Florabotanica

I tried out a new perfume by Balenciaga today. It was the name that caught my attention: Florabotanica. The salesgirl said it was an infusion of roses. I asked her to spray it on the usual test card, and she gave me a small spray sample along with the test card.

"I do smell roses. It is subtle but persistent. But there's another flower there, and it is a little fruit/citrusy too, and the base is just a touch heavy," I said.

"No, no other flower. And it the vetiver and amber in the base that give it the citrus scent," replied the helpful salesgirl.

I wasn't convinced, I left thanking her for the sample spray.

I went online on Balenciaga's site and sure enough there is another flower: the carnation. And the fresh citrusy smell I could detect is mint. The heavy base is from the leafy caladium.

The perfume, as the Balenciaga site describes it, is a paradoxical soft and strong. Our modern age has to dilute whatever it presents to us, reduce its beauty, and uglify it. The perfume itself is just a ghost of the old classics, which didn't need some paradox to show us their strength. And perfume bottles were works of art on their own. This paradoxical concuction is bottled in a flask "which takes its design from laboratory bottles" according to Nicolas Ghesquiere, one of the perfumers.

That waif of a woman, Kristen Stewart, who became famous through a series of vampire movies, is Balenciaga's choice of a spokesgirl. Spokeswoman is a more apt title since Krisren is no girl, but a grown woman in her mid-twenties. Kristen's insipid personality is devoid of any strength, whether to combat gory creatures, or to represent Balenciaga's lofty ideal. Our modern era keeps producing these girl-women who fling themselves into dangerous roles, but who break down at the slightest difficulty.

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The Asian Woman's Jackpot of Marrying a White Man

Kelly Ripa with her new talk show host

There are interesting discussions going on at The Thinking Housewife about interracial marriage, or more precisely, interracial coupling.

Kelly Ripa, who is has been hosting the morning talk show Live with Regis and Kelly by herself after that old-time TV personality Regis Philbin retired as her co-host, is bringing on some forgotten football player as her new host. This might help the downward spiral of her show Live with Kelly sans Regis, although I don't think adding "Michael" to the title and bringing on this non-photogenic and clumsy co-host will help her much.

But I don't think that it is that surprising that Ripa goes for racial "diversity." She is married to a dark-skinned Hispanic third-rate actor (all his TV series and his films have been relegated to the deep recesses of production shelves), and occasionally brings him on to co-host with her to give him a break from the unemployment line.

Kelly Ripa with her husband

At another post on interracial coupling at Laura's site she notes that "40 percent of Asian women in America now marry outside their race" which means that they marry white men.

I see the same thing in Toronto where every third couple I see is that combination.

In fact, just a few days ago, I sat outside in a relatively busy part of town to have coffee, and practically all the couples that passed by me were the white male/Asian female variety. I even thought I should start some kind of tally.

Laura Wood comments that it is:

...the relative femininity of Asian women [that] is attractive to white men.

And here is where I disagree.

Since I'm bombarded with this vision on a daily basis, I decided to investigate what could be considered so attractive about Asian women that white men are leaving their own women in droves to couple with them.

Firstly, I don't think that Asian women are as "beautiful" as white or black women. I've written about this here and here.

Second, I don't even think Asian women are necessarily more docile (more feminine) than white or black women. The harshest argument (actually, twice) I've come across in a public setting are between a white male and an Asian female.

Third, I think the white male pairing off with an Asian female is some kind of fetishistic behavior that white men are exhibiting. Not to be too crude, but it is like some kind of odd Freudian background which makes some people desire feet, for example. So, it is more of a desire brought on by some psychological blockage rather than a true desire.

Fourth, following from the third point, white men are pairing off with Asian women because they are rejecting their own kind, which means that they are rejecting themselves, which means that they are rejecting their background which failed them at some point in their (early) life).

What could have set off this fetishistic behavior?

I can try to understand it.

- It could be that white women, after the rise and triumph of feminism, have neglected their men, and most importantly, their vulnerable young sons, to such an extent that all the family memories young men (and of course young girls, but they can buttressed with feminism and "girl power") have of their mothers are negative ones.

