Meh .. my problem with the cover is not that she is not beautiful, but that there is no sense of beauty in the cover at all, by anyone involved in creating it. In other words beauty as an aesthetic is not valued in its creation .. for starters, she simply is not posed well. And I suspect this is not an accident but a decision .. an attempt to present an identity became, somewhere along the line, a cynical decision to ENSURE controversy. The pose, the lighting, the demeanor .. one can present a beautiful large woman, you have many curves to work with after all, and not just in a Rubenesque sense (although those paintings and portrayals are in a league above this one. In other words, it is not a case of changing or competing aesthetics, but the lack of any aesthetic at all, in order to DARE the observer or audience to speak their thoughts aloud, and then to conflate the idea that this is an ugly portrait with the idea that this is an ugly woman (or worse, that this woman should be considered to ugly).
In short, unless the model is in on the provocation, a la any number of John Waters female/shemale stars, she was at best not served well by the professionals she trusted and at best deliberately exploited.
Good lord, it is just so obvious that she was just told ' 'now stick your hand on your head' .. if only they had said instead had her stand up straight and with upper torso and feet planted firmly forward, turn the fanny towards the camera - and do it a few times until you feel sexy and natural enough to honestly SMILE at the camera.
A darker thought just struck me .. perhaps the art producers did not bother because they themselves secretly felt it was pointless to try - and blamed it on the subject rather than their own lack of experience working beyond a very narrow profile of women.
It has always disturbed me how only one standard of beauty seems to be celebrated. I don't have a weight problem in either direction, so I am spared much of the emotional baggage. But I've seen it hurt people I care about, both men and women, who are physically beautiful yet don't fit into that slim sliver of the definition of consumerism beauty.
Meh .. my problem with the cover is not that she is not beautiful, but that there is no sense of beauty in the cover at all, by anyone involved in creating it. In other words beauty as an aesthetic is not valued in its creation .. for starters, she simply is not posed well. And I suspect this is not an accident but a decision .. an attempt to present an identity became, somewhere along the line, a cynical decision to ENSURE controversy. The pose, the lighting, the demeanor .. one can present a beautiful large woman, you have many curves to work with after all, and not just in a Rubenesque sense (although those paintings and portrayals are in a league above this one. In other words, it is not a case of changing or competing aesthetics, but the lack of any aesthetic at all, in order to DARE the observer or audience to speak their thoughts aloud, and then to conflate the idea that this is an ugly portrait with the idea that this is an ugly woman (or worse, that this woman should be considered to ugly).
In short, unless the model is in on the provocation, a la any number of John Waters female/shemale stars, she was at best not served well by the professionals she trusted and at best deliberately exploited.
Good lord, it is just so obvious that she was just told ' 'now stick your hand on your head' .. if only they had said instead had her stand up straight and with upper torso and feet planted firmly forward, turn the fanny towards the camera - and do it a few times until you feel sexy and natural enough to honestly SMILE at the camera.
A darker thought just struck me .. perhaps the art producers did not bother because they themselves secretly felt it was pointless to try - and blamed it on the subject rather than their own lack of experience working beyond a very narrow profile of women.
Most Americans are overweight and the “big butt” craze is just a result of this.
It has always disturbed me how only one standard of beauty seems to be celebrated. I don't have a weight problem in either direction, so I am spared much of the emotional baggage. But I've seen it hurt people I care about, both men and women, who are physically beautiful yet don't fit into that slim sliver of the definition of consumerism beauty.
Interesting