Real Talk: Women Want to Know About Mascara and the Middle East

“Well, I think that women’s lives are multi-layered. I have no problem understanding that women are interested in mascara and the Middle East. Men are allowed to talk about sports relentlessly and yet we still take them seriously. I don’t understand why women can’t talk about fashion or sex or love or wanting more money and not be taken as seriously as men.” -Joanne Coles

This quote from the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine is a great way to understand all people, not only defined by genders and preferences. People are multi-layered. Women want to know about “mascara and the Middle East.” Men like to talk about sports and politics. We are so used to labeling and putting others in boxes that we forget to acknowledge the complexity of one another.

One goal of World Unwrapped is to notice and understand that people are interested in many types of things happening in the world and that a site should encompass as many of those things as makes sense. I love music and art, but I also want to know when modernization in Mecca is destroying such a strong religious history and sacred spaces. Much of what makes the world, and the people and things that live in it, beautiful and interesting is the layers that our identities have, that architecture has, that cultures have.

I think it’s amazing the Pyramids of Giza show up in the City-scape of Cairo. It’s amazing that the Olsen Twins can go from being a twin-sister-acting-powerhouse to two respected luxury designers. I think it’s interesting that Mecca is central to so much history and being threatened by the intense modernization and urbanization going on in Hejaz. All of these things are layers of beauty, history, identity. Who is anyone to deny their authenticity.