- I would think being neglected in day care centers practically from birth so their mothers can "go off to work," figures largely in this.

- Another most likely cause is the high divorce rates amongst white couples, leaving young children, and especially their sons, susceptible to all kinds of negative environmental impacts, including loneliness, feelings of neglect, awful daycare centers, resentment and even hatred of the parent they think caused this miserable life etc.

So, I agree that black women are generally more difficult to get along with, and partly that is because I don't think black women want to pair off with whites, but with other blacks.

That leaves with the conveniently placed Asian women, who, from my observations, seem to find it a kind of jackpot if they catch and marry (or pair off with) a white man. This is true both of recent Asian immigrants, and third or fourth generation Asian-Canadians. A white male is a better catch, materialistically, socially, culturally, and even aesthetically.

They cleverly behave well and docile during courtship, but start tightening the reins once they have successfully sealed the relationship. I've seen this happen in a couple of public situations. Here are high profile Asian/white relationship blowouts I've written about [1, 2].

And, often, these white men end up being a mediocre type, possibly a life-long disappointment (as Vera Wang's failed-business-man husband and Amy Chua's scholar-turned-erotic novelist husband show).

By then, the male has been coerced into including "Asianess" into the family life, and has children who look more like their Asian mother than his own mother (mixed Asian children always look Asian to me), so he is deeply into the relationship (which he agreed to and accepted when he first entered it). And any kind of "rebellion" will just make his life more difficult, so he sticks by this as long as he can.

On a related tangent, some high profile white male/Asian female divorces are happening, which I've written about here, which is a kind of litmus test for what's also happening in the rest of society.

From my experience, children of these mixed Asian/white couples are much more Asian, have no interest in white culture, will promote their "Asianess," and in a surprisingly twist of events, will couple with other Asians, and often with half-Asians like themselves, which gives them the best of all worlds: Canadian and western materialistic gains and a comfortable, familiar cultural lifestyle.

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Hands On Dad

I watched the whole one hour and a half program "Obama Revealed: The Man, The President" on CNN last night. It was a great piece of propaganda, a well-crafted narrative of Obama through the years, with well-placed images and interviews of Barack-sympathizers. I'm sure we'll be getting a lot more of these docudramas of various lengths during the next few months.

I wanted to see how Obama behaved during his interview (it was interspersed throughout the program) with CNN journalist Jessica Yellin. Most of the time, Yellin had an adoring look on her face, even when she was getting "tough" on the President.

Obama had an odd expression of submissiveness and joviality, with a hint of uncertainty during one segment. I think none of these expressions are suitable for a president, and especially a president the rest of the world constantly has on its radar. The topic is his daughters and dinner with his family, after all, which is all the more reason he shouldn't be talking about "dinner at home."

Then, as though to make up for this "softness," he occasionally gets a hard glint in his eyes, which I've observed in other appearances. This is not the determined look of a world leader, but an strange, fascistic glint, with a thrust of his chin, which I call his "Mussolini chin," borrowing from another observer.


The above image is from a blog post I wrote on Obama's hard glint which becomes all the more apparent next to Eli Wiesel's suffering expression. I also add about Obama:

Yet, there is the vacant, frightened look in Obama's eyes on the picture on the left that I've often observed.

I found this part of the CNN interview fascinating (the link is a two minute clip from the interview). Most of the blogosphere seems to concur, although most likely for different reasons (i.e. what a great dad Obama is to find time out for his daughters at dinner time). The transcript follows below:

OBAMA: When we're in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30, we want to be at the dinner table with our kids and I want to be helping with their homework. I think that's sometimes interpreted as me not wanting to, you know, be out there slapping back, and wheeling and dealing. It really is more to do with the stage we are in our lives.

YELLIN (on camera): If you're re-elected, your girls will be older. They'll probably have their own weekend plans. They might not want to hang out with mom and dad.

OBAMA: It's already starting to happen, yes.

YELLIN: Do you think you might do more outreach, what you call back slapping, with members of Congress?

