Would you take an animal growth hormone pill to get fuller hips?
That's what an NPR audio documentary recently examined. The radio documentary series The Hidden World of Girls aired an audio documentary about the use chicken pills and bleaching products in Jamaica.
The piece discusses the issues of race, class and attitudes towards beauty that underlie this
phenomenon. Jamaican scholars Donna Hope, Dr. Carolyn Cooper and Dr. Sonjah Stanley Niaah are interviewed for the audio documentary. Check out an excerpt:
In Jamaica we talked with twenty-one year old Raquel Jones who was cast in an independent film called “Chicken Pills,”by Jamaica born playwright, Storm. The film is about two teenage girls. One is getting more attention from the boys in the class. The other character, Lisa, is having self esteem problems so she turns to the chicken pills.“Here in Jamaica it’s pressure on teenage girls and women. We do stuff that increases these physical appearances, getting our bodies to look a certain way.”
Read and listen to the rest of the report here.
[top photo by Shadi Ghadirian]
