{"id":1207,"date":"2013-03-30T09:43:26","date_gmt":"2013-03-30T09:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/curvy-or-slender-beauty-war-breaks-out-in-abidjan\/"},"modified":"2013-03-30T09:43:26","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T09:43:26","slug":"curvy-or-slender-beauty-war-breaks-out-in-abidjan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/curvy-or-slender-beauty-war-breaks-out-in-abidjan\/","title":{"rendered":"Curvy or slender? Beauty war breaks out in Abidjan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ABIDJAN (AFP) – “African” curves or an “international” silhouette? On the airwaves and the catwalks of Ivory Coast, a war of words has broken out between admirers of voluptuous female figures and those who plump for a more streamlined, traditionally Western, shape.<\/p>\n

The young Ivorian singer “Princesse Amour” is hoping for a hit with her song celebrating “lalas”, the name she has given to slender, small-breasted women.<\/p>\n

Dressed in ultra-tight skinny jeans, she sings over a pounding beat, her lyrics encouraging women to embrace their “little lemons”.<\/p>\n

“I noticed that some girls were embarrassed to have small breasts” and “felt like they had to fake it by stuffing their bras,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n

\"Miss <\/p>\n

Miss Awoulaba 2013 (C) poses between her runners-up during the Awoulaba beauty pageant final on March 9, 2013 in Abidjan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A slim contender takes part in a beauty pageant preselection ahead of the Miss Ivory Coast contest on March 22, 2013 in Anoissi in Ivory Coast<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Her use of the term “lala” is no accident. It’s a reference to “lolo”, the word used to describe voluptuous women by Ivorian musical heavyweight Meiway in his 2000 hit “Miss Lolo”. His latest smash, “Wiggle Your Bottom”, a celebration of big booties, has had the whole of Abidjan shaking their stuff in recent months.<\/p>\n

At a concert last year, Meiway told a handful of Europeans in the crowd: “You white people, you like your women flat and thin. Here, we like them big, with curves.”<\/p>\n

But the aesthetic at the Miss Ivory Coast beauty pageant is infinitely more “lala” than “lolo”.<\/p>\n

Victor Yapobi, president of the organising committee, says: “Our beauties comply to international standards: minimum height 1.68 metres (five feet six inches), 90 centimetres (35 inches) around the hips.”<\/p>\n

In Africa, “young women are becoming more and more slender”, he says, pointing out that a slim woman is still considered a marketing plus for brands.<\/p>\n

But away from the podium, old habits die hard.<\/p>\n

“Being thin is synonymous with being sickly and malnourished in African society,” laments Micheline Gueu, a candidate for Miss Ivory Coast in a regional heat in the southeastern town of Aboisso.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the scale, however, the “awoulaba” (voluptuous women in the local Baoule language) also complain that their beauty is underrated.<\/p>\n

On International Women’s Day on March 8, the “Awoulaba” beauty contest celebrating curvy women was reinstated after a seven-year lull.<\/p>\n

The crown was taken by Esteve Alexandrine N’Goran, who told the audience of a thousand that she was there to “honour the real African woman”.<\/p>\n

Emotional after her victory, the 38-year-old business woman and mother-of-three said that she wanted to show that women like her were both “beautiful” and “comfortable with themselves”.<\/p>\n

“Roundly Beautiful”, an organisation set up in Abidjan in 2009 to support plus-sized women, lent its backing to the event. The group aims to “rid big women of their complexes” according to its president, Djeneba Dosso.<\/p>\n

But Dosso admits that curves are not just a question of aesthetics. Ivorian women “don’t exercise and eat badly” she said, so her group encourages larger women to break bad habits.<\/p>\n

Celebrated Ivorian artist Augustin Kassi is an inspiration to many. Since 1985 he’s been painting “fat women” as he describes them, in bright, joyful works of art.<\/p>\n

A consistent opponent of what he sees as “cultural alienation”, for him Miss Ivory Coast is a symbol of the “voluntary denigration of African beauty”.<\/p>\n

He advocates diversity.<\/p>\n

“The world is made up of different things” he says, paintbrush in hand. “It’s a rainbow.”<\/p>\n

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