Imagine the CEO of a company, or the principal of a school being asked "Do you think you might do more outreach when your daughters are older, and you don't have to be at the dinner table to hear about their day?"

Embarrassing, and embarrassing that Obama takes this question seriously.

I'm not sure what Obama is trying to convey with his statement "When we're in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30, we want to be at the dinner table with our kids and I want to be helping with their homework." I don't believe that he really does show up for every dinner (even when he's not on an official trip or meeting) to be with his daughters at 6:30pm. Note his clever wording:

When we're in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30, we want to be at the dinner table with our kids and I want to be helping with their homework.

Wanting to be there and being there are two different things.

And here is Yellin with Valerie Jarrett, who was also interviewed for the program:

YELLIN: Though being a family man isn't always an asset in office, it is a priority for the president.

JARRETT: Well, you have to remember, this is someone who grew up raised by a single mom and his grant parents whose family abandoned him and he's lived with that kind of missing piece in him. And at a very young age, he decided he wasn't going to be the kind of father he had. He wanted to be a present father.

Jarrett also says:

His father abandoned him, and he's lived with that kind of missing piece in him. At a very young age, he decided he wasn't going to be the kind of father he had. He wanted to be a present father.

I have a feeling that Michelle Obama tries to have a large say in "the family eating dinner together," which Obama then deftly overrules.

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The Girl In the Red Dress

The Girl In the Red Dress

Above is a photo of "teen sensation" Taylor Swift, who is actually well beyond her teen years at 22 years, but who nonetheless looks like an awkward teen-ager with her mother's bold red lipstick on. Her dress is a cute frock, and even grown-up, and her shoes have the high heels of an adult, but notice the pigeon-toed step which is how shy six-year-olds walk.

Today's young women vacillate between over-sexualized sluttish looks, and when they do try to cover up, they end up looking like confidence-devoid girls.

I wrote abut Taylor Swift here, where she has an interaction with Michelle Obama. I wrote of a photo with the two together:

Below is Michelle Obama with Taylor Swift, who says as she receives the award "I'm freaking out!" according to the Mail article. I'm sure she's overwhelmed. The photograph below subliminally captures Taylor's "freaking out" moment, as she instinctively gathers in her prize, and seems to be running away from a stalking Michelle. I would be terrified too, with this imposing woman standing so close behind.

Poor Taylor Swift. It isn't just
rambunctious young boys she has to
ward off, but over-exuberant
First Ladies as well.

Here is one of Taylor's more dramatic songs (yes, she does hail from a Country Music background, but even those songs have some level of dignity in their confessions of heart break):

"Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress
Cried the whole way home
I should've known"
Lyrics from: "Dear John"

But try to imagine a twenty-something boy-man singing "Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?" Yes he might write about unrequited love, but not with this self-indulgent pity.

Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, who "split" with Taylor Swift before she "broke his heart" wrote the following song:

What did I do to your heart
What did I do to your heart
Did I break it, apart
Did I break it, your heart

Taylor Swift With the Neglectful Joe Jonas.
She may be as good as any man when selling her records,
but will she ever be strong enough to "break up"
like a man?

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The Aggressive Ann Romney

Collage of Ann and Mitt at the 2012 Republican National Convention

Ann is a mixture of the exalted female, the hen-pecking wife (at a public, national convention!), an over-emotional presenter, the overwhelming wife ready to hug some sense into her husband, and the demure and pretty housewife.

Mitt isn't any better. Clutching at his wife in a prolonged hug is embarrassing for a world leader, and he seems to have a slightly apprehensive (frighted) look when next to his wife, as though he doesn't know what she'll do next. Holding hands has now become standard for politicians and their wives, but this is again a degradation of a public political event, where husbands clutch at their wives' hands at any occasion.

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I liked Ann Romney at her first appearances. She looked pretty and reserved, and seemed to let her husband lead. I'm sure they had private discussions about his leadership (in business and in politics), but I didn't think she was the type of spouse who would take a prominent role in his work. I defended her in this post where nasty bloggers were tearing apart a shirt she wore for a CBS This Morning interview with her husband. I said that she looked supportive of her husband, and was wearing a silk shirt with the design of the American naturalist and painter James Aududon. But, I should have read the signs even then, where Ann is clutching at Mitt Romney, who looks a little overwhelmed by his wife in this photo from that interview.

