The beauty pageant where the men wear the makeup

Each year, as the rains end in the Sahel of Niger and Chad, the nomadic Wodaabe (a subgroup of the Fulani cattle-herders) gather for the Gerewol — a courtship festival that flips the familiar script. Here, it is the young men who spend hours applying makeup, dressing in beads and ostrich feathers, and lining up to be judged. The judges are women.

The centerpiece is a dance called the yaake, where men stand on tiptoe, sway, and perform for hours in the sun. They paint their faces (often yellow or red), darken their lips to make teeth flash, and roll their eyes and grin to show off two prized features: bright white teeth and eyes, seen as signs of health and vitality. Height and a long nose are admired too, so dancers stretch upward to emphasize them.

A few young women, chosen for their own standing, step forward to select the most beautiful and charismatic performers. A win can lead to romance or marriage — sometimes across existing marriages, since the festival tolerates courtship that ordinary Wodaabe life does not. The event doubles as a rare social reunion for a scattered, mobile people whose herds keep them apart most of the year.

The Gerewol is a reminder that standards of beauty and who gets to judge them are cultural, not universal — in one corner of the world, the runway belongs to the men.