A judgment of Paris

[imomus]

Today I want to bring together, here on Click Opera, an entry in which you the readers do most of the work, and in which images take the place of text. I'm also interested in how predictable my aesthetics have become. So what I'm proposing is a judgment of Paris; a beauty contest which is also a sifting of values (visual, aesthetic, political, semantic, sexual).

I want to see images of females, girls, women you think are totally my type. They should be wearing clothes, that's important. People without clothes are stripped of cultural referents, and we want those. They should be people who style themselves rather than have professional stylists, and they should be ordinary people, not celebrities. Street style sites like Facehunter might be a good place to source the images, or Flickr feeds. They shouldn't be people I know in real life. Be nice to me in your comments (yes, I am very old, and a bit funny looking) and be nice to the women.

At midnight CET I'll select a winning image -- the person I find most appealing, according to my own personal aesthetic code. I hope I won't have to exclaim "You never knew me!" I think by now you probably do.

Update (midnight CET): What an exciting finish! With about twenty minutes to go before the non-sexist gong sounded, this very beautiful image arrived:



While it looked for a while as if this indie musician would win, the judges -- all right, judge -- decided that she must be excluded as, possibly, a "celebrity", and, possibly, styled (though these things aren't really provable, and we don't know who the woman is).

And so this woman was chosen instead:



The judges (all right, judge) particularly liked the elegant hooded white garment, the expression of intent concentration, and the evidence of creative endeavour (carving) in the picture. Thanks to all who submitted pictures.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Via Tim Rudder's blog.

[(Anonymous)]

Looks like Dropbox is having issues. Here's a direct link: http://www.timrudder.com/wordpress/photos/20090908_02.jpg

[green-paint.livejournal.com]

something about her atmosphere...
picture taken from a flikr stream (but not mine)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

This is like going on a blind date with a person who stays rigidly frozen in one position all night! It's a bit hard to tell from just one snap, but I guess that limitation is one of the interesting things about photography. How to suggest an impossibly large amount of information with a single image?

[(Anonymous)]

What a shame Twit Opera is no longer around: "Need new Jap teens to perve at. Asked readers to pimp me their faves."

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Reductive misanthropy breaks the rules!

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

ugh. this is really, truly appalling.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Predicting what someone finds appealing is the new appalling?

[eptified.livejournal.com]

..can't really be bothered with this



found via gis for "ethnic pants"

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Aha! That's Yama-sama from Tokyo Bopper! She's already a cult amongst my friends. Jan has a framed photograph of her on his wall (a page from FRUiTS). Hisae used to revere her but is now a bit "post".

[(Anonymous)]

So this is the Momus version of Readers' Wives?

Now, I'm reliably informed that sexual interest in young woman decades younger than oneself doesn't stop when men hit 50, au contraire. But I think 50 is a good age to get a bit dignified about it and keep it to yourself, your close friends and lovers, rather than spray it over the Internet.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

We're not going to get derailed by the identity politics angle, because it's tedious beyond belief. But if we were, you just defined the battlefield perfectly: it's sexism versus ageism. Competing victimhoods.

[(Anonymous)]

Miss Momus 2009

[(Anonymous)]

So it's come to this, eh? I guess it's the logical, sollipsisitic conclusion of Click Opera - coopt the readership in your masturbatory fantasies.

Re: Miss Momus 2009

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think it speaks volumes that you jump from beauty to masturbation so readily. Ban beauty, ban appealing people, they make us wank!

[(Anonymous)]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6UzdmF8O-Oo/SvVhSebAyWI/AAAAAAAAUuA/JV8UKePYPHM/s1600-h/IMG_5314.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6UzdmF8O-Oo/SveXB0I53_I/AAAAAAAAU1Y/HsooELyT0H8/s1600-h/IMG_5803.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

A bit sad to see Click Opera reduced to a Hot or Not site. Who cares if it's sexist or ageist, it's just a bit moronic.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You're discriminating against the right brain, the part that processes visuals, aesthetics, sex. It's brain too, you know!

[writewrongs.livejournal.com]

I can appreciate your writing, and I'm a fan of your music, but this entry and specifically your request strike me as sexist, ageist, (weightist?), and in a particular way, even racist (or to clarify that: fetishistic without consequence). Women come in age-brackets other than 16-25. Although you've never explicitly said (that I remember) that's all you want, there's an awful lot of romanticizing of young, Asian women. There is nothing wrong with having a "type," and I find myself dating many boys that look about the same. However, asking for strangers to post random pictures of young thin Asian women you might like crosses a line of "that's my type, I usually date that type" to "that's what I expect, that's what women should be." It objectifies the women involved and reassigns them as fetish objects for you, and I don't think that's what most of these women would want.

There are women who men can carry relationships with that aren't tiny Asian girls. I don't know how old you are and it doesn't bother me that you are attracted to whatever you like in pictures, but it does make a person wonder: When an older, intelligent, attractive, and successful man needs the supply of overwhelmingly younger and specifically trend-beautiful young women, are they trying to compensate for something? If you're afraid of growing older, wouldn't it be nice to have someone your age to share that with you? If you're afraid you're losing your youth, wouldn't someone much younger perpetuate that feeling?