Mitt and Ann Romney at a CBS This Morning
interview in May 2012

I didn't watch her speech at the Republican National Convention last night, but I read the transcript this morning.

It is a painful jumble of many things. She comes off as a loving wife, yet her love she declares is better suited for their private interaction, rather than a public avowal at a political event (and for political gains).

I have broken down the speech and into these categories:

- "Soppy" love, better suited for private interaction

- A leftist comradeship with her "brothers and sisters" inclusion

- An aggressive feminist on single fathers, working mothers, and "stay-at-home moms" who wish to leave their homes and start their careers

- Sympathizing with the "career-house-keeper" mom, who generally chooses to have such a chaotic family life, and berating Romney by extension as a lounging dad, who doesn't help with household chores

- Demeaning her husband when they first started to go out, and yet disappointed that he didn't act "like a man"

Below are some direct quotes from her speech, and I have written short commentary on the quotes in bold:

- "Tonight I want to talk to you about love." Soppy love

- "Tonight I want to talk to you from my heart about our hearts." Soppy love

- "I want to talk to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man." Soppy personal (private) love which doesn't need to be publicized

- "love we all share for those Americans, our brothers and sisters" A leftist comradeship

- "the single dad who’s working extra hours tonight" An aggressive feminist outlook with sympathy for broken families. And how many single dads are there really out there?)

- "working moms who love their jobs but would like to work just a little less." Again, an aggressive feminist outlook. Ann Romney stayed home to take care of her kids. So her secret dream was to have a job and a career?!

- "if we were all silent for just a few moments and listened carefully, we could hear a great collective sigh from the moms and dads across America. And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the women sighing a little bit more than the men." All these over-worked women, who love their jobs, and can't quit to take care of their families, feeling sorry for themselves!

- "It’s the moms who always have to work a little harder, to make everything right." Again, overworked (home and office) saintly career women/mother

-"You know what it’s like to work a little harder during the day to earn the respect you deserve at work and then come home to help with that book report which just has to be done." Yes, again the overworked mother who is the one who helps with the kids' homework, while the husband lounges around.

- "I’m not sure if men really understand this, but I don’t think there’s a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy." Ditto as above

- "he was tall, laughed a lot, was nervous -- girls like that, it shows the guy’s a little intimidated" Yes, anything for the female power

- "I know this good and decent man for what he is — warm and loving and patient."
This is not what political conventions are about, to say what a lovely person the competitor is. This is about competition, and this kind of "niceness" doesn't cut it.

- "He loves America. He will take us to a better place, just as he took me home safely from that dance." Ditto as above, plus back to her personal story, which cannot be extrapolated into political life

- "As a mom of five boys" Back to the "female power" again and the power of being a mom!

-He built it. An aggressive jab at Obama

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La Dentellière and the Lacemaker

La Dentellière is a hard film to take. It was showing recently on the French channel Télévision Français de l'Ontario (TFO), which is the french version of TVO, Television Ontario, last night. I hesitated to watch it, since I knew it would be a sad film to watch.

The lovely Isabelle Huppert is a young actress in this film.

I didn't get the connection between the film and the painting until the very end. Huppert turns her head and looks at us, the audience. It's the culmination of the many things her character, Pomme (her nickname which means "Apple" because of her round face), has gone through.

I've written about the uncontrollable desire to animate Vermeer's paintings, as though their stillness is some kind of suspended animation (or life). I've noticed that many artists feel the same way. Most, though, make small animated spurts of the actual painting. Claude Goretta, who directed La Dentellière, creates a whole story behind The Lacemaker. He brings the painting to life both through animation and through story, and creates a new character to embody her.

The film is from the novel La Dentellière by Pascal Lainé, who writes of Pomme:

She was like one of those genre paintings where the subject is captured in mid-movement. Her way, for example, of pursing hairpins in her lips as she redid her hair bun! She was The Laundress, The Water Girl, or The Lacemaker.

