No meme!

[smokingboot]

No, too embarrassing! I cannot do that meme everyone's into, despite my desperate desire to be cuddled and flattered right now.

It has provoked some interesting thoughts though. Recently, a chum who's on the show was discussing cosmetic surgery with me. She knows a salariman's wife with considerable expertise on top notch under the knife enhancement. Apparently now is the time to do it, before the rot sets in; prevention is better than cure etc, etc. Friend is suggesting we go get a free consultation on what might best assist us. I am sanguine, ready to consider this a waste of time right now...and then I check out my skin and teeth. Uh-oh. the latter will only become important in dealing with Statesiders, cos they do seem to fixate on the horrors of British dentistry or lack of it. Why are our teeth so bad, I wonder? Bleaching those suckers looks more and more likely, but I really don't see myself wearing a retainer or resetting my jaw to straighten my overbite. And my skin...no, I don't want to turn this into a long post.

I read back and find I have found four instances of the word 'No' in this post. For now at least, I'm treating it as a decision made at the back of my head. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with cosmetic surgery - people should be happy with the way they look, and if that's what it takes, so be it - but don't feel the need right now, plus I'm too busy plus I've no money. And my honey is afraid I am going to be 'consulted' right into unnecessary unhappiness about aspects of my face/figure.

TV's a narcissistic world, we can look at ourselves for too long. Other people's creativity is the cure. So for non-neurotic makeovers, check out awesome_places and the latest post on art_nouveau. Stunning!

Comments

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Yes, Minoan/ Cretan civilisation, and the excavations of Catal Hoyuk would certainly seem to be evidence of Women being respected; but due to our lack of knowledge of these civilisations (and what seems to be a certain traditional resistance to the idea of matriarchal societies), the evidence is not as conclusive as one would like, and even then the study of very ancient cultures, with its over-emphasis on child-bearing is derogatory to the other capacities of women.

If a statuette of a woman is discovered and the boobs are large, she was of necessity a fertility goddess, cos heaven knows that's what women are for! And how do we know there weren't women staring at the Venus of Willendorf enviously saying, ' I wish my breasts were that big!

The gnostic poem 'Thunder Perfect Mind', the tales of the goddess Inanna and my favourite title of Hathor 'The Beautiful Thinker' are among the few bits of evidence that female intellect has ever been valued and considered beautiful. Yes, there are societies out there where things are different, if we start checking out tribal societies for examples of equality, I suspect we will find as many examples of enforced female conformity female elevation, though I hope to find myself wrong!

Western culture may like big breasts and white smiles, and those who fit that crteria may be paid more, but no-one is forced into it. I quite like that.

Whoops!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

enforced female conformity as female elevation, is what I meant to say!

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

I think in the end it often comes down to the need in a society of particular social roles-of which sexual gratification and childbirth are just two.
Logically beauty and/or physical 'health' are important with both of these, but of course women have multiple roles in most cultures.

Talking with Suzette we mused over the iconic figure of the Italian family matriarch. Mother figures become elevated out of the 'beauty' category and into the control/wisdom category in some cultures.

I think in tribal societies there can be massive variation. I know of some where gender roles are very different (women choosing the males for instance, so the pressure to be 'attractive' was on the men, not the women). But of course you do get the opposite as well.

We have a particular problem in that our own society has tended to edit out things it is not comfortable not-both in history and in other cultures (and sometimes violently). We are therefore often blind to the existence of difference, or when we do see it we fail to understand its significance and role. Perhaps fertility goddess statues were actually a popular line of novelty 'mother-in-law' parodies that were the hot item in prehistoric times?

We dont have to go all that far to see that images of beauty have changed in our own culture though-look at the role of the hourglass figure in the 1950s, or the Rubenesque figure of the 17th century...the way tans are now popular when at one time women used to paint their faces white.

Ironically beauty often does seem to come down to images of wealth (white skin used to show you didn't have to work and were thus wealthy, a few decades ago a tan showed you could afford to relax on holiday).

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

I thought this might be interesting in the light of our discussion-a nice full colour photo set of one places concept of beauty:
http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/wodaabe_feature.htm

The males have to dress up and impress the ladies...

Beautiful!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, what a fab link!

Let's all dress up and impress each other...until we're bored with that and just want to hang out, drink wine and star-gaze instead!

Re: Beautiful!

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

What an excellent idea!
Being beautiful is only fun when everyone is just having a laugh and nobody actually is bothered if they get it right or not! At the wine drinking-stargazing stage everything and everyone is beautiful...