Day 34: Coca-Coma

Thursday, July 25

Cultural Adventures: Regular Edition

Part # 8: Advertising

This cultural difference is very apparent when comparing the East to the West (and you, South Korea): In Morocco (and likely most of the Middle East) they do not use sex to sell.

I find this image to be both highly accurate, and very smartly designed. 

It's very simple: here in Morocco all the commercials and programs have the most modestly dressed women, in (what Americans would consider) large clothes, but which are nonetheless lovely. And in addition to that, many of the women themselves are very average looking. They don't have this strange standard that we do in the West where only sizes 0-2 are considered beautiful by the media.  You see every size and shape of woman and men on TV, and while the same could be said for American television, across the board on every channel and show people on Middle Eastern television are very normal, and on most American shows, many (if not most) of the main characters are beautiful and idealized.

It's an interesting difference is all I'll say.

(But yeah. South Korea is really bad about using sex to sell. Look at this video of Korean commercials, if you dare).

The reason I bring this topic up is because we had a guest speaker in our class today. She is a seamstress, and she makes Jalaabas. Jalaabas are basically long robes, sometimes with hoods, and sometimes with varying sleeve lengths. They are probably the most common type of clothing worn by older women here, because they are simple and conservative but lovely. (It's not as common to see the younger generation wearing them, unless they come from a more traditional family, but the same cannot be said for other Middle Eastern countries, because Morocco is more liberal than most of them.)

These are pretty standard. This is what most women's jalaabas look like.

She explained to all of us ignorant Americans just how you would go about getting one made, how it's fit, and how much they generally cost. Considering all the work that goes into them, they're pretty cheap. (Unless you want a fancy one, cuz you fancy.)

Then she showed us a bunch of pictures and a short runway fashion video of the latest Moroccan styles. They're really beautiful clothes, and very modern on the world scale in that they are sort of a mismatch of colors and patterns, but they still remain conservative and beautiful. 

This is actually a wedding dress.

You would never see on a Moroccan runway a transparent dress, or tiny undie-shorts, or for that matter something like this:

FASHION

But we did get to try some of the things on that she had made, which was nice. 

Note: that guy on the left is actually wearing a woman's Jalaaba, as there was only one man's robe.

Apart from that, class was not as mind-numbing as usual, which is good, but it did still have a few of its slow spots where I felt very nearly comatose.

"No, no. We're listening. Please continue."

Then once early evening rolled around, we went home. For dinner, Noura gave us something BESIDES soup, after complaining to me the previous night that we never eat and I had to tell her that, while the soup was good, it would be nice if we had something else with it. So she made us meat in this sauce stuff, and when I saw it, I thought, "Yay! Meat!"

Nae. It was not meat. As I took my first bite of the "meat" the sky darkened and the seas turned red, and I'm pretty sure somewhere a puppy died, because that flavor in my mouth was not the beef I thought it would be.

Basically my reaction.

Now, what it actually was is not something that most people would have this reaction to. It was merely a very large, very expertly camouflaged mushroom. But I loathe mushrooms with a burning passion so fierce I daresay it would make most ordinary mushrooms shrivel up in fear. This was no ordinary mushroom, and it has bested me this day.