The Beast of Beauty

Troop (I'm sure jokingly) suggested that I write about how attractive women deal with unwanted attention. The request surprised me in a couple of ways. For one, I don't feel near any kind of authority on this. And if am considered to have bloomed at all, it was very late in life, so as far as I'm concerned - attention? I am grateful to be paid attention to. But this topic also caused me to ponder the differences more attention has made in my life. I have known what it is like to be offered something of value (be nice!) largely because someone found me attractive or because I got noticed (same thing, really). Attractive people easily have an advantage in job offers, for example. There are clear advantages to having above average looks. Looks have value, am I right?

If attractiveness can be considered as having a value, then where is the real burden of that value? We don't tax it - not that I would ever suggest that. I'm thinking at minimum, it would be a kind thing if most of the "burden" of unwanted attention were gracefully borne. I'm sure there are many who already do, if their beauty is more than skin deep.

Personally, people who have benefitted from a lifetime of attractiveness garner as much sympathy from me for unwanted attention as "dead broke" Hillary Clinton does for having to live on only a mere few million dollars. I don't begrudge the wealth, I honestly don't (although I'm sure I've been envious of it), but I find whining about it unseemly. And don't even get me started on the people who, having all that wealth, consider themselves better than others and believing such are often unkind and full of themselves.

Getting back to advantages, if you're attractive you get "picked" a lot. You know what I mean. Even for things someone else is way more qualified or suited for. Who hasn't wanted to be picked? We all do. So for the attractive crowd out there, may I suggest dancing with the not-so-attractive guy more often, ladies (and vice versa for you attractive men out there)? Not only because someone has screwed up enormous courage to ask, but because very often they have MUCH more to offer than a pretty face, just like you! And if you don't already, when it is wise and kind, consider gracefully bearing that unwanted attention. Odds are that extra attention has served you well.

Courageous Palestinian Christian confronts 60 Minutes

Christy (Anastas, apparently), a Palestinian Christian relates her experience as citizen under Palestinian Authority.

Seen on PJ media lifestyle cross-posted on Roger Simon's site there. Simon's take is the Walter Durante Prize for mendacious journalism is well-considered for awarding Bob Simon for his 60 Minutes report "Christians of the Holy Land" in which Israel is blamed for violence and for Christians leaving in such large numbers. The video received in email from CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting describes a different situation entirely. The woman was granted asylum in Britain and lives under threat.

The video was pulled from YouTube but put up again by the efforts Jerusalem Institute for Justice, but there is no certainty it will stay up.

I find the comments on YouTube to this video well informed. "I hold your finger." 

This is irrelevant but I fell in love on the spot. Her eyes are extraordinary. She has me. I'm hers. 

Meet Lammily

Barbie and Lammily

"Lammily is the forthcoming plastic doll whose motto is, "Average is beautiful." Her body shape is based on averages of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that is more often used to track the American obesity epidemic. She is not affiliated with Mattel's Barbie.

Last year, graphic designer Nickolay Lamm created some concept images of the "Normal Barbie" that became very popular around the Internet. (If you didn't see them, one is to the right.) Today Lamm is launching a project to put the design into production and make the dolls a reality. It's crowd-sourced, it "promotes realistic standards of beauty," and it can be under your holiday tree by late 2014 if enough people support the project.

Pictures at the link.

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What do you think of her? Is it important that your daughters and granddaughters play with fashion dolls that are  proportionally correct as compared to Barbie dolls?

Olympians and soft porn

I'm pretty much past being scandalized or depressed over such images as snow-boarder Clair Bidez doing this kind of thing. I don't even feel that 'enjoy the decline, bitches' is appropriate. Is a young woman reveling in her youth, vitality, and sexual desirability such a bad thing? Where do you see the future of our society heading? 

I see sex becoming more and more normalized, and before long 15 year-olds, with the knowledge of their parents, will be typically engaging in protected intercourse, with the caveat they 'care' for each other. If we look at the centuries of forced pre-marital virginity as necessary strictness to avoid unsupported motherhood, technology rather negates the need for sex to be such a taboo subject or act.

I am not condoning anything here, but I foresee technology...birth control, texting, sexting, television in overdrive...leading us far from Leave it to Beaver.

h/t EBL

Dunham's nudity on 'Girls'

"At a Television Critics Association panel for Girls on Thursday, a writer for The Wrap asked the show’s creator and star, Lena Dunham, why she insists on appearing naked so often on the show. “I don’t get the purpose of all the nudity on the show. By you, particularly,” the writer, Tim Molloy, said to Dunham. “I feel like I’m walking into a trap where you say no one complains about the nudity on Game of Thrones, but I get why they’re doing it. They’re doing it to be salacious. To titillate people. And your character is often naked at random times for no reason.”

Dunham, likely bored by the subject which has been raised again and again since the show’s first season, brushed him off by saying her aim was realism. “It’s a realistic expression of what it’s like to be alive,” she said. “If you’re not into me, that’s your problem.” Judd Apatow, who executive produces the show along with Dunham, took a harsher stance, later accusing the journalist of asking a question that was not only “sexist and offensive, it’s misogynistic.”

But Molloy was still confused, going on to write a post about the panel where he again noted his confusion over why Dunham’s character frequently appeared naked. “I don’t like it or not like it,” he wrote. “I just don’t get the artistic reason for it, and want to understand it, because I’m a TV critic.”"