A hippy curvy woman                                                   Photo: q945therock.com

Forget mannerism and personality, most Kenyan men are attracted to women because of their physical attributes. Men, a lot of research shows, are visual creatures. Before they sit down with a woman to scrutinise her personality, they must, first of all, get attracted to her physique.

Apparently, most men can’t just resist curvy woman with big, well-rounded posteriors. They unashamedly stare, gawk, drool and even whistle suggestively at the sight of such women. Basically, around here, women are judged on the basis of their beauty, which has a lot to do with how curvy they are.

Consequently, in their quest and desire to attract men or to be referred to as ‘true African women’, most Kenyan women have exploited virtually every trick in the book. In their endeavors to fit the bill, without men being any clever, some of the things most of them do can only be described as crazy.

Poultry feed

So, gentlemen, you’ve probably hugged a woman and wondered why her breath was laced with chicken feed, chick mash, grower mash, layer mash and such like? And the fact that she looked older, yet her mammary glands look firm and ‘shy’ made you wonder, right? And when she began walking away, as you checked out her backside, she looked like she had a diaper on?

Well, wonder no more. It is very likely that she is on a special fad diet that has hit town; eating chicken feed to gain curves and big bums! And that diaper like thing is a padded underwear to make her look curvy.

Her perky mammary glands could be attributed to a wonder bra! Nelly Mwangi*, a business lady who runs a tours company, confesses that she owes her curvaceous body to poultry feed. “My friend Rita introduced me to chicken feed after she heard about it at her former work place.

We started using it, and we have never looked back, the result is this great body you see here (as she boastfully gestures at her broad hips),” Ms Mwangi reveals. Ms Mwangi says they began eating it raw, adding that they both now boost of great bodies, and have introduced other women to it.

“We then graduated to eating it like Weetabix; seasoning it with milk and sugar to taste. It tastes great, in fact, just like any other cereal meal, you know!“ Ms Mwangi says, rather enthusiastically.

When this writer ask Ms Mwangi why a sophisticated-looking woman of her caliber would eat something “filthy and smelly” such as chicken mash, she chuckled: “It’s all in the name of beauty. My friend, it’s just one of the many things people do for beauty. Try it, and after two or so months report back to me!”

Ms Mwangi introduced this writer to her friend Janet Musya* who allegedly used chicken feed to not only gain mass but also a big posterior. Musya, a young lawyer who was recently admitted to the bar, strongly believes in the power of chicken feed. She says she heard about it from her friend (Nelly Mwangi) during a baby shower sometimes back.

“It sounded like a joke, in fact, unrealistic just like those quails and their eggs stories you here around. But I still went ahead and gave it a try, seeing as my friend who tickled us with the diet not only had a great bum, but curvy body and attributed it to poultry feed. The first time, I mixed it in flour and used it to make ugali. It didn’t taste as nasty as I initially thought. A couple of weeks down the line, I started noticing some ‘weight’ in the right places, and before long, comments began trickling in from friends,” says the shy Janet.

She says that although she has attained her desired figure, she still sprinkles chicken feed on flour she uses to prepare porridge. “The porridge tastes great, I mix it with normal porridge flour, make it light and season it using sugar and lemon,” says Janet.

And when asked what their men think about it, they both said their boyfriends have no clue. “My boyfriend doesn’t know I’m on this diet. And even if he gets to know, there is nothing he can do, after all I do all this just for him. I’m so addicted to it, and there is no way I’m going to stop, not even if he confronted me with a court order and a jail term threat,” says Musya.

Ms Mwangi says men should not be surprised that women go to such lengths. She concludes: “We do this things because of men. Therefore they should not make a big fuss over it….And by the way, this is just a tip of the iceberg, there so many things we do just because of them (men),”

Using Antiretroviral (ARVs)

Tales have been told of other women who do weirdest of things to gain curves and big bums. June Kerario, a librarian, says one of her colleagues, a relatively skinny lady, tired of trying all sorts of remedies to gain weight, including gulping copious amounts of yoghurt and other fatty foods such as french fries, once revealed to her that she was contemplating using antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs. This was after she heard rumours going round that ARVs have the potential of making people put on weight. Ms Kerario discouraged her and even told her of dangers she could be subjecting her body to. She heeds her advice, but, as Kerario says, she is still uncomfortable in her own skin.   

Reports have it that most women are desperate for curvy bodies not just to attract men, but also to boost their self-confidence. It is therefore not a wonder that some skinny Kenyan woman and those without curvy bodies will do any thing to acquire them.

Diet not responsible for curves

However, how curvy one looks, nutritionists warn, has absolutely nothing to do with diet. It is believed that some women are naturally blessed with great bodies, regardless of what they eat.

The geographical region of where they were born is, in some cases, said to have a great influence. Others it is in their genes. For instance, women from Coast, western and Nyanza regions are said to have naturally curvy bodies with bigger bums.

Juliet Atieno is one such a woman. She says she wonders why women go to such lengths to acquire curves and big posteriors. “There is nothing I ever do to my body. No special diet. No exercise. But look at me (she says as she turns around, as if to show off) I’m blessed in most ‘departments’,” boast Julie.

“The only effort I make is dressing my body right, and I get men turning their heads, walking into walls and accidentally bumping into people as they stare at me,” she says, amid a cheeky smile.

Padded underwear

Women without hips, curves and big backsides will do anything to look curvy and ‘fleshy’. One very common other way to dupe men that they are curvy and have bigger backsides is by putting on padded underwear. This method is used by more cautious one who are hesitant to use riskier methods such as use of pills, creams and silicon injections or costly ones like surgery.

A spot check in local shops stocking women clothes found plenty of these garments; padded bras, tummy and body shapers. The shopkeeper claims her stocks move so fast, a clear indication that women are really into them. She says some of them cost as much as between Sh2500-Sh7000, but her stock still moves very vast.

Body shapping undergarments

Alice Nyawira*, a Nairobi-based Public Relations officer, has all along used padded bras and a body shapping undergarments to enhance her curves. “I use a push-up bra and a body shaper to accentuate my curves,“ she reveals.

She explains that this is achieved because the padded bra boosts bust, the body shaper makes her waist look smaller and enhances the little curves she has. Some of these methods women use to look curvy are dangerous. Take, for instance, the case of Christine Nyaboke*, a hairdresser in Nairobi, whose desperate attempt to look curvy turned tragic.

“The pill I was using, suggested by a friend, was not giving me desired results. Thus, one day, yet another friend suggested an alternative, which I bought. I began applying the cream on my hips, thighs and on my backsides with visible positive results, until one day when I noticed one of my buttocks looking bigger than the other,” she says.

Her desperate attempt to “balance the effect” by applying more of the cream on the smaller butt, with the hope that it will “catch up” with the other, were in futility.

“I lost confidence and no longer comfortable putting on figure-hugging outfits, seeing as people began noticing one of my butts was smaller than the other. And if I must dress in such, I have to stuff in a piece of clothe to make them look even and natural,” agonises Nyaboke.

So there you have it gentlemen, some of those curvy women you stare at and salivate over do weird things to acquire those great figures and others it’s mere ‘false advertising’. And guess what? You are partly to blame why women go to these lengths; they do it for you.