In the immortal words of Franz Kafka on following The Policy of Truth, "Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly."
So I'm merely gonna take that advice from Kafka and be as honest here as possible in this post.
Remember waaay back in ol' 1987 when the word 'Mannequin' was a movie?
And when the word "mannequin" was just for a giant plastic human figure to exhibit clothing on in a "realistic" fashion that was slightly less creepy than a Victorian Doll for the purpose of selling various attire?
Well, now a mere mannequin means so much more.
So I'm merely gonna take that advice from Kafka and be as honest here as possible in this post.
Remember waaay back in ol' 1987 when the word 'Mannequin' was a movie?
(Oh look!--it's almost like a toe tag she's got on herself there but it's like a pink price tag ankle bracelet, how cute)!
And when the word "mannequin" was just for a giant plastic human figure to exhibit clothing on in a "realistic" fashion that was slightly less creepy than a Victorian Doll for the purpose of selling various attire?
(You are welcome for the nightmares).
Well, now a mere mannequin means so much more.
"Mannequin ah, wah-unn..."
#1). THEY NOW COME WITH PUBES! - For instance, an American Apparel New York City outlet recently revealed a lingerie display mannequin with a full-on bush, nipples, and areolas. In a display window. For any passerby to see. To let this construction worker take a picture of it with his smartphone and this other guy ogle at something that is merely representational of the female form, symbolic of it, if you will.
Really fucking creepy, right?!
"Mannequin ah, two-hooo..."
#2). FINALLY, SOME SEX DOLLS YOU CAN SIT ON! - All the dummy fun hasn't stopped yet. Russian socialite Dasha Zhukova posed on a chair made to look like a black woman engaged in submissive S&M activities - on fucking Martin Luther King, Jr. Day no less!
Zhukova has since apologized, said the picture was "art" and somehow "taken out of context"... ...All I know is some rich young white bitch sat down and seemingly was completely oblivious and callous to the fact that once upon a time, an old poor black woman had to sit down (most likely due to exhaustion) in the wrong section of a bus to incite social change and that this, art or not, out of context or not, is appalling. I am incredulous someone made this mannequin into a S&M bondage chair. Just as I am equally disbelieving that the inspiration piece for the above pictured chair is the below pictured chair.
John Lennon's song "Woman Is Nigger Of The World" has never been so aptly apparent or parallel.
(Too bad he abused women sometimes himself).
I can't help but think of the sci-fi classic 'Soylent Green' and how women in the future literally came with the monthly rental of a high-end flat and were so coined as being "furniture" because of this. But this isn't the future and not a sci-fi movie. So why is it currently acceptable to show representations of the female form in sexually submissive and enslavement positions and have them be used as "furniture", especially by the wealthy? Because we're not fucking furniture. We're fucking human beings, so get your damned filthy ape hands off of my human form!!!
But as art, as a work of art what does a mannequin chair of this magnitude suggest? What does the photograph of Zhukova's derriere crowning such a chair suggest? It is proposing that despite race or sex, it is wealth that is the great divider as well as gender among us. That a female typecast as sexually desirable, when coupled with being at a disadvantage--say impoverished--can be perched upon as a novelty item for the rich, as a sex slave for the perverse and it does not matter if she is black or white, it only matters that she is female and she is poor. She is a worthless plaything, a toy, as Lennon lamented, "we paint her face and watch her dance." She is ultimately, an amusement. Entertainment. Devoid of the intricacies of the human spirit.
What's next in the line of home decor for the ultra wealthy?--Mexican Chair People?!
Who knows what 3D printing will bring us in future home design, with the way things are going, certainly not an end to homelessness. This next image you've most likely seen before because it had gone viral. Thus bringing us "home" to--
"--Mannequin tha-reee..."
#3). FULL FIGURED - A Facebook post from Women's Rights News of a full figured mannequin in a Swedish clothing store went viral in early 2013 with the sentiment that the U.S. should invest in something similar so a more accurate portrayal of real woman could be used in retail display.
If anything, this image going viral proved that American women are deeply unsatisfied with the over-proliferation of inaccurate physical deceptions of themselves because they are living life in average female forms in a 'reality' where the lie of impossible beauty standards has achieved normalization and the truth leaves normal females feeling abnormally average with their own self-image, so they're displeased, they can communicate with each other and polarize better, given contemporary technologies.
This chaise, for one, will not go quietly. Nor lounge about.
Because seriously...
...how many blogs is it going to take?
"Ah, CRUNCH!"
Comments
Post a Comment