Saturday, May 28, 2005

Entering My Wife's Minefield

Because she brought it up I will weigh in on my beloved's mention of feminine idealism.

She first mentioned this subject to me a few evenings back and presented some photos of the malnourished physiques and asked rather pointedly if this was a sexy look, and then began to suspect my gender was fostering this standard as the ideal. My response is that if anything the women and the industries in which they reside were responsible for this trend.

By example I offered up the transmogriphying of Lyndsay Lohan.

When she turned 18 she became the darling of the internet because men were able to comment on her looks without being deemed a pedophile. Now, as she has whittled herself into a scarecrow, she has become a joke. TOW and I argue over this, but I say that when she was a voluptuary she was more preferable. Why would men salivate over the girl and then drive her to forgo protein?

For my taste I have always taken the standpoint of Jack Nicholson in "Something's Gotta Give" when he was asked what type of woman he favors and says, "The wonderful thing about me is that I don't have a type." But I can say with confidence that by and large most men would look at these skeletal females with disdain. In my wife's office are two women she works alongside who are both rail thin, and she recants how they are the type to walk around and talk of how fat they are. When she asked my about them some time ago I told her most men would not even look at either one until they add 15-20 lbs.

I agree that there many archetypes of women portrayed in the media--protruding chests, hourglass figures, drum-head rear ends--and that these are unacheivable for many women. My wife disputes this, but there are nearly as many examples of male perfection. Last summer when "Troy" was in theaters more people talked about Bradd Pitt's guns that his hefting the work of The Odyssey. I didn't take it personally however.

Posted by Anonymous :: 4:56 PM :: | ---------------------------------------