Homo-eroticism again
I know, I know, I keep coming back to this but not for the reasons you think. What I want to call our attention to is not something to titillate us or to make us laugh. There are already nine gazillion other people doing that. I want to remind us how ordinary homo-eroticism between women is. Here is an image to ponder (Courtesy of James Lileks who doesn't own the image but went to a lot of trouble to find it and scan it so go see what he has done with it).
The product is Bon Ami, a company that has been in business for 120 years now. A name that, as most people already know, literally means "good friend" and that is probably the idea being the image here. The good friend offers to help with the clean up but no need thanks to my Bon Ami. But an advertisement that featured two men looking at one another like that would be the subject of endless comment and snickering. But it is so ordinary between women isn't it?
Why if you were in the kitchen at the end of a party and you saw one Elaine come in the door and look at Jill that way. You'd feel the erotic spark but you wouldn't think anything unusual was happening. If Elaine came in and looked at Ben that way you'd begin to wonder what was happening between them and likewise if Frank came in and looked at Ben that way. But a frankly erotic gaze between two women is the most ordinary thing in the world.
And remember that this ad was intended to sell products to women. It would have appeared in a women's magazine.
The woman who has just finished cleaning the counter has an interesting Georgia O'Keefe thing going in front. I always think of this wonderful picture of Edith Wharton when I see something like that.
Note the seam that connects the bodice to the skirt of the dress and then the pattern of the stripes on the skirt; notice particularly the way the over-skirt with the vertical stripes opens up to reveal another layer where the patterns form, of all things, a series of V shapes. Why it's almost as if everything about this dress was intended to remind you of what was underneath. It seems that way ("seams" that way?) because that is exactly what it was intended to do. (By the way: You'd never guess from that photo what a miserably unhappy sex life Wharton had.)
That a woman presents herself to everyone, including other women, in a frankly erotic way is a very ordinary thing. That is something worth remembering the next time someone tells you there is something unusual about the eroticization of girlhood today. There is nothing unusual at all about this. It's what young women do and always have done.
I'll tell you what is unusual. What is unusual is the notion of an extended period of innocence called childhood. If you go back through history, that is the thing that no one else has ever had.
I know, I know, I keep coming back to this but not for the reasons you think. What I want to call our attention to is not something to titillate us or to make us laugh. There are already nine gazillion other people doing that. I want to remind us how ordinary homo-eroticism between women is. Here is an image to ponder (Courtesy of James Lileks who doesn't own the image but went to a lot of trouble to find it and scan it so go see what he has done with it).
The product is Bon Ami, a company that has been in business for 120 years now. A name that, as most people already know, literally means "good friend" and that is probably the idea being the image here. The good friend offers to help with the clean up but no need thanks to my Bon Ami. But an advertisement that featured two men looking at one another like that would be the subject of endless comment and snickering. But it is so ordinary between women isn't it?
Why if you were in the kitchen at the end of a party and you saw one Elaine come in the door and look at Jill that way. You'd feel the erotic spark but you wouldn't think anything unusual was happening. If Elaine came in and looked at Ben that way you'd begin to wonder what was happening between them and likewise if Frank came in and looked at Ben that way. But a frankly erotic gaze between two women is the most ordinary thing in the world.
And remember that this ad was intended to sell products to women. It would have appeared in a women's magazine.
The woman who has just finished cleaning the counter has an interesting Georgia O'Keefe thing going in front. I always think of this wonderful picture of Edith Wharton when I see something like that.
Note the seam that connects the bodice to the skirt of the dress and then the pattern of the stripes on the skirt; notice particularly the way the over-skirt with the vertical stripes opens up to reveal another layer where the patterns form, of all things, a series of V shapes. Why it's almost as if everything about this dress was intended to remind you of what was underneath. It seems that way ("seams" that way?) because that is exactly what it was intended to do. (By the way: You'd never guess from that photo what a miserably unhappy sex life Wharton had.)
That a woman presents herself to everyone, including other women, in a frankly erotic way is a very ordinary thing. That is something worth remembering the next time someone tells you there is something unusual about the eroticization of girlhood today. There is nothing unusual at all about this. It's what young women do and always have done.
I'll tell you what is unusual. What is unusual is the notion of an extended period of innocence called childhood. If you go back through history, that is the thing that no one else has ever had.
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