After the painstaking phase of research, comes yet another tough task i.e. putting the fact and figures in a proper perspective or in other words, writing.
People who have gone through the process of acquiring their Ph.D. surely know how lonely this phase can be. It’s only you staring the computer screen for long hours, just hitting the keyboard punching in thousands of words. For a person like me who is too much in love with talking, it is simply a torture. Lately, we all started receiving mails reminding us that the research lab is meant to be silent and we all should keep the level of noise to the minimum.
The email had an impact on all of us. I decided to act like a sophisticated Ph.D. student who is accountable for her actions and I sure am trying hard to keep my mouth shut. God, that is a tightrope walk.
As a mean to help me through this lonely phase, I sometimes dig into old music that I used to enjoy years ago and enjoy the very nice memories they bring. Recently, I was watching my favorite Arabic pop singer’s old videos and I could not stop wondering how she has changed over these years. Her face in 10 years has changed almost beyond recognition. Her facial bone structure, her nose, her cheeks and her lips, every thing has changed through perhaps a dozen plastic surgeries. Not to mention the drastic changes her body has gone through.
Our facial features make us distinct in a crowd. Our faces tell so much about our characters and they are always the first point of contact in any human interaction. Sometimes, I wonder what forces a person to think about altering his/her identity? How can one bear so much pain just to look in a certain way?
I tried to put myself in her shoes and to a certain extent I could understand the reasons or the factors that forces somebody to bear the pain of surgical procedures. It is obvious that for me as a Muslim I know that dressing modestly is what is expected from Muslim women. Here I am talking about an existing phenomenon in the modern world.
Those artists are continuously living under a perpetual pressure to look beautiful or otherwise risk being thrown out of the race. Unfortunately, the media has set new standards for beauty, which are very cruel, one must say. Being beautiful mean thin, to have certain facial bone structure and to have a special body type. Anybody falling short of those standards is not considered beautiful.
The problem with such an approach is that a person becomes obsessed with his/her looks and it is difficult to satisfy the obsession. It all starts with a few nips and tucks here and there and one ends up emerging as an entirely different person. Almost unrecognizable! It is a vicious cycle that never ends. I just decided not to judge others and try and focus on my lonely research.
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@HatoonKadi
