Still Too Much
BY KARRIS ODIDI
Last week, I spoke about how overwhelming it can be to simply exist here. The loss, the waiting, the rain, the absurdity.
This week, I want to sit with one line from that piece, the one about “BBL culture” and the women who turn to surgery for softness, for beauty, for survival.
Because that too, is part of the burden.
Let’s talk about body pressure in Nigeria.
Let’s talk about how our society breeds insecurity, even in people who were already born with the very features they now pay to exaggerate.
Yes, the influence is Western. But the pressure? That’s homegrown.
We laugh at women who go under the knife, but how can we judge them when the system makes you feel like being your natural self is not enough?
We watch shows like Big Brother and see how beauty especially surgically enhanced beauty comes with perks. Visibility. Praise. Prize money.
A man in his 50s with a pot belly will still say he wants a woman who’s “thick in the right places.” Not skinny, not too fat. just the impossible in-between.
Get inner collective (ic+)’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
But we don’t talk about how unhealthy that expectation is. Or how much of it is rooted in shame, not desire.
Some women can’t gain weight fast enough, so they go under. Others feel unseen, unfeminine, unfavoured so they “fix” themselves in ways that feel like shortcuts to soft life.
And the most painful part?
A lot of us already had full lips. Thick thighs. Curves.
But even that wasn’t enough.
Because enough is never enough in a place like this.
The truth is, we’re all tired.
And some women just want to be beautiful enough to be chosen or to finally rest.
BBL culture isn’t just about vanity.
It’s about what happens when survival meets insecurity and society keeps rewarding one body type while shaming the rest.
So yes it’s still too much.
Different kind of heavy, but heavy all the same.