Anyway, I hope I have been respectful in my comment and have not insulted you by encouraging you to look at your privilege or understand it differently. I continue to read your journal and listen to your music and respect you, and see this kind of search for women as objects as a reflection of your hurt. If you want to look at communities that can help you sort through all the -isms I brought up, I have a few on my profile page.

Thanks Momus,
Olivia.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

asking for strangers to post random pictures of young thin Asian women you might like

Well, as you kindly acknowledge, I did not specify any age or weight range, or any ethnicity. I carefully used three words: female, girl, woman.

I know exactly where you're coming from -- don't worry, I have bathed in identity politics, snorkeled in it, drunk it to the brim. And, at the end of that process, I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot of sexism built into anti-sexism.

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, will you be doing a nude version of this game as well?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No.

[(Anonymous)]

It would have been better if you'd included fellas too - that are 'totally your type' ... it is a bit iffy this post - Stuart Murdoch (from Belle & Sebastian) has rather more interesting, appealing, considered ideas about 'type' attraction. And anyway, we know what you like! - Japanese girls in schoolgirl uniforms with thought bubbles such as ... "ooo ... Mr. Nick you are so very naughty" (girl giggles and looks, shyly, away from your voyeuristic gaze).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Japanese girls in schoolgirl uniforms

Well, see, this is a complete misapprehension! You will probably be astonished at midnight.

[womanonfire.livejournal.com]

[eptified.livejournal.com]

This is the post people complain about? What fucking blog have you all been reading, that this comes as a shock to you? Where were you when he was behaving as if he had just discovered homeless chic arrrgh

I'm going to keep participating just to spite all of you joyless shitheads.

I know you're over the pop star thing, nick, but you have to give her points for trouser innovation:

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The trousers are great!

A lot of the faces I'm seeing on this thread look like Star Forever Karin Komoto, weirdly enough! (We'll be visiting her in Yokohama soon.)

harlequin

[tjaq.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

(http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e179/YourKit/?action=view&current=polsky5-28-6.jpg)

Re: harlequin

[tjaq.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

You people might not believe me but I posted the pic *without* having read yesterdays Momus entry which I just noticed was called Electronic Harlequins!!!

I kid you not, I just had the pic in mind because I just send it to an artist friend of mine.

Creepy :)

PS: now am gonna read yesterdays entry ha ha

[eptified.livejournal.com]

All right, here we go, second from the left...



....wait, sorry, that's my particular aesthetic continuum. Carry on.

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

[hideandseekfest.livejournal.com]

now this is someone truly exotic for you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davisayer/3562746637/in/photostream/

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called LOOKS A BIT TOO CLOSE TO MY SISTER FOR COMFORT and we'd love to have this added to the group!

[erotreme.livejournal.com]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3578/3392025280_14499e4781.jpg?v=0

Sorry, I don't know how to embed an image. But do take a look.

While I suppose I understand where the ire in these responses is coming from, my initial reaction was enthusiasm for the fun of the thing, and oddly, my first thought had nothing to do with Japanese tweeners and everything to do with the photos you once posted of elderly Dutch women with fantastic headdresses. You didn't ask for masturbatory fodder; you asked for images of beauty, and you've been pretty clear over time that your ideas of beauty are far ranging, and not always related to sex. Personally, I dig it. And I was disappointed to click on the comments and find myself splashing through a river of bile instead of a sea of beauty. I'm a woman, and I love looking at female loveliness too.

[birdgerhl.livejournal.com]

what was requested was not "images of female beauty", or "post pics that show me what female beauty means to you".

instead, readers were asked to share "images of females, girls, women you think are totally my type" (my emphasis - are the elderly dutch women nick's "type", do you reckon?), as part of a competition. so that ultimately we have one woman as a "winner" (based on one man's aesthetic criteria - and there's the reader assumption that these are relatively narrow, based on previous posts and knowledge of his personal life, although doubtless the "winner" will be chosen in order to deflect/dispute this assumption) and the rest as "losers".

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

this is surprisingly difficult!

[dogsolitude-v2.livejournal.com]

Hm. Well, it had a sort of 'thrift art' quality with a delicate gradient reminiscent of something from a Flash animation. It made me go 'ugh' and 'I want that on my wall' at the same time. Plus she looks a bit dirty and French.

I really love this image though:

[pulled-up.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I think the way you could have avoided a venomous uprising from the resident feminists is if you had asked for some stylish pictures of people that we like. It is not just the fact that you asked for pictures of women, it's the fact that they are for you that people are annoyed, I think.

Same way that I was peturbed when that female blogger made Joe her Number One Cute Boy or whatever it was. We don't like the thought of people being held up for some kind of consumption without their explicit will to be objectified like that.

Anyway, I personally am not that annoyed. I did just post my latest crush on my Tumblr (http://pulled-up.tumblr.com), after all. But it does make you look a bit old/letchy Nick! (Sorry!)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am old / letchy, Emma! No use pretending otherwise.

[me-vs-gutenberg.livejournal.com]

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyoshima/3468194964/IO)

I guess this is better than going on 4chan and saying, "ITT, post ur pix of cute azn girls plx." Not as high a turnout, but this way you don't get 60% CP or tubgirl posts.

[(Anonymous)]

I miss the old Click Opera. I can find this type of commentary anywhere on the internet. The new commentators are rubbish.