Society’s Dissatisfaction with Aberrant Beauty!

Every individual is judged by his or her aberrance from the norm of beauty; that’s when sociological imagination appears to explain the nonconforming behavior. Humans act by their nature, and we all are actors who play our role in life. The question of to whom we offer respect is controlled by the social status. Individual achievement that we create and personal choice to present who we are, are the way to define our self, such as graduating, having a respectful job and achieving a dream. We define each other by how we look and by what we do. Everything we do adds to our status in society. Difference must appear so we can define each other. We are born with blue or brown eyes, rich or poor, and with given names. God gives us His blessing by creating us as a human being so the life circle continues.

According to the author, poet, and playwright, Rabindranath Tagore, “Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.” How do we define beauty? In my country perfect skin, wide eyes, tan color skin, and curvy body are defining the main ideal of Arabic beauty. Beauty obsession becomes a large issue that societies suffer from. There are strong pressures on people to be perfect because they want to present who they are in a fake way and accept being treated by the way they look. But yet there is a bright side of this beauty.

Make up, beauty salons, latest trends, jewelry, latest handbags, latest shoes and latest hair cuts are the main material culture, which is a favorite and hot topic these days. When I talk about these topics with my friends, we get excited and a lot of debates start. Qatari culture is really concerned about the appearance. Girls are wearing the latest model of abaya and boys are wearing the bright new Thoub. Male beauty in Qatari culture is taking on greater emphasis, although not as strongly as women’s beauty, but quite fair. Qatari man likes to wear new watches, new sunglasses, new cufflinks, and new soles. Also, they often go to the barber to shave their beard or get a hair cut.

People’s choices of custom and clothing are depending on society to present their cultural tradition and values. Qatar is a nation with high culture, in which there is luxury and splendor because of high income that came from the gas and modernity. With the rising economy Qatar’s modernization included the clothing for both men and women. The cultural values are still in the society. Furthermore, people kept on developing without forgetting their religion and tradition. For example, Qatari women still cover their bodies and they translate the old customs into a new design of body and hair covering. Wearing the abaya is not for religious matters because there are Muslim women who are covering their bodies without the abaya in other countries. However, Qatar society expects Qatari women to wear the abaya in order to be loyal to the country’s tradition.

What happens when thinking of beauty goes too far?
On weddings

At wedding parties Qatari women exaggerate their make up and wear the latest designed dress. Lack of confidence and fear of not getting accepted in the society led the women to spend a fortune on the wedding supplies, such as the latest wedding dress, famous make up artist and hair dresser, which causes a series of problems for men and increases the number of unmarried women because women demand a high dowry to arrange their imagined wedding and men can’t afford it.


“An estimated report presented by Abdul Aziz al-Ansari, the director of the Marriage Bureau located in Doha, stated that nearly 50% of the Qatari women are unmarried…. The biggest hurdle in arranging a partner is due to the high dowry demands by the bride's family” (Himadree, par.2, 4). Women obsess over beauty, exaggerate, and have a strong feeling to be perfect that has led them to never experience the beautiful touchable moments that they will get to when they marry. In role conflict women can take a role by their actions, being mature and balancing their beauty needs. Is it worth it to spend this amount of money? This depends on the goal that they want to achieve.


Religious point of view
In Islam wasting money is forbidden, yet some people do that, and guilt may cause an ongoing series of problems. The ideal society is built on the human relations and their organized interests. Also, it is characterized by its ideas, values and morals, law and systems, which establish boundaries and stop these problems from happening.



Work cited
Himadree, C. “ Spinsterhood Among Qatar Women On The Rise. “The Muslim Woman. 19 July 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.

Can We Pause the Norms?

Can we ever say that it is “fine” to break the rules once a year in Doha? Probably yes. On the 18th of December, a maseera takes place annually in Doha, as a celebration to Qatar National Day. A maseera is a name given to the celebration of any big national event, and is usually held alongside the Corniche of Doha. Even though there are very strict rules and regulations regarding traffic violation, this day is considered open to the public. People would do what they normally wouldn’t do on the streets as it deviates away from the norms.



Let’s go back to last year’s maseera. A bunch of friends and I decided that we would actually join the people, and see for ourselves how the place looked like. So we all covered up very well, barely showing our faces, since you know, Qatar is a very small country, and people tend to talk a lot. The whole place around the corniche was decorated with the Qatari flag, representing nationalism.



There were those that showed some level of conformity when it came to road behavior, and others that completely deviated away from it. For instance, after picking up one of the girls, the driver forgot to lock the car doors. While we were stuck in the maseera celebrating inside the car, a random guy wearing a mask runs in the middle of the road heading towards our car, and just opens the door. This is an example of a deviated behavior, and obviously he got very negative sanctions from us. Some were screaming inside the car, and others represented an informal sanction; they just laughed. We did not expect such a behavior since it normally wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the maseera.



Along with the car shows, some men decided that they would stop their car in the middle of the road, or have someone in the driver’s seat, put their music up loud, and start dancing in front of the car. To anyone, that wouldn’t seem as though it is following a culture’s norm. However, they got informal sanctions from the people around them, and they started laughing. They also got positive sanctions from the people, some even were video taping it. The only reason this is allowed is because this day is open to everyone, and they would usually not get violated for such acts, unless it is more than just a folkway.