Privilege - Gary Bremen
Even though it’s a bright, clear, cool fall day, the amount of marine debris on the shoreline spoils the feeling. There are brightly-painted buoys broken from lobster and crab traps, and what seems like miles of the black nylon rope that once bound the two together. There are straws and spoons and knives and forks, used for minutes and now here on this shoreline…unless a volunteer eventually picks it up with literally TONS of other debris and hauls it off to the dump. There are caps from bottles and tubes in every color. There are bags, and beer bottles and bunny-rabbit hair barrettes. There are the little, tiny plastic bottles that say “Chloro” or “Vinagre” on them. This is the way bleach and vinegar are sold in other parts of the Americas. I can’t imagine buying a couple of ounces of a fluid that runs only three or four dollars a gallon at the grocery store here. But then again, I’m privileged.
SO. MUCH. TRASH. I can’t help but think of the opening scenes of the Disney movie “Wall-E” where the little robot compacts garbage into cubes and stacks them into skyscrapers.
But even Wall-E found treasures among the trash, and I find “treasures” too. I find one of the largest sea hearts I’ve ever seen…a traveling seed from the Amazon Basin deposited here by wind and wave. There are pieces of pumice…volcanic rocks that float from the Caribbean and beyond. I check the liquor bottles for notes tucked inside. And then, there among plenty of trash from the US, are the things from far-off places.
There’s a toothpaste tube from Holland, a toilet cleaner bottle from Singapore, a rusted can of air freshener from Italy. I notice a cosmetic jar and pick it up. Most of the writing is in French, but did it come from France? Belgium? Haiti? The picture on the front shows a woman looking back over her shoulder next to the words “CaroWhite: Crème de Beauté.” The English translation below says “lightening beauty crème.” I’ve seen this once before and make a mental guess as to where it came from. I flip it over, and I am right: Côte d’ Ivoire, the country on the south coast of West Africa that we call Ivory Coast in English.
Beyond the marine debris, the words “skin lightening beauty crème,” found on the first container I found from Ivory Coast many years ago, really grates on me. The marketing implication is not subtle: lighter skin is more beautiful skin.
Evidence shows that ancient Egyptians and Greeks lightened their skin with things like honey, olive oil and even lead. Lighter skin indicated nobility and the fact that someone did not have to work outside in the fields. The Victorians were obsessed with making themselves paler. But in 1965, the Beach Boys wished all the girls could be California girls because they “all get so tanned.” Tanning salons are now found in many wealthier neighborhoods…even in sunny locales. Ideas of beauty certainly change over time. Such an obsession to change one’s appearance. It seems so superficial, so wasteful, so…silly.
But then again, I’m privileged.
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Gary Bremen is a marine science educator in South Florida, and an inveterate “comber of shorelines.” He lives in an urban oasis of native plants and wildlife in the small town of Wilton Manors, Florida with his husband Roger and their three cats Oliver, Elliott and Amelia.