The odalisque was a common subject in paintings of the 19th century. The origin of the term is the Turkish "Odalik," describing a virgin female slave, but in Western usage the term is later used to describe a luxurious concubine or prostitute. The traditional posture of the odalisque in painting is … [Read more...]
The Pinup and Modern Femininity
The pinup is a contested object in cultural circles both for its artistic form and its social content. The pinup may actually be the root of modern women's body image problems. Before the pinup, most representations of the feminine form were contained in either high art or pornography. In either … [Read more...]
Classical Norms
The Greek and Romans gave us so many of our cultural foundations in terms of law, government, philosophy, literature, and architecture that it should not be surprising that they also established many of our norms in terms of our concepts of feminine beauty. It is easy to see the influence of … [Read more...]
So Long, Mistress of Piedras Blancas
I would just like to take a moment to say goodbye to Jeanne Carmen, B-Movie queen, who passed away this week at the age of 77. Although she was not what one would call a screen legend, she is an odd figure of note, as she was probably the first golf pin-up. And, speaking of figures, Carmen was one … [Read more...]
The dangerous sexuality of John Williams Waterhouse
The Pre-Raphaelite painters, including Waterhouse, are praised for the rich colors of their artwork and the loftiness of their themes, which represent characters from ancient mythology and high poetry. Although his paintings share many common features with Maxfield Parrish, Waterhouse's subjects are … [Read more...]
Eternal Youth and Virginal Desire
A common misconception, and one perpetuated by many industries, is that "beautiful" and "sexy" are synonyms. An even more common confusion is between the "sensual" and the "sexual." When considering cosmetic surgery procedures, however, it is important to make the distinction between these terms. If … [Read more...]
Jack Vettriano: The Sliver of Nostalgia
Jack Vettriano is a contemporary painter whose popularity continues to grow. As it should be expected to, since his paintings are about, well, according to him, "sad, unhappy people who are driven by lust," which tends to be a popular subject among boringly happy people. A self-taught Scottish … [Read more...]
The Waifs of Gustav Klimt
The secret to Klimt's enduring popularity is his ability to take the internal life of his figures and project it into an external image. Klimt works with bright colors and abstract shapes to create a visual image of the emotional state felt by the people he represents. His most popular image is also … [Read more...]
Beautiful at any size: introduction
I would like to focus on a growing problem in the United States: the negative body image many women maintain of themselves. Many women who are very attractive, who are loved by husbands, boyfriends, fathers, mothers, and children, cannot love themselves because when they look at their body, they … [Read more...]
The increasing intimacy of cosmetic surgery
The initial standard for a sensitive, intimate cosmetic surgery procedure was breast augmentation. However the trend recently seems to be more and more toward alteration of the most intimate areas of a woman's body. First, increasingly non-invasive liposuction techniques were applied to what is … [Read more...]
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