He is, of course, talking about Vermeer, after whose Lacemaker he titles his book.

Vermeer, Jan
The Lacemaker
c. 1669-1670
Oil on canvas transferred to panel
23.9 x 20.5 cm (9 13/32 x 8 1/2 in.)

It was fun to see Paris in the seventies, but most of the film takes place in the northern seaside resort of Cabourg. This is partly a story about sexual liberation, and the societal responsibilities (or irresponsibilities, more like) that followed from that era. A lovely, delicate girl like Pomme, again an apt name because she does look as lovely, fresh and round-faced as an apple, would have probably got a lot of protection from her mother and especially her male family members in per-feminist eras. "Elle est fragile," says Pomme's friend, who brought her to Cabourg for a short vacation, but has no time for the especially vulnerable Pomme. She probably brought her along on vacation to help with the hotel bills.

The Grand Hotel de Cabourg, where Pomme would sit
at their outdoor cafe with her chocolate ice cream
and a view of the Atlantic

Under normal family protection, some Don Juan wouldn't have been able to walk through the door, decide that he likes what he sees, and try to seduce (if he moves too fast, she might fly away) a young girl, without everyone making sure of his true intentions (i.e. marriage). That is what François, the young man Pomme meets on her trip to the seaside, tried to do.

Pomme was adept in many ways, although she would probably be considered a little slow. She works in a hair salon (mostly doing the hair of "vielle dames" as she explains), could manage many daily tasks well, and she maneuvers her way around Paris without difficulty. She is a respite for her young seducer, a University literature student full of ideas of romance, from the harsh feminists that surround him daily. I think that men are tired of feminists and feminism, even though many liberal men are staunch supporters of feminism. When it hits their daily life and choices, I am sure they would go for a gentler soul like Pomme. François realizes too late that he really was dealing with a vulnerable soul, and his clumsy attempts at seduction worked because Pomme really did like him, and trust him (he was different from the boys who whistle at her in the Paris streets). But, after he sleeps with her, he loses interest, or more precisely, he realizes he was dealing with not a savvy city girl, but a fragile, pure, soul he couldn't protect (or love). Pomme, uncharacteristically, had already told him she loved him after their night together, and it was too much for him to handle.


Huppert, in the still above from La Dentellière, has an uncanny resemblance to the woman in Vermeer's painting.
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Here is an article I wrote on Vermeer:
Vermeer's Discerning Light

And here is a blog post I wrote on the desire to animate Vermeer's works:
Vermeer's Light and Movement

In the blog, I've posted a very short animation I made of The Lacemaker. I've also made a box with the face of the lacemaker printed on fabric and stretched on the outer and inner lid of the box. The outer lid is a re-print of the original Vermeer painting. When opened, the inner lid shows a photoshopped version of the lacemaker, with her eyes up and looking out at us. The outer cover is of browinsh/yellowish hue, similar to the hues of the original painting. The inner is a light (celestial?) blue.

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Red Apples and Vampires

Caught in her own web

On my trip back from Toronto, I struck a conversation with a young woman next to me (she's about twenty-five, so she doesn't qualify as "that" young, and is actually a grown adult). She was traveling from New York to Toronto for a week's vacation. She is studying financial management at the New School. She said she was from Toronto (Pickering, a town about 25 miles from Toronto), and already has a degree in Visual Arts from the University of Toronto, a small, and not particularly good, art program.

She did her final art thesis on a "video installation" which is really an easy way out for not very talented students of art to present something "artistic."

Here is the technical part of her work:

- She covered her face with white powder.
- She sat in front of the camera and taped herself holding an apple in front of her mouth for a few minutes
- She sat in front of the camera again for a few minutes taping herself holding a cylindrical object smaller than the apple.
- She filled her mouth with blood-red liquid, and started to tape as she let the liquid spill out of her mouth
-She super-imposed the first image over the second image.

The effect she wanted, and got, was of her eating an apple, with blood gushing out of her mouth as she ate the apple. But, without the apple showing any signs of having been eaten.

