(no subject)

[coraa]

Linked from several different places, but I think I saw it first linked from elisem:

Do you see something wrong with these reproductions of classic works of art?

Good grief. It's not all that common that I can get my feminist rage on and my historian rage on at the same time!

Comments

[ceph.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's a strikingly unsettling effect. Aside from being rage-o-genic, I mean.

[ceph.livejournal.com]

Of course, to be consistent, now someone has to do a reproduction of Michelangelo's David as Skinny Emo Boy.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

Actually, if we are going with modern "improvements" perhaps certain aspects of him should be more well-endowed. Size might not matter, but women are portrayed as sticks, with guys certain types of skinny are not currently in vogue. But an EMO-boy David is much, much funnier.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I think a really clear parallel to this would be if reproductions of classical statues of naked males appeared where said classical statues were suddenly, inexplicably hung like horses.

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

Or at least like male porn stars. :)

Or, in some cases, like real men--some classical works (my mental-picture examples seem to be primarily statues and line drawings) have men with inexplicably tiny penises, like the artist is embarrassed that he has to include it and is making it as small as possible.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I have a vague memory from one of my Classics courses (great source, I know) that it wasn't embarrassment so much as a distinctly different aesthetic of male genitalia -- which is why I picked it as a parallel to the skinny-fying of the female figures. Idealizing one type of body vs. idealizing another.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

You picked it? I believe the theory was that flaunting a big dick was considered something symbolic of more primitive cultures, so the kind of thing only a buffoon would do. I'm too sexy for my penis, seemed to be the mentality.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

You picked it! Sorry, I should have said 'why I agreed with it.'

But yeah, that.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Where by "why I picked it" I mean "why I concurred with CJ," obviously. Oy.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

You really shouldn't apologize to pompous, persnickity persons such as myself-- it just encourages me. Besides, my guess is that you would have made that comparison soon enough, I just beat you to the punch (penis? whatever).
It is curious how fashion dictates style. Small, fig-leaf sized genitalia use to be "in". Round, wonderfully well-fed women were the thing, once upon a time. So...in some Greek cultures men were attracted to men, now we have gay fashion designers making clothes for female models that look, not surprisingly, like adolescent boys. Then Playboy gets its hands on that look, but looks for woman with a more pneumatic image-- lower half seems to retain the fashion model thin, but the top half gets a lift. I can't help wondering what non-gay, non-fashion designer men like, besides warm and breathing...or, maybe, that's all that really matters once upon a mattress.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

I suppose I should be extremely mad, but I just thought they looked funny-- like a sweater that accidentally got washed in very hot water: they shrunk in peculiar places. It doesn't just look wrong, they look bad. I can't believe anyone would buy the poor emaciated things. Have an overwhelming deserve to send them all a donut.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

Actually, not even a donut! They don't look like they need fattening up, they looked beyond that starved. Those poor bobble-headed playboy bunny art-things need real nourishment, like bowls of rich beefstew. Looking all akimbo like they do, they have lost all of their beauty and strength. Ick.

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

Not only are they way skinnier than the originals, but the head/torso proportions are all wrong, with the heads overly large compared to the rest of the sculptures.

My art historian self rages at the change; my artist self rages at how wrong they look; my feminist self professes disgust at artificially induced skinniness on what were gorgeous originals....

I wonder if the Guerilla Girls could be contacted about this, somehow.

[willworker.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm relatively feminist-rage deficient, but even from a "classic art is classic for a reason" standpoint, c'mon! Those figures are just depressing...

Steve