Rotundlr

dolgemátki: more on njuoska bittut

angrybrownbaby:

neetainari:

I was kinda wary about the series at first, because while it or something like it made by the Saami about/for the Saami was desperately needed in television, I’m not the biggest fan of the ladies fronting it and to be honest they have in the past come across as vacant bimboes more than anything.

But people do grow, and the show makes a point of discussing some white privilege -related issues, like the fact that we Saami women are under pressure to comply with not only our own, patriarchal beauty/desireability standards, but also those imposed by the Western megatheocorporatocracy. And making fun of both standards.

Because I’ve seen the trauma of most Saami girls when there is no way to ever comply with the long-legged, blonde sex kitten/amazon standard because of their genes. I’ve also seen the way our own communities shame the girls and women who are thought to spend too much time doing things that aren’t directly related to knowing everything there is to know about duodji, immersing oneself in child-rearing and home-keeping, and being an avid reindeer expert or fishing enthusiast. Like, I don’t know, getting an education, carving out a career and bringing home a salary.

It’s yet anothetr patriarchal double bind that probably affects other indigenous women, too. I hope there were white feminists watching.

niibish-tart

I can really relate to this in the scope of some of my past relationships. I’ve realized that they were far more culturally attracted to me than physically attracted. Ultimately, I reminded them of home, people that they had loved, and knew certain things that they wanted to know too. Yet, I was never going to match the physical standard of beauty that they sought out. I suppose, for them, the idea of who I was as a person was more appealing than the reality. However, I never hated nor blamed any of them for it because I understood where they were coming from. Oh, colonized romance! :)

My experience is so ridiculously similar as well. My contemporaries not only wanted the traditional woman, but they wanted said traditional woman to look like the Western Beauty Ideal (tm). I always got told, “Oh man, you’re like the perfect woman!” but my dating options were limited because my hair, skin, and body type would never fulfill their fantasy of having a blonde, blue eyed, thin, whatever woman. I’m like, “Fack you, like you’d ever find some blonde Barbie ever make you fuckin’ nopales that taste like this but since that’s what you want, you can watch me eat. So you can stay hungry, shiet.” Mind you, it really is heartbreaking to not get a taste of my food, I hope you know. I get marriage proposals based on my cooking. Don’t get me started on people who get threatened, for some odd reason, by my level of formal education. I don’t give a shit about degrees and who earns them. Some of the smartest people I’ve ever known never went past junior high.

There is so much in this.