Frida Kahlo: Look beyond your own eyebrows.

As most of you know, the first blog I have created years ago was all about sarcasm. I mainly tackled society’s innermost problems and twists. Yet, around two years ago, I gave up being sarcastic and my writings sort of shifted. As I truly cooled down from the inside, nothing really triggered my passion for sarcasm; up until now.

As I was navigating through my newsfeed on Facebook, I came across an uploaded image for Frida Kahlo. And as I went through the comments, I witnessed something that wasn’t much of a shock. Being a huge lover of Frida, I encountered those comments countless of times before. The comments varied between how ugly Frida Kahlo is and how much disgusting her eyebrows were. Some recommended shaving while others insisted on the picture’s removal.

Well, I’m not really surprised that those who commented–and those whom I encountered before–are all men; and if you bear with me just one more paragraph you won’t be surprised as well.

Now before getting to the heart of the matter, let me introduce to you Frida kahlo; although I’m certain that 70% of my friends on Facebook do know who Frida is–mostly from my profile. If you may excuse me though, I shall make two introductions. If you sir, were from the ignorant brat type, Frida Kahlo is a Mexican painter who… Oh wait. I forgot you don’t really care what she did; my apologies. I rephrase. Frida kahlo is a woman, who had a unibrow, never shaved her mustaches nor her underarms hair. She had a leg shorter than the other and her teeth were quite hideous; that’s why she never smiled in her pictures.

Now if you sir, were from the knowledgeable type, I think this introduction might be just for you! Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter born in 1907. At age six she developed polio; a disease where one leg grows thinner than the other. She was studying to become a doctor yet she had an accident when she was 18 that changed the course of her life forever. Frida sustained uncountable injuries and broke her back and her pelvis; which later on stopped her from carrying any babies.

It was during the months of her recovery that she started painting. Frida married Diego Rivera, the womanizer artist, who kept cheating on her throughout their marriage. She had one abortion, three miscarriages, had more than 10 spinal surgeries, had her leg amputated, had a four years divorce with Diego and died critically ill with pneumonia.

Her paintings represented her pain; she basically painted her own reality. If I were to talk about her I would need an endless amount of pages. What I’m trying to convey here, is that Frida is an icon in the world of art and feminism.

She’s an icon in the world of art for her paintings were significantly deep and one of a kind. She was the only artist who portrayed her pain on the canvas like no other artist did. And she’s an icon in feminism for she bore physical and emotional pain no human being would be able to survive with. She faced abortions, a dysfunctional marriage and many other issues which women–and men–respect her for.

Now getting back to my main subject: Why am I not surprised that the comments resulted from men? Taking into consideration the men who fell in love with Frida undoubtedly outweighs the number of girls one Lebanese man is trying to hook up with.

See, when Frida was still living, they used to say “men wanted her and women wanted to be her”; she was the ultimate icon of beauty. No man back then called her ugly or disgusting, simply because society back in 1930 wasn’t the same society we live in now. They didn’t look at her eyebrows, her mustache or her hideous teeth. They looked right into her soul, her brains, her intelligence and her creativity and this, is what made her astonishingly beautiful.

It really cracks me up when I hear men–and I do quite a lot–claiming how hard it is to find a woman nowadays with brains. You know, the kind of independent and smart woman who would keep you interested for the rest of your life just by being utterly her. What cracks me up more is how much men nowadays insist on natural beauty! You’d crave for that one woman who didn’t go through plastic surgeries, who doesn’t wear high heels that can break her neck in any second and doesn’t wear any excessive make up. You’d die to meet that one intelligent woman who is not after money or looks. And yet, when we put this into the test, we can see how much men still judge the looks before getting into the brain.

Why women don’t criticize Frida Kahlo? One, because a woman understands better the pain which Frida went through. Whether the abortion, the miscarriages, or the emotional pain which Diego caused her, we know how it feels. Two, and up until today, women–and men–indirectly wish they were Frida Kahlo.

The eyebrows and mustaches which she didn’t remove show us how much courageous and self confident she was to step unto her society looking like this. She did not need the consensus that we require today to step outside our house’s doorstep, looking or dressing the way we truly want to. The society we live in is the main reason we are all looking the way we do now; especially women.

Be it the plastic surgeries, the unnatural eyebrows, the clothes which are hideous and uncomfortable–but trendy, the hair colors which you only see on your Christmas tree or the boob jobs which are increasing day by day, they are all done for the sake of being accepted–we are technically asking for other people’s approval to have a certain look and dress in a certain way.

And Frida isn’t the only issue here. The whole matter of outer beauty reflecting the inner one is the main issue when in fact it should be the opposite. Inner beauty is what reflects the outer one. We live in a universe where we seek transformation and still we judge and criticize looks, when we still label this “ugly” and this “pretty”, when we call this “good” and call that “bad”. This world is never going to reach consciousness as long as it is filled with blindness.

Next time you’re about to call someone ugly, have a look at the mirror, and I’m sure you will find countless flaws. If that didn’t work, make a little research about the person you are about to criticize. Maybe, just maybe, you will find that person interesting and you would refrain from calling him whatever you had in mind. And if all of the above didn’t work for you, just hold respect of other people’s passions; and most of the passions in this world resides in other human beings.

To Frida and to every woman with a unibrow!

If you would like to know who Frida Kahlo truly is and navigate through her work, I recommend www.fridakahlofans.com

"Self-portrait with necklace of thorns" 1940

"Las dos Fridas" 1939

"The wounded deer" 1946