But The Promotion of Masculine Wardrobe To Promote Feminine Beauty Didn't Stop At The Newspaper...

It was in art

It was in fairy tales

They even put the corset on the freakin' Queen of England!  Talk about propaganda...  

However, Queen Elizabeth would prove to be one of the strongest monarchs in England's history.  And she wore her corset differently than the 19th century woman.  Maybe the binding DOWN of what physically made her a woman made it easier to walk amongst men, to rule men.  Maybe the armor made her counselors forget she was a woman sometimes.  Maybe it made them think of her mind, and not her sex.

What do you think?

Freaking Advertisers

Advertisers are the enemy who made beauty a rule.  And Plotinus came before Don Draper!

(But, wow isn't Don Draper in perfect form and proportion.  I think he's soooo beautiful, and that is soooo another blog! Ha!)

Check out these 19th Century ads for corsets:

GOOD SENSE!? Ha!

Hey that's the look Nicki Minaj is rocking these days!

All I have to do is buy a corset to get married and be happy?  Beautiful!  Now just let me put down this Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, cancel my Match.com subscription, and head to Macy's!

Wait...We Had Armor All Along!

After Joan wore armor on the battlefield, women were allowed to wear armor in the form of a corset for fashion.  Men wore armor so they could push closer to their enemy.  Women's armor was meant to push their breasts closer to their chins.  Men wore are armor to protect themselves from arrows.  Women's armor was to protect our asses so bulges wouldn't hang out .  But is this beautiful?  

I don't know it's seems pretty dangerous to me. 

In King Arthur's day, soldiers, if not from arrows, could die from their armor because it was so heavy that if they fell down, it was almost impossible to get up.  For women, their corsets could be so tight, that it could cause organs to rupture leading to death.

Is this beautiful?

Men received the beauty of honor from fighting for a cause.  Women  obtained the beauty of a desired figure (Oh, there's that dangerous word "desire").

I ask again is this beautiful?  One's dead, and the other is dead on the inside.  

But both are puppets.  Soldiers are puppets to their kings, and some women still provide a puppetry for their husbands.  Wait, wasn't the point of armor for both, to be empowered? 

I know armor is supposed to keep us safe, but we still die whether it's to rule a country or one's waistline.  Which at the end have a mind of their own.  

Beauty is an idea, not a rule.  So why does it feel so much like the latter?

Joan Of Arc: A Woman Who Wore Armor for Armor

 

Joan of Arc wore her armor for protection on the battlefield during the Hundred Years War where she fought to protect France from English domination.  Talk about ideal beauty in function, objectives, and soul.  However, note that in the images above she still has the long wavy hair that is typically attributed to Venus.  Maybe to make it clear that she is a female; it is rare to find an image of her without it.  Even if Joan has on her helmet, in most paintings, she  still has tendrils of hair hanging down on her shoulders.  Do you think this was to clearly separate her from Adonis?  Or was it so they could make her look "beautiful" despite the armor that masks the breasts and hips that defined women in art in the past?  Or dare I say, was this a true representation?  Did Joan truly storm into battle this way so her soldiers would know who to follow?

But Before Madonna There Was Wonder Woman

And her armor wasn't just for style and attention, it was used for protection in helping to save the world from injustice.  It's not complete ideal beauty (I mean come on, her abs and chest are safe, but a bullet in the thigh could hurt don't you think?), but at least its partly utilizing the armor's original function.  

And she is beautiful.  Wonder Woman is symmetrical and in proportion, but since she's like Mother Theresa in a leotard, her beauty appeases the soul and the eye.  She's beautiful inside and out.  

While drawn in mortal form, Wonder Woman was mirrored after the Amazons in Greek mythology "whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men" (Wikipedia).

So like Venus, her objective is love, but like Adonis, she's willing to fight for it.

The First Pop Princess of Armor, Madonna

Dandyism = Madonna

If the Greeks considered beauty and desire two separate things, then how would they define Madonna?

Beyonce Joins the Armor Fun

This armor is definitely dandy!

Warrior Janet Jackson at the Superbowl

                                                                                          

Janet's armor didn't hold up too well.  For those of you who might have been living under a rock during Super Bowl 38, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performed a duet during the half time show.  Janet was wearing vinyl armor.  Boy did she look tough (Way tougher than I looked in my baggy jeans and big tshirts for sure! Haha!). Towards the end of the performance, Justin was supposed to pull off a part of her chest piece, but instead he took EVERYTHING. The entire nation got to see Janet's breast exposed on live TV.  


This suit really lacked protection, especially for her chest.  


If you research classic images of Venus, most of the photos have her nude or semi nude.  She is exposed, and that seemed to be a great part of her strength, for she carried the power of seduction, which Adonis could not fight with a sword.  


So why is she weak here?  She's even wearing a symbol of Apollo as an additional defense.  


Why is this exposed Venus considered ugly by the nation?  


Why isn't the photo above art?  When the painting below is....

Janet did go against the classical ideas of beauty which were defined in terms of staying in form and proportion.  While there is symmetry in her wardrobe, she did get out of line in a figurative sense.  There were children watching the Super Bowl.  However, in this painting, it looks like Cupid is cupping Venus' breast.  So when do these lines of beauty lay in acceptable gray zones?

How do I find my own balance between strength and sex appeal?  Oh, another attempted compromise between Adonis and Venus.  Does that equation even exist?

And Again and Again

Warrior Fergie Again and Again

Being a group with 3 men isn't enough protection?.....I think not!

Venus in Armor

During the Super Bowl half time show, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas work a dashing piece of bedazzled armor.  It looked tough and yet sexy. It was Venus with an Adonis shell.  Hmm, am I tough enough to wear this type of armor?   


In this case, the armor isn't to protect the body, but to accentuate it's parts.  Isn't this more dangerous? Is it beautiful?