vendredi 13 juillet 2012

I'm not interested

Well, I was 11 when this unassuming person I had never heard of before died and since, I have learned she is perceived by hundreds of millions men around the world as the epitome of beauty, sophistication, sex-appeal whatever. Sorry but I'm not interested and never was.

They'll tell me she's the incarnation of innocence, candour, sensitivity etc. Hmmm... To me she's overall a marketing product in the child-woman/lolita department. Sorry, I'm more interested with the real stuff.

Think of it, there's something Nietzschean with this XXth century axiom that Norma Jeane Mortenson =  Beauty.

Indeed, when we have Plato's concept of ideas, good, bad, beauty etc. in mind, we also remember how Nietzsche taught us that there is no Good or Bad or Beauty per se but some choices have been  made by the (religious) rulers in order to have the masses conform to the will of said rulers.

Not to say this actress has been selected by any religious organisation with the goal of establishing some aesthetic standard but at the end of the day the outcome is more or less the same and in that sense, yes, she has been instrumental.

Fifty years after she's dead her image probably is not as powerful as it used to be in the 60s and 70s but there was a time she was considered the quintessence of female beauty all over the world. My guess is that she also has been an element of the "American Way of Life" policy like Brigitte Bardot was in her time.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder as everyone knows and we don't need to be presented with iconic figures that are supposed to teach us good from bad or beautiful from not so beautiful.

Sorry Marylin, sorry Brigitte, I'm not interested!

15 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

Je n'avais aucune idée qui était Norma Jeane Mortenson et je ne lui avait pas reconnu dans la photo.

Ned Ludd a dit…

It is interesting to contrast her with the canon of beauty of the 1920's, Louise Brooks who had quite a different personality. The canons of "beauty" can change in a short time.

One explanation is given, at least indirectly by An Empire of Their Own: How Jews Invented Hollywood and you could add "the American way of life".

Another good read is Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies

Ned Ludd a dit…

OT, but all bad things come around again--Nietzsche's eternal return?

Some U.S. media have come back to French bashing, this time about the American Olympics team wearing berets in their uniforms. Fox Gnus is there of course.

"On "Fox & Friends," hosts Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson seemed skeptical of the 2012 outfits.

"Is this the new American trend now? Are we going to be seeing berets? And you have to pronounce it that way too, because that's the French way," Carlson said of the headwear." Heaven knows that Americans don't want to do things the French way.

And another one, http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/lou-dobbs-us-olympic-headgear-hugo-chavez-we

"But the controversy doesn't stop there," Dobbs complained "Some are also criticizing Ralph Lauren for topping off what is supposed to be a patriotic with a classic French beret of all things! I know, the U.S. Army Green Berets, Black Berets, etc. But it just so happens, I don't like those berets either."

Maybe SF will rise to the task again.

ZapPow a dit…

J'ai longtemps cédé au mythe Marylin, puis ai fini par me rendre compte qu'il était artificiel, et que bien d'autres actrices étaient bien plus belles, et/ou plus talentueuses. Gene Tierney, Veronica Lake, Yvonne De Carlo…

Flocon a dit…

Ned,

Your interesting links to Amazon provides me for some reading after my nap...

---------

re the bérets, there is this article on the WaPo's front page today.

The main concern isn't whether the bérets are French anyway. And if you're tempted by a nap there are over 500 comments... And here too (quoique le système de déroulement des commentaires est nul sur le WaPo)


Just for didactical purpose, on that occasion Foxnews is relying on an old tradition in journalism that is using and reusing at nauseum a worn out topic that is sure nonetheless to raise interest among the audience. It's call un marronnier (like a chestnut tree yes) in French.

Chaque media a sa spécialité, Fox comme TF1 et Jean-Pierre Pernaud.

Les magazines féminins ont les leurs I've long noticed.

With, say 11 issues per year, there will be

2 : Spécial beauté (we're back at the post)

2 : Spécial séduction

2 : Spécial bronzage

1 : Spécial maillots de bains

1 : Spécial garder la ligne

1 : Spécial maquillage

1 : Spécial astrologie (see here if I am making it up)

1 : Spécial Am I sexy?

Ca revient tous les ans à peu près dans le même ordre.

And for body builders there are special issues too :

1 : Spécial biceps!
1 : Spécial triceps!
3 : Spécial Ischio jambiers
etc.

I dare not imagine what the marronniers are with motor magazines {-_-}

Flocon a dit…

ZapPow,

Tous les jours dans la rue (bon, faut tout de même marcher une bonne demie-heure aussi) je vois des dizaines de filles ou de femmes que je trouve aussi « belles, séduisantes, attirantes » que M.M. qui n'a jamais suscité la moindre émotion chez moi.

