Read Online Being Me by Pete Kalu - Free Book Online

these women. I’ll walk round and give you some help if you need it.’
    We open our box and dip in. ‘Wow, that’s a supermodel,’ says Sorayah.
    I read “Miranda Kerr” at the bottom of the photo. Miranda Kerr is wearing a bikini and is looking all slinky, pony-ing down a catwalk.
    ‘I wish I had a body like that,’ says Sorayah.
    ‘She has got nice boobs,’ says Jennifer. ‘Like, a nice size. Real?’
    We all vote yes and Jennifer makes the note.
    ‘Perfect legs,’ Jennifer says. ‘Real?’
    We vote yes again.
    When we’re done, we’ve all agreed Miranda Kerr in the photo is 100% perfect and real.
    There’s lots more photos in our box. We work through them. Most of them are really skinny.
    ‘This is Beyoncé,’ says Mikaela, pulling her out of the box. ‘Don’t nobody diss her!’
    ‘What’s not real about her?’ asks Lubana, puzzled.
    ‘She’s wearing a weave,’ whispers Mikaela, ‘it’s not her own hair.’
    ‘Nooo! I don’t believe you!’ says Lubana.
    ‘It’s true. It’s like the more beautiful you are, the more white you are, or the other way round,’ says Mikaela.
    ‘Fe true!’ says Sorayah, suddenly dropping into Jamaican for a moment. ‘My auntie uses skin lightening cream. She’s almost white now, but she can only afford it on her face and hands, so her legs are dark as mine.’
    ‘I don’t get it,’ I say, ‘why would your auntie want to look white?’
    ‘So she’s more beautiful.’
    ‘I still don’t get it,’ I say.
    ‘It’s a black thing, Adele,’ says Mikaela, ‘you wouldn’t understand!’
    Mrs Richards shows up at our table.
    ‘Who’s that?’ she asks as we look at a new picture.
    There’s no name on the picture and we don’t recognise her. It’s a leggy blonde in a one-piece bikini, with big hair.
    ‘You are looking at the model, Cindy Crawford,’ Miss says. ‘You know what she said of herself? She said “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford”.’
    ‘But she is Cindy Crawford, Miss,’ says Sorayah.
    ‘Exactly. Yet in this picture her legs have been made longer, her waist made thinner, and all her hairs and spots removed.’
    Miss looks at our notes and frowns. We’ve decided everybody we’ve looked at so far is pretty much perfect and nobody is fake. ‘I’ll give you a clue,’ she says. ‘All these pics have been retouched in some way. Kate Moss isn’t hairless. Angelina Jolie doesn’t have perfect skin. Even Miranda Kerr doesn’t look like that in real life.’
    ‘But how can we tell, Miss?’ asks Sorayah.
    ‘It’s difficult, isn’t it?’ says Mrs Richards. ‘Have a go. Look more closely.’ Then she goes off to another table.
    Twenty minutes later, we’re all bored and Miss calls the session over. All the boxes are repacked and we compare answers. Our table gets six out of ten and we’re top of the class.
    ‘Well I know you’re all thinking, “What’s this all about?” Well, it is about sex,’ Mrs Richards declares.
    Everyone cheers.
    ‘It’s about sexual attraction and the pressures you girls face to conform to impossible ideas of beauty. In most societies, women are controlled in some way from the moment they are born till they die. When society controls women, this is called what, Blue Table?’
    ‘Marriage!’ Sorayah calls out.
    ‘Not quite.’
    ‘Slavery!’ Sorayah tries again.
    ‘Almost.’
    A Bad Thing!’ is Sorayah’s third shot at it.
    ‘It is, but that’s not its name,’ Mrs Richards smiles.
    Jennifer steps in. ‘Patriarchy, Miss.’
    ‘Thank you Jennifer, that is correct. It exists in one form or another in all societies. Patriarchy. In some places girls are not even allowed to go to school.’
    ‘Where’s that, Miss? I wanna live there!’ shouts Sorayah.
    Everyone’s rocking off their chair, laughing.
    ‘It’s not funny, Sorayah, it’s serious,’ says Mrs Richards. ‘And that is only one, obvious example of how society makes women less equal than men.’
    ‘That sucks, Miss,’