Apples, crosses and demons
Red apples from the vampire movie Twilight,
which clearly influenced the young woman
who is the subject of this post.

I immediately went into a non-judgmental, analytical mode:

"- Snow White (your white face), Red Rose (the blood from the apple)
- Snow White is pure, but what's wrong with Red Rose (a rose is good, isn't it?)
- Vampires, blood from eating flesh
- Eve and the apple"

"Yes, pretty good," she said.

But, she said she was also working on menstruation and the beginnings of adulthood for girls which starts out with blood. That her white face was to make a strong visual contrast with the red blood and the red apple. That Snow White is a symbol of purity, while the red blood shows the impurity of adulthood, and the corrupted nature of woman (i.e. menstruation is the beginning of the impurity).

She couldn't quite make a clear analogy between the apple and Eve, but I think it is the same idea of the fallen, corrupted woman, that she had. Although she didn't say so, it is also clear that the white powder-mask she covered her face with is also a sign of her purity, and how adulthood, menstruation, etc. is making her less pure than her younger, childhood years. She talked a little about the Hunter from Red Riding Hood as well, insinuating some kind of rape, or forced sexual meaning.

It was all a little convoluted, but very interesting. Young adult women these days have no idea what to do as adult women. A few decades ago, women in their early twenties were married and had at least one baby by the time they were twenty-five. Now, twenty-five year-olds don't only prolong their adolescence (this girl was back at school after several years in a dance program, then she was in New York for a masters in finance at the New School, so she never really had to be out in the real world) but they seem to regress even further back in age, and in their psyche, as they grow older and old.

One think I noticed about this young woman was how much she lacked self-confidence. This seems a contradiction, considering her art thesis is an aggressive and violent piece. But that "artistic" aggression is a channeling of a self-centered, narcissistic personality. She wanted me very much to "like" her ideas, but at the same time, she has tells me her story of a bloody, vampiric art piece which is liable to turn off and repel any normal person.

But it repelled her too. She confessed that the experience affected her so negatively that she hasn't done any "art" since then. And that is why she went into finance. "After all, like art, finance is about communication," she tried to explain.

"No, art is about creating. I don't know what finance is about, but I would assume it is about negotiation money in various way. No relation at all with art." I was a little harsh, which put her into more of a "pleasing" mode for a while.

The conversation petered off. How much can there be to talk about when the subject is so unpleasant to her? I was just intrigued, and could have gone on for a while, including finding out more about her mother was picking her up at the bus stop. "Are your parents divorced?" would have been my question, a little less bluntly asked, perhaps.

But, such are modern (or post-moder) women these days. They just cannot handle life. Their morbid, narcissistic, suicidal tendencies are coupled with a latent aggression that spurts out in unexpected moments. But, when it comes to the practicalities of life, they have nothing to grasp on to that will pull them out of the abysses that all of us encounter at times. But in her own morbid way, this girl likes these abysses, and manipulates them as much as she can.

I switched her off and turned to the window, and looked at the beautiful landscape rolling by me. Let her handle her apples and demons on her own.

Kirsten Stewart in a "vampire" movie Eclipse

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The Male Gaze and Western Art

Mark Richardson, over at Oz Conservative (who is part of Jim Kalb's bloggers' group, of which I am also a member) writes about the Male Gaze, and one feminist woman's negative reaction to it. He quotes "An older Canadian woman":

Men don’t look at me the way they used to. In general, they don’t look at me at all. This is what happens when a woman turns 40 (50, 60 etc.). It’s a fact of life.

In theory, this is supposed to be an exhilarating passage in the life of a woman...

...In reality, it sucks. I’d give a lot for men to look at me like that again.

...on the whole, being gazed on was not at all demeaning. It was empowering. I was the one in charge, because the choice of how to handle any given male’s response was entirely mine. No matter how sexist or unfair it seems, no one in the world has more erotic power than a 20-year-old girl.

