Reproducing beauty: Creating Somali women in a global diaspora

Abstract

The first day I met Sumaya, 1 a young Somali woman who would later become one of my closest friends in Eastleigh, she slopped a face mask on my skin, pondering what would happen if she used the skin-lightening one on my pasty Scottish face, ran oil through my hair, and gave me a brightly colored dirac, a very popular style of Somali dress. These dresses, worn by women of all ages, were fairly universal in size and somewhat shapeless, but worn with an underskirt, the sides could be tucked in to create a flattering, draped waistline. At the time I found it a little odd that this woman, just a few years younger than me, had decided that it was necessary to put me through a rapid beauty regimen on our first meeting, but I enjoyed the pleasant smelling lotions in contrast to the grimy, dusty streets outside, and as I was to discover, this sort of thing was to become a regular aspect of my fieldwork.