Improving Aphrodite

[pegkerr]

daphnep has written an important post about anorexic art she discovered in a fine-arts reproductions catalogue; go read it.

Thanks to elisem for the link.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Well, that ruined what started as a good day.

(No, not really, but that expresses my opinion of this "remodeling.")

[msavi.livejournal.com]

Another friend on my flist pointed me to that post, and the more I think about it, the more irksome I find it. >:\

[thenines.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting post, Peg, and especially the most recent one she linked to, explaining the basis of her industry and the ways in which a consumer democracy does dictate the "evolution" of art based on what people do, not what they say. Thanks!

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Those are not the bodies of anorexic women. They are thin, but not even too thin: they have a fat layer and some muscle tone, they are not gaunt, their bones are not painfully prominent, and their breasts have not deflated. Skinny does not have to mean anorexic, and most of the time it doesn't. Sometimes, it just means skinny.

OTOH, the Venuses are really disturbing.

[kerri]

Do you mean that the original Venuses are disturbing, or the new ones?

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

These. The originals are beautiful, some of the most beautiful women's bodies in art.

[kerri]

Ahhh, okay. I wasn't sure whether you meant it that way or the other way around, for a minute! Thanks for the clarification.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I have to go with Kij on this one. The Venus, in particular, the original one, has no waist. A woman has to have quite a lot of fat to have no waist, what with the hip bones and all. You can be more skinny than that and still be very healthy.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Well, not really. Some women actually come in a shape that doesn't have prominent hips at all. My sister-in-law is one of them. She has no waist, and she's a size 0. I don't think that makes her any less of a woman.

I don't think this debate and the subsequent outrage is whether or not the 'new' statuettes are healthy-looking or not; I think it's over the fact that the originals were altered almost beyond recognition. Yes, perhaps Peg used the word 'anorexic' to mean 'lost a lot of weight overnight,' rather than 'liposucked' or something else, but the point was that the Venus didn't need to lose weight as she's a piece of classic art.