"On" nous présente depuis peu de temps Marion Cotillard comme un canon! Argg. Mais c'est limite un cageot!!

Carole Bouquet, Delphine Seyrig, Stéphane Audran, Claude Jade, il y en a des centaines comme ça dont la personnalité est apparente et troublante et mystérieuse mais M.M, ben non pour moi en tout cas.

Anonyme a dit…

Re: French bashing. I'm watching Up with Chris Hayes.

Chris ended the show with "Happy Bastille day".

Ned Ludd a dit…

Flocon, there was a funny little article at the bottom of the WP page showing Romney criticizing Obama for outsourcing jobs.

In this one instance, Romney is an expert, because with his Bain Capital he has made a fortune in outsourcing. But he doesn't even understand that Obama does not run the U.S. Olympics Committee.

Also, Romney criticized welfare and health for the poor when he received a $77,000 tax reduction for his upkeep of his horse. It is like Prince Charles receiving European subsidies for his farms.

Flocon a dit…

Ned,

re Romney and their like in France and everywhere, it all boils down to the same old line: The poor are paid too much and the rich are too much taxed.

re. Charles Philip Arthur George and the European subsidies, here is another example of how democratic the E.U. is.

Vote as much as you like for the European parliament - which is totaly powerless anyway - but be not so indiscreet as to want to know where your money goes to. This is a well kept secret protected like are nuculear codes.

Flocon a dit…

Anijo,

"Je n'avais aucune idée qui était Norma Jeane Mortenson et je ne lui avait pas reconnu dans la photo."

(et je ne l'ai pas reconnue sur la photo)

On the pic she's 19 and I see an apparently healthy chubby girl with a strong jaw. Nothing spectacular and that is probably the reason why you didn't recognize her: "they" made another person out of her.


Should I have met her on the street I wouldn't have turned my head.

Also, the link to Alexandrina Victoria of Hanover was not totally a senseless wink.

That person best exemplifies who the rulers were (read the Church of England) 150 years ago and on and how they decided and decreed what moral values were, the good ones as opposed to the bad ones and consequently aesthetic values as well.

How women should dress and behave and the social codes they should conform to, the ruling elite decided in accordance with their religious certainties.

Fair to say, I supposed their goal wasn't to make money out of women's "beauty" or attractivity whatever and they certainly would have objected (we're not amused) the image of Marlyn, Madonna, Lady Gaga you name them.

Isn't Marylin the very demonstration of how some people instrumentalize women in order to make money and not exactly for the sake of beauty in the platonic sense of the word?

Is there much of a difference with pimps save that the later work on a ridiculously microscopic scale?

Anonyme a dit…

Well, Ned was right. I just heard a joke from Jay Leno re the Olympic uniforms. I can't recall the joke exactly, but he makes reference to the Chinese and the berets and something about surrendering. :(

Flocon a dit…

Anijo,

There's absolutely no jokes specifically involving Americans in France but there's a whole department dedicated to the Belgians.

For whatever reason, although not malicious as the anti-French jokes often are, these jokes use the Belgians as the typical crétins.

Some of these jokes may be funny (although there's no accounting for taste as we all know) but there's no reason why the Belgians should be the scapegoats.

Also you must know that there exists a particular Belgian accent that may be excruciatingly funny for a French person.

Ned Ludd a dit…

I am of Finnish origin, and I doubt that it is unique, but Finns tell jokes about themselves. For example:

Eino and Toivo rented a boat to go fishing the weekend. On the lake they found a great spot and caught their limits.

Eino said, we've got to come back here next weekend. Toivo replied, but we're in the middle of the lake, how will we find this spot again?

Eino said, that's easy, we will mark an "X" in the bottom of the boat.

Don't be stupid said Toivo, how do you know we'll get the same boat next time?

At family get-togethers, we delighted in hearing who could come up with the best new Finnish jokes.

Flocon a dit…

Amusant en effet, d'autant qu'il y a deux blagues en une et que chacun des acteurs manifeste une forme de bêtise.

"I am of Finnish origin, and I doubt that it is unique". Is this what you meant Suometar?


J'imagine que les Chinois de telle ou telle province se moquent de leurs concitoyens de telle autre province, les Uruguayens des Paraguayens etc.

Ned Ludd a dit…

Funny that, I almost chose "Nelli" as my pseudo. My parents gave their children typical American names.

I don't know what Suometar means, but Finnish for Finland is Suomi.