Lycra

Cuban women love Lycra and other body hugging, tight fitting clothes. On the slim and shapely this is something I wholeheartedly appreciate. But in Cuba Lycra celebrates the female form in all its wonderous varieties, from teenager to oap, from stick thin to  bodies that make the Michelin Man look svelt. In a country where huge portions of rice and beans are the main diet and the female population seems to undergo a metamorphic change somewhere in their 20s, the strength and elasticity of Lycra is tested on a regular basis.

 

But large women in Lycra is something you soon grow used to. Besides who are we with our weight obsessed prejudice to judge the Cuban's appreciation of the female form in all shapes and sizes? There is something almost refreshing about it, although it will probably be one of the casualties as Cuba becomes more westernised and weight obsessed like the rest of us. Soon the sight of a middle aged couple, she in bulging Lycra and he with his ample belly pushing the lower half of his tee shirt out like a ship under full sail may become a far less common sight.