Bringing the photographer to heel
Chinese fashion photographer Chen Man has issued an apology to the Red Menace, ummm. . . rather the Chinese government.
For what, you might ask?
Well, the real reason is likely twofold.
I don't follow fashion photography whatsoever, and I certainly don't associate it with Red China. But the fact that the Chinese government feels it has to bring the boot heel down on a Chinese fashion photographer, and that there even is such a thing, really says something.
I had to look the photographer up. Most of her work is extremely Western looking, as in scantily clad women in improbable outfits at improbable locations. But the subjects are Chinese. That says something about Western culture intruding, even eroding, the Chinese Communist culture which, not all that long ago, only tolerated uniform clothing for men and women. A woman wearing a Mao suit says one thing. One posing in lingerie in a restaurant, something else.
Beyond that, however, part of her work is frankly outright subversive. It's no wonder she's in trouble. There's a bunch featuring women in traditional Chinese attire who look like they've been beat up, and that they're now deranged and mad. That's some sort of slam on Chinese culture in regard to women. And she recently did a photo set for Dior entitled "Young Pioneers", riffing off of the Communist youth organization of that name, which features scantily clad women in front of Chinese cultural icons, and which are a little salacious and frankly a bit weird.
It's the ones that showed what one Chinese daily called "spooky" and I agree with the comment depictions of female Chinese that really drew the flak, however. While none of the brief commentary I saw on it mentioned it, it was impossible not to conclude that many of the women depicted had makeup on which made it looked like they'd been hit in the eyes. Some of the women looked fit to kill. Some had freckles, which is also apparently also upsetting to the Chinese as it doesn't fit with their "standards of beauty", which probably misses the point that generally freckles are a Caucasian thing, and if you are Chinese and have them, you probably have some European heritage.
And so the erosion of a heterogeneous, pure Chinese Communism begins.
Brave fashion.
On the above, Christian Dior dropped an image that was "pandering to the West".
Does Dior do anything that can't be defined as pandering?
This does present an opportunity, however, for social justice. With their big season coming up, boycott Christian Dior. . . forever.
Old exhibitionist
While China was busy suppressing a young fashion photographer, an old American exhibitionist was being photographed topless once again.
This would be long passé chanteuse "Madonna", who came up in music not so much through her pipes but her appearance, which when she was young was sort of Marilyn Monroe like. She got famous appearing, really, as sort of a dirty version of Monroe, an image aided when it was revealed that she she in fact shared something of Monroe's history in that she'd been photographed nude before she was well known. Society, however, didn't display the degree of modesty it had with Monroe's failings.
Marilyn Monroe was a beautiful, and tragic, figure. Madonna has now lived well beyond the years allotted to Monroe, and now has the appearance of a well-kept woman in early old age, which is what she is. A person could grow into that with dignity, rather than repeat the sins of your youth publically.
Or not, I guess.
The Swedish Short Goodbye
Magdalena Andersson became Sweden's first female prime minister on November 24, and then resigned on November 24.
There was a reason for that, which was that her party's budget failed to pass, and instead a budget advanced by an opposition party that included anti-immigrant aspects passed instead. She resigned as a matter of conscience. The government was a coalition government.
She's a 54-year-old Social Democrat and avid outdoorsman and mother of two. By profession, she's an academic economist. Hopefully she'll be remembered as more than a peculiar political footnote.
No babies
The British Parliament has instructed Stella Creasy to quit bringing her infant with her to the House of Commons.
This is interesting in multiple ways but most of all, perhaps, in that the evolution of the industrial society took men out of their homestead, in the ancient sense of the word, first but starting in the 70s, women. Feminist celebrated that but at the same time came to regard tiny humans, which we'll call babies here, as the enemies of that development, which they regarded as one that would lead to "fulfillment".
It didn't lead to fulfillment but has meant that most women must now work. The industrial solution has been to warehouse infants, but a lot of women find that upsetting, and who can blame them? It's completely contrary to people's natural instincts. Therefore, the logical step is to bring the infant into work, which in turn causes, as we can see here, a certain element of horror.
But why?
Well, that's probably not even going to be thought out. To do so would require a certain acknowledgment that we've built a pretty inhumane world.
Turkeys
Lara Trump claimed on Fox News that the rise in the price of turkeys is a Democratic plot to wipe out shared traditions.
Lucky
Eleven-year-old Liel Krutokop , a volunteer archaeologist in Israel found a coin of pure silver minted in the Second Temple period. It would date to the year 67 or 68 or so, during the First Jewish-Roman War.
Gender Blind Music
The BRIT Awards, which honor British musicians, have dropped their best male and best female performers awards in favor of just one best.
Lots of people are unhappy about this.
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