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

[eptified.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're talking about Stuart Murdoch and you think Momus has a thing for high school girls?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I know what you mean. However, Stuart Murdoch does, as many chaps do, identity with the sweet, lost, half innocent world of the 'teenage girl'. This is not a sexual thing; it's an identity thing - it's about that 'other life' that you didn't live and what it would have been like to 'be a girl' and face various issues as a girl. Now, Nick certainly has delved into that world but, whereas SM identifies with 'the girl', Nick tends to - and usually in an interesting/provocative way - play the onlooker at the scene of some misfortune that is happening to a girl. Personally, I much prefer Nick's work than B&S - and he is often 'playing' a character so ... urm... that's OK!? e.g. The Guitar Lesson (Balthus/Love In A French Garden?)

[(Anonymous)]

sorry, Death In A French ...

[eptified.livejournal.com]

I am not entirely convinced that Stuart wanting to be the little girl doesn't constitute a kind of fetishism. I feel that the distinction between Nick and Stuart is that Nick brought his fetishes to consciousness.. which means that his stuff lacks the yearning, ethereal, bruised-innocent bit that early B&S is so good at (and I do love me some early B&S), but by and large, his work stayed good as he got older, whereas once Stuart had to sing about grown-ups a certain something departed.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey! - yearning, ethereal, bruised-innocence are all rather sweet, on the right day ... maybe girls don't quite get all that - it's not fetishism (or is it? hmmm...) - though I could see that it may come across like that. It is, as I say, about identity ... it's an indie 'tom-girl' thing - Britain has always had boys that want to be girls - it's a twee national characteristic (hence Pantomine). Actually, I think it's deeper than that; it's to do with surpassing your own sex to be the other sex ... and that's an interesting/empathetic thing to consider in one's life

SM & 'Girl's Songs' : Dress Up In You (last B&S album) is pretty good

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think the main difference between us is that my narrators and situations are much more inclined to take the weight of guilt on their shoulders. Bataille's Le Coupable was an important text for me in the 80s. You should assume and examine guilt from the inside.

Belle and Sebastian asked me for a track for a compilation of songs about childhood then rejected the one I gave them, Belvedere (http://www.phespirit.info/momus/20050108.htm). It's set in a parallel world fascist republic where children fling their parents off the Great Mountain of Death, touch other children's genitals for pleasure, and sleep naked with members of the Inner High Elite. I can't imagine why B&S's manager rejected the track. Perhaps he doesn't like Swift as much as I do.