And one more...

[dreamer_easy]

... because it's relevant to The Shakespeare Code which contains an example of an ancient misogynist idea, the beautiful woman who's actually ugly, the seductress who lures and destroys hapless young men.

The author, Anne Hollander, is talking about the development of the skirt, which keeps the bottom half of women a mystery, even as fashion changes led to exposed arms, backs, shoulders, and cleavage above completely hidden legs. "It corresponds to one very tenacious myth about women, the same one that gave rise to the image of the mermaid, the perniciously divided female monster, a creature inherited by the gods only down to the girdle. Her voice and face, her bosom and hair, her neck and arms are all entrancing, offering only what is benign among the pleasures afforded by women, all that suggests the unreserved, tender and physically delicious love of mothers even while it seems to promise the rough strife of adult sex. The upper half of a woman offers both keen pleasure and a sort of illusion of sweet safety; but it is a trap. Below, under the foam, the swirling waves of lovely skirt, her hidden body repels, its shapeliness armed in scaly refusal, its oceanic interior stinking of uncleanness."

(She goes on to suggest that women's eventual adoption of trousers conveyed the political message that women's bodies, and therefore their brains, were no different to men's.)

Comments

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I seriously need to read this book and/or article.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Read the book. It's the dirtiest damn thing I've read in ages!

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I'm going to get a copy of this (via the library):

Material strategies : dress and gender in historical perspective / edited by Barbara Burman and Carole Turbin. Malden, MA. ; Oxford : Blackwell, 2003. Description: viii, 265 p. : ISBN: 1405109068

Also found a great article on dandyism and film in 1920's Hollywood. I'll find the link if you're interested.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, ta! (Have you seen The Celluloid Closet?)

[alawston.livejournal.com]

Meh, she wasn't that beautiful. Martha is currently stealing the show on the eyecandy stakes.

[cedara]

Would you have the details of the book so I can try to find it via distant loan (Title, publisher)?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It's Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress by Anne Hollander. There are editions from Claridge Press and from Kodansha. Good luck!

[cedara]

Thanks!

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Try your local library. Holding for this book can be seen at the Libraries Australia website. http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/apps/kss

[cedara]

My local library is unlikely to have a copy, as I'm German. I'll have to check university libraries via gbv.de, in which I actually have found it and thus can order it via distant loan.

But thanks anyway. :-)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I should have remembered that this is an international forum.

[purplepooka.livejournal.com]

Strangely, there are also tales of ugly women who are really beautiful (See King Henry (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch032.htm), which I like because it doesn't appear that she's under any kind of spell or enchantment except her own - she just wants to make sure he'd really do anything for her). Also worth noting is Alison Gross (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch035.htm), who responds to rude rejection by turning her beloved into a worm. Steeleye Span leave out the bit where the queen of faerie turns him back again - I prefer their version.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

There's a whole book in the symbolism of the Ugly Damsal, and it's probably been written by Marina Warner. The psychology/symbolism of the Faery Wife is a very interesting area. And I don't have time to go into it now. Try From the Beast to the Blonde or Maureen Duffy's The Erotic WOrld of Faery (that was an eye-opener). I really should do some research into this...

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

A belated thanks for this - it's extremely interesting!

[jblum.livejournal.com]

...Never mind the point of Hollander's paragraph, just look at her prose. Those word choices are tailored!

[stephanielake.livejournal.com]

I never understood why dresses/skirts get so much flak from some - if we can reclaim words like "C" why can't we reclaim dresses and skirts as a positive thing?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Hollander mentions how some seventies feminists derided skirts, and wore trousers, jeans etc instead (a major theme of the book is how women copy men's fashions). I don't think anybody worries about them that much these days, though.