Sexuality is very important in Lebanese society, moreso than in other Arab countries. Some girls and women in Lebanon are certainly "over-sexualized". They use make-up, dress, cosmetic surgery, and other tools of the trade to flaunt their natural beauty or manufacture new sexual appeal.
Just watch some of the Lebanese satellite television services or pick up local magazines to see this phenomenon. Sexual appeal is used as a commercial marketing tool. This has now spread to the pan-Arab satellite television realm, where much money is made by income from SMS cell phone messages sent to programs hosted by lovely, shapely young ladies in diminutive, tight outfits.
The really fascinating thing about this sexuality in my view is not that some girls parade their bodies publicly in skimpy clothes -- because this is a global phenomenon -- but that in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, this sort of sexual exhibitionism is so naturally accepted by other, more conservative, parts of society, whether Christian or Muslim. It is common to see older women and their daughters walking hand in hand in the street, reflecting a combination of conservative, tribal, Medieval mores and post-modern, individualistic, exhibitionist values. The two coexist in deep harmony for the most part.
The wider social and urban context of public sexuality in Lebanon is as important to grasp as the psychological impact of sexual peer pressures on individual young girls. Sexuality is a good way to appreciate Beirut and Lebanon's assets as perhaps the last truly cosmopolitan part of the Arab world.
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