Everything Except My Big Ethnic Nose

by Terisa Thurman

@SFTerisa

If you would have told me 20 years ago that my butt, my lips and even my natural hair would all eventually be “in style” I would not have believed you.  Style is so subjective but even beyond self acceptance people are paying for a feminine, curvy butt; I wonder why exactly that would ever go out of style in the first place – Heroine sheik?  Oh drugs, you make mess of our lives and rob us of our sanity!  Thick, juicy lips used to be a trademark of ethnicity but big lips have a lot of pros and they can be sexy. 

And now that more black women are wearing their natural hair; and thanks to social media connecting us there is a real sense of community. 

It seems everything about my physical appearance has come into style except my big, ethnic nose.

Since I was a child; other kids have been telling me I have a big nose; even kids within my own race.  Throughout high school and even in college some people would talk, loudly, behind my back and some were just so bold that they would walk right up to me and tell me. 

Truth is, I think my nose fits my face.  Perhaps it was all the images in the magazines that threw all those nose haters off; glam media puts a lot of similar images in front of our face.  If you believe the magazines and the movies; especially those of the 80's & 90's, the world was full of beautiful, similar looking people.

But perhaps those images are changing, because I haven’t heard the comments about my nose since I was in my 20's when a friend’s snooty 6 year old daughter said, “You have a big nose.”  And then I said, “You have a big mouth.”    That pretty much shut her up.  And that, as they say, was that.