. What do you think of this??

For the full story: In Mauritania, Seeking to End an Overfed Ideal