crossedwires:

jhameia:

cosmicyoruba:

glitterotti:

1.  when i was 5-7 years old, my mom - told me, “take down your fort. don’t prop the pillows up at night.” “why?” the dogebi - a type of boogeyman monster figure - thinks the pillows are humans who have not gone to sleep as they should have and comes to kidnap them. i laugh it off yet i still don’t prop my pillows up at night. 

2. i wrote a sign for my boyfriend in high school, carefully painting the letters in bright crimson paint. “writing someone’s name in red will kill them”, my grandma told me. 

3. after carefully examining all the ribbons at a street vendor in korea, i decided on white barrettes. “you can’t wear white in your hair”, my aunt told me. later, my mother chided me, “don’t wear white bows.” wearing white in your hair will bring death. 

4. my mother would pinch my nose so it would become pointier. 

5. she would also massage my legs so i would grow taller. i thought these were her particular quirks but they’re actually common practices.

6. instead of tucking a tooth under a pillow, i would throw it on the roof for good luck. i wanted money instead. 

7. piercing your face means tampering with certain sets of energy. which might explain why my mother ripped out my lip ring. 

The bolded also happen in Nigeria.

I dunno if nose-pinching is the norm in Malaysia but goddamn my mom sure liked doing it because she thought I was flattening my nose everytime I wiped my damn mouth.

What the shit is up with pointy noses anyway? Like is there anything special about having a pointy nose, does it shoot laser snot or something

IDK, I was under the impression that pointier noses were better/prettier (maybe whiter?). A bunch of my relatives would do it to me too, despite that their noses are the same shape as mine.

Oh wow. I guess the pinching of noses to “try” to make it pointer is global then? My dad use to do that to me all the time. Still does sometimes to when he is joking around but not as much when I was younger. He would also take my fingers and squeeze them where my nails are so they would be thin and slender, not fat and chubby. That actually I think kinda works because my fingers area are pretty slender and I always thought it was because what my dad use to do, but then again I never gave it much thought when I was a kid until I was older.

But the whole trying to get pointer noses thing irks me. I love my flat, sometimes called “pig nose”, it’s a characteristic trait for majority of Filipino’s besides the Arab mixed ones who have a more pointer nose, and then of course the European mestiza’s. A lot of different people have flat noses especially those who come from on or near the equator and in tropical or dry climates. It was needed to be able to breathe in more air in these types of environments.

Now whether pinching the noses is a colonial influence that spread across many cultures that were colonized by Europeans or not who knows. But I think most do stem from that, you know, that colonial mentality of trying to look European after your colonizers repeatedly told you how your people are an “ugly race” and such and such.

Oh and the massaging of the legs my dad did this to especially for my brothers. I never really knew why until later. And then for white being associated with death that to, but not as bringing death like mentioned above, but wearing white was associated with death, same as how wearing black is a sign for death in the west.

(Source: satansglitterypanties)