Richardson ends his column with:

(Final thought: it's a pity to have to discuss relationships in terms of power - that's me capitulating a bit to liberal thought patterns. It ought to be the case that young men and women seek love and find the highest expression of this love in a faithful relationship.)

I understand his position. Yet, without the male gaze, and the female erotic/feminine power, there wouldn't be Western art.

The feminist woman whom Richardson quotes, whose movement coined the term, is somewhat subdued in her later years, and even acknowledges that she misses this male gaze in her old age. As Richardson says, she spent her younger years rejecting her femininity, at a time when she did have all the power. And this power would have had staying power, when she had only her wrinkled face to offer.

At its best, the "male gaze" does not seek power, nor subjugate woman, nor reduce her just to her biology and sexuality. It is a demonstration of supreme admiration and love for woman. It manifests itself in some of the best art in Western culture.

Margaret Wente is the "older Canadian woman" that Richardson quotes. She is a relatively well-know columnist for Canada's Globe and Mail (here is her full article, which Richardson links to). Her biography at Wikipedia says that she is sixty-two years old, and her spouse is Ian McLeod. As women like Wente get older, they start to realize what they missed, and missed out on. Here is a post I did on the awful The View panelist Joy Behar (I call her heinous in my post), who finally married her "partner" in her sixties after decades of "living together."

Here is what this site says about Wente's "partnership":

Last year [1998] Wente finally married her long-time partner, Ian McLeod, executive producer of CTV's W5. For years the two kept their separate houses, living together in each house for a year at a time.

"...separate houses, living together in each house for a year at a time." This means that Wente was basically on some kind of adolescent sleep-over, and could pack her overnight bag and leave whenever she felt like it. I suppose a sixty-year-old wimp of a "husband" would let her do whatever she wanted, including playing at marriage. I doubt Wente's life changed that much when she signed the contract with McLeod. For one, she didn't change her name.

What kind of man would allow such a way of life? Once upon a time, women would have been worried that if a man agreed to such an arrangement, he must have something else going on. But does the post-modern, feminist-pecked McLeod resemble a real man?

The Gazes of McLeod and Wente

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A Glint of Evil

I made this collage of portraits of Sally Ride, the lesbian astronaut who recently died. More on Ride at the View From the Right, via The Thinking Housewife.

Photos:

1. Even as a high school eighteen-year-old (top black and white photo) Ride has a distinct lack of femininity. The later years of high school is when girls have achieved some understanding of their femininity, and often are not shy or reticent about showing it (some showing too much). But, Ride in her late teens, opts for a little girl's pony tails with ribbons for her hair. Her wide smile and assertive jut of the chin give her a masculine demeanor. Teen-age girls, however much they play jock-like sports, still find a way to look feminine.

2. Monitoring control panels in the space shuttle Challenger. Even as a young woman, there is the set jaws and unsmiling eyes of someone who is not willing to be feminine.

3. Standing with a masculine swagger in her astronaut's suit.

4. She is there in the middle with another fellow-lesbian, tennis player Billie Jean King. They looked up adoringly at the statuesque Gloria Steinem, the anti-female feminist, who made their lesbian "lifestyle" much easier.

5. With the endorser of same-sex marriage. Notice her masculine chin, and, well, masculine smile. Her hands also look unusually large, and it must be quite a handshake she's giving Obama, who looks a little overwhelmed. Here is a larger photo showing her expression better.

The men in the background look on with pathetic expressions, thoroughly approving of the occasion, but also as though they've been whipped into that approval. The older man is Craig Barrett. From Wikipedia:

Craig R. Barrett (born August 29, 1939) is an American business executive who served as the chairman of the board of the Intel Corporation until May 2009. He became CEO of Intel in 1998, a position he held for seven years. After retiring from Intel, Barrett joined the faculty at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona.

Below are photos of Craig Barrett, looking much more serious giving a speech at the World Economic Forum in 2009 (left), and in an enlarged version of the above photo, at Sally Ride's launch of the science program "Educate to Innovate" at the White House, also in 2009. (I have to add here that Barrett is wearing the same tie to both occasions - i.e. he is are not at the same event.)


