It’s been hard to write lately. I don’t want to get into the specifics of why, but it’s been hard. I haven’t written anything new (besides this article about why I’m single), nonfiction or fiction or even poetry (if I even count it as that), in… oh, I don’t even want to do the math. Not that I would normally. My first semester of college I dropped out of Calc 3, because why not. I wasn’t meant to do that; I was meant to do something like… writing. Which I’m not doing now. Do you see the problem here?
Anyway, the other day I was at the dentist, or my aunt’s office (in this case, the same thing), getting my teeth cleaned. I was enjoying the fragrance of orange sherbet flavored toothpaste when I was shown the x-ray of my teeth.
That’s right. If you take another look, you’ll see that my wisdom teeth are growing incredibly perpendicular, straight into my 12-year-molars (that ironically came in when I was 16). I’d be impressed if this didn’t mean a painful surgery in my future. As I laughed with my cousins about this dental dilemma, I wondered what would happen if I just let it be. Perhaps it was a monster tooth that would push my other teeth into complete disarray, disfiguring my smile to the point where I didn’t smile anymore.
That doesn’t sound so bad, I thought. Smiling can take a lot of effort and I already have a bit of a resting bitch face. Plus, animals bare their teeth to intimidate, and I like to keep my prey in the dark.
Brushing my teeth this morning, I wondered what would happen if I let my oral hygiene go completely. I mean, I already don’t floss, but what if I stopped brushing my teeth altogether? Perhaps the decay would blacken my teeth completely.
I saw a video today about Vietnamese beauty standards throughout the past centuries, and I was reminded that once, blackened teeth were considered beautiful. As a kid, I would ask my mom why women let their teeth turn black, and she would always tell me that it was because they didn’t brush their teeth (probably as a cautionary tale).
However, after some light Googling, I found out that some married women deliberately painted their teeth black. Not only was it viewed as aesthetically pleasing, but it actually prevented tooth decay. According to superstition, only demons and savage animals had white teeth; inversely, pitch black teeth were beautiful.
I scrolled through the images. It was disturbing at first, but then I was able to see why these women painted their teeth. After a while, they just seemed like a string of black pearls. What an honor it must have been, to finally make that transition into womanhood. How many girls dreamt of having such beautiful, black teeth? Image after image, I realized that these black teeth didn’t make the smiles seem less genuine. The tradition of painting teeth was only halted when the French colonized Vietnam and discouraged it.
In truth, I don’t know why I find this snippet of history so compelling. It’s not the idea of western ideals shaping beauty standards around the world, or me wanting to explore alternative lifestyles now that I’ve moved to California (ha), and it’s not even because I’m grossly invested in Vietnamese culture.
Perhaps it’s because I found it interesting, or perhaps it’s because I learned something new. It’s odd, that in a roundabout way, black-teeth types of facts and stories are why I like to write. It’s all about finding things and sharing them, and it’s especially rewarding when I stumble across something that resonates with me… like the imagery of a string of black pearls in a woman’s mouth.
I mean, like I said, it’s been hard to write lately. Getting back on the horse is work, way more arduous than you would think for someone to just sit down and typity type away. But, for now: women used to like having black teeth. Cool, huh?
P.S. Yes Mom, I’ll keep brushing my teeth.
ViVien Bui 