Friday 2 March 2007

Pic of the day: I felt pretty uneasy taking this photograph near the main street in Kristiansand. I mean, people would think I was some kind of pervert, right? And the worst part is that they are right, albeit a different pervert (and a non-practicing one at that, technically speaking).

Plastic mannequin hips

As I passed this shop window, I first reflected on the fact that they finally got the backsides out. These have traditionally been severely under-represented in shop windows (except the backsides of those arranging the windows decorations, and that's not quite the same thing). But! This is a shop for women's clothes, as you have probably just barely guessed by yourself. What's with the boyish mannequins? Isn't that slightly perverted or something?

OK, you can probably see from the picture that they are supposed to be female. Mostly because we guys just don't stand around in that posture! It is like, hey look at my butt plz thx LOL! Even girls only do that as a last resort, but at least it works and they do get attention. If a guy tried that, he would get the attention of the Inquisition or something. No, wait, nobody expects the Inquisition (or is that just the Spanish Inquisition?) ... anyway, rest assured that guys just don't do that, nor are we made in such a way that this posture would be easy on our body.

Also, there is one more difference between male and female hips: Female hips keep growing wider the further down you go almost until the point where they part (at which point the male observer will probably stop paying attention to the hips as such anyway, though that's probably not the point - rather they are probably hinged differently because otherwise babies would never be born, which would be a certified Bad Thing. As caesarians become the norm for human reproduction, women will most likely get more boyish and athletic hips, but evolution works over a time span of millennia when in a hurry, much slower otherwise, so not very relevant to my esteemed readers). Male hips, in contrast, is broadest in the middle rather than at the bottom. In short, pear-shaped women are more pear-shaped than pear-shaped men of the same fatitude.

***

Anyway, it is not random, and hardly an Act of God, that the plastic mannequin have narrow hips and undeveloped buttocks. It is part of a disturbing cultural trend which also includes supermodels in advertising. Rumors have it that this came to be because fashion designers were largely homosexual men, which wouldn't surprise me. But apart from looking quite a bit like boys, the models also (and perhaps even more) look like severely underage girls before puberty has run its full course and transformed them into fertile women.

Is this part of a greater trend? When I grew up, children learned early on that the planet was already full and having more than two children was a crime against the planet and would cause the extinction of mankind if not all higher life. Ideally you should not have children at all. This attitude has probably been ingrained in our generation, but instincts are not quite that easy to eradicate. Besides, not all people have the IQ to avoid having children even if they try. Finally there will always be some people whose religion commands them to go forth and multiply. Even so, no country in Western Europe (and probably not Eastern either) has enough children to keep up its population without import. Do I think this is related? Heck yeah.

Just like the exaggerated "mother goddesses" from the Ice Age showed a culture obsessed with fertility, so the "daughter goddesses" of our age shows a culture obsessed with diverting sexuality from reproduction. This is the exact same reason why homosexuality is suddenly not just allowed but granted equal rights and even celebrated with parades (!!) while the perfectly healthy and normal deviation of bigamy is still enough to send you to jail. How come there are no equal rights for polygamy? Because polygamy increases fertility, which is bad and must die! die! die! stabbity stab stab.

The subconscious moves in strange ways, and so instead of legalized pedophilia (which would definitely put a dent in birth rates) we get the exact opposite: Witch hunts for pedophiles which may not even exist. We had a high-profile case here in Norway a few years ago (Google for Bjugn scandal if very interested) where a whole pedophile ring was invented out of thin air by professionals and (s)caregivers squeezing children for information on bad men. The whole thing grew into nightly Satanic rituals in abandoned buildings of uncertain location before the bubble burst and everyone saw that it had become a fantasy story.

Pedophiles exist (I know at least two Christian pedophiles, obviously they don't practice it or they would have been child molesters, not the same thing). A culture saturated with "daughter goddesses" probably don't make it any easier for them. It definitely does not make it easier for the less than legal girls who look around them and realize that they are at their supposedly sexiest now, and by the time they're 16 they will be wilting by our standards. What kind of message is that to send? Is this what we really want?

In conclusion: Just say no to skinny boyish mannequins! Let us get some realistic dummies in the shop windows, with birthing hips and big plush bottoms! Or if not mother goddesses then at least sister goddesses... There is a definite lack of sister goddesses in the world, isn't it?