6. A much later official portrait (from what I can find out, it is her official portrait at the California Hall of Fame, where she was inducted in 2006). It is an odd, androgynous face, with unsmiling eyes.

Finally, Ride's "partner" Tam O'Shaughnessy. The photo below is the only one available on the web. O'Shaughnessy looks even more insidious than Ride. With her squinted eyes and elongated face, she looks like a ferret. At least her and Ride, California natives, never "married."


Here's a profile on O'Shaughnessy:

Like Ride, O'Shaughnessy was interested in science from a very young age, and "one of her favorite childhood memories is of watching tadpoles in a creek gradually sprout legs, go green and turn into frogs," according to her bio on the Sally Ride Science website.

After moving on from tadpoles to high school, O'Shaughnessy attended Georgia State University, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in biology. She went on to teach college biology, then went on to earn a doctorate degree in school psychology from the University of California, Riverside, after her interest in the psychology of learning was piqued by her experience as a professor.

O'Shaugnessy has gone on to do many things in her career, writing nine childrens' science books, as well as helping her partner "found Sally Ride Science because of her long-standing commitment to science education and her recognition of the importance of supporting girls' interests in science," according to the foundation's website.

Quite a career trajectory, from a masters degree and college teaching career in biology to a PhD in psychology to writing children's science books, such are the elite women of academia.

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The Barbarization of Contemporary Young, White Men

High power NBC reporter Chelsea Clinton
has a glimmer of fear in her eyes, although
she's wearing the same dramatic
Oscar de la Renta dress as comedian Tina Fey
which should boost her confidence.
Fey on the other hand, manages to look
confident and feminine, and much
prettier than Chelsea.

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I don't think that feminism and the modern world's supposed equalization of the sexes makes women more powerful and men meeker. I think it is actually the opposite.

I wrote about Chelsea Clinton's creepy husband in my previous post, where his meek-looking expression is actually a camouflage for some kind of inner rage that seeps out of him. Chelsea, although a power woman and a reporter at NBC, has the expression of a frighted woman. It is not clear if her husband actually has a job, although Wikipedia calls him an "investment banker," but without any references. Jobless men with successful wives is nothing new in this opportunistic world of such men mooching off their wives' salaries. Why should Mr. Marc Clinton be any different?

Below is an image I posted on the receding power of women, power stilettos and high-power jobs notwithstanding. Whether in business suits or the slutty "I'll wear what I want" garb of prostitutes, modern women forfeit their femininity and end up with narcissistic bullies for boyfriends and husbands. Men are still stronger, and I don't think they're about to give up that advantage any time soon. Rather than fighting back, women are returning to some ultra-feminine, ultra-docile state, where even nice girls will bare their bodies to get the approval of their modern macho men. Feminists had it so wrong.


I write about the man/guy above:

The guy looks arrogantly confident. In this world of gender equality, there is still a male swagger, and a female demureness (the woman is acting very demure). His uniform is skinny jeans and a long, disheveled shirt, untucked, and over some t-shirt. But he looks a little too aggressive, and possessive. Who would want that kind of a guy around? (That's the funny thing about this "girl power" era of ours, young women actually seem to find this obnoxious-looking male attractive.

Left: Male model from Buffalo Jeans Ad
Right: Marc Mezvinsky

It's uncanny how similar Mezvinsky looks to the male model from the Buffalo Jeans ad, whom I describe here as arrogantly aggressive, and also like the narcissistically aggressive man with his just-right disheveled look that I write about here.

Despite his scruffy look, Mezvinsky's pants are clean and trendy cargo pants, and his sweat shirt is a spotless white. And no sneakers for him. Unlike poor Chelsea who has opted for flip flops, his shoes are slightly worn but stylish loafers.

Left: Image from my post : "The Arrogant Aggression of Scruffy Jeans"
Right: Marc Mezvinsky: The dishevelled narcissist

Notice how Chelsea looks dishevelled and unattractive, as though she has given up on looking good. And how she trails forlornly behind a focused and almost growling Mezvinsky who is pushing his way forward. This is a far cry from her much more confident presence when she was a busy single girl.

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