Monday, July 25, 2005
Thongs for the Memory
As sandals have enjoyed recent fashion resurgence I thought it might be fun to review the curious history of the humble thong. Whilst the ancient Greeks were preoccupied with elegance and grace the Romans were evermore pragmatic when it came to their sandals. Conquering legions wore hobnailed clavata, an Estruscan innovation, which allowed the spreading empire to grow and introduce sandal making to the conquered. Something the Italians have been very good at, ever since. To celebrate a victorious return to Rome, heroes replaced the bronze nails, which held together their military sandals (caligae) with gold or silver tacks. Colour became the distinguishing feature of social status and critical factor for the glitterati. Red was the colour for high magistrates but later became the Emperor's prerogative. From time to time fancy sandals was banned because they offended Caesar’s favour. Claudius II (AD 37-68) was a spendthrift better known as Nero and wore silver soled shoes. His is wife Poppaea had sandals made from poured gold with straps encrusted with rare stones. The effect was dazzling and undeniably sexy. Nero’s indulgencies however brought the empire to the brink of bankruptcy. To save the day he decreed all coins would be forged in base metals and commanded citizens return their old gold and silver coinage to his treasury. Not surprisingly citizens began hoarding but had a weakness for ostentatious footwear. Shoemakers were quick to cash in and would only accept real money. Customers had to trust the shoemaker not to dub them in and consequently shoe making became clandestine with expensive footwear being sold under the counter. Deliveries took place under the cover of night and may in part explain why shoemakers gained a reputation as untrustworthy. Emperor Heliogabalus (AD 218-222) preferred his shoes decorated with diamonds and other precious stones engraved by the finest artists. He was never seen in the same boots twice but took great exception to patricians wearing ornamented shoes and tried unsuccessfully to stop the fashion. Emporer Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (AD 270 - 275) was more concerned about men’s shoes and forbade them from wearing red, yellow and green shoes. He did however relent and allowed patricians to choose materials and colours freely. Caesar reserved red and purple for himself and his sons. Although sumptuary laws and price controls were later imposed by Gaius Valerius Diocletianus (AD 245-313), in AD 301 footwear came in many styles and colours each reflecting class distinctions. The fall of Roman Empire almost saw the end to sandal making but the craft survived and enjoyed a real renaissance in the early 20th century with the emerging Hollywood industries and the popularity of the Biblical epics. Modern designers like Ferragamo rediscover the ancient designs and put them well and truly on track for today’s fashion conscious.
Cutter Whallas
If you ever wanted to embarrass your podiatrist then ask them if they have a cure for corns. In the twenty-first century we may be able to walk on the moon, move faster than a speeding bullet, but when it comes to the corns, we are still struggling in the dark. That doesn’t stop podiatrists from making living with our corns more palatable but there is nothing in a bottle or tube, so far anyway that can cure them. That day may be light years away. So what is so difficult about the eradication of a corn? Corns are organised concentrations of skin cells (keratinocytes) associated with intermitted and external, mechanical stresses. These are usually complex combinations of friction, pressure, and shearing sometimes caused by ill-fitting shoes, but conditions, apply. Prolonged mechanical stresses caused by walking are thought to damage skin cells which release chemicals into the blood stream. These activate enzymes like compounds, responsible for skin growth, which either start to over produce skin cells forming callous, or maintain regular replacement with no obvious hard skin. Biochemical control varies with individuals which helps explain why some people seems to suffer from the painful blighters, and others not. Callus describes general thickened skins whereas corns are reserved for inverted cones pushed into the skin by external means and surround by callus. Do corns have roots? No, the concentrated mass, or nucleus, which is associated with discomfort, inflammation and pain are forged by external twisting forces acting intermittently on the skin. When met with resistance from hard surfaces beneath the skin, such as bone then a corn is likely to appear. Corns represent permanent change in local skin formation and hence no matter what treatment is given they will return in some form or other. People have suffered from corns since the beginning of time and no surprise to discover the ancient Greeks invented the first skin scrapers. These also represent the first surgical scalpels. Corn cures have also been around from antiquity but it took to the sixteenth century and the introduction of the Quack Act in England before corn cutters purveyed a weird and wonderful array of corn curing elixir. These varied from pastes made from cow dung, soaps made with brass filings and oil, to alcohol solutions of lavender brandy. All had their day and none of them worked. Today most corn cures contain salicylic acid, which helps soften the corn. The acid also irritates tissues causing the corn to separate from the rest of the skin. In normal healthy individuals the resulting breakdown may heal quickly but for people living with compromised immune response systems this can become infected. Hence manufactures recommend caution and do not encourage self care by diabetics and people with compromised circulations. Perhaps the most bazaar corn treatment comes from India where in the 1930s the Indian Army had Corn Cutter Whallas. They worked freelance and served the local garrison. To treat a corn the whallas peared away the overlying skin before using a piece of horn tubing in a straw fashion to suck on the skin. They created a vacuum with their tongue before replacing it with wax or plasticine. The horn was left to hang freely for approximately hour as they tended to other clients. The vacuum put the harden mass of the corn under intense pressure and literally liquefied it. Over sixty minutes the once solid corn was drawn painlessly drawn out until it appeared as an exude of blood and tissue under the seal. Depending on the skill of the corn cutter wallas, some would amaze curious onlookers by using glass tubes, which clearly demonstrated the sucking out of the corn process. Fascinating stuff and would have to say, I have seen it done. This method was later adapted to orthodox medicine and became known as Bier’s Cupping Process and was used to induce a passive hyperaemia (increased blood supply) to encourage the body to use natural healing processes. Still back to ground zero, if you suffer painful corns or persistent painful feet then consult your podiatrist, they may not have a miracle cure, but they do know what they are doing, are highly trained professionals, and can give you, hours of happy walking.
Buns and Bunnies
Easter takes its name from Eostre the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn. This is the reason we associate Easter with east or sunrise. People whom worshiped Eostre sacrificed oxen in her honour and baked buns with horns decorating the top. Small loaves on leavened bread scored with a cross were known to be found in ancient Egyptian tombs. The cross appears to have had no symbolic significance, or at least if it did, it has been lost in time. It was also recorded the time of Easter in ancient Rome coincided with a festival to the worship of Priapus. People ate bread made in the shape of the phallus but when Christianity took hold it was thought the rude shaped breads were decorated with a cross. This is thought to be a credible origin of today’s pastries. No one can be sure of the origin of the word bun but many believe it comes from the Old French word bugne, meaning, and “a swelling caused by a blow” The same origins for the word bunion. The word bun did make its appearance in the English language about 1370. The hot cross buns were understood to make its first appearance in the 18th century (Poor Robin’s Almanac for 1733). The first recorded mention was a street cry common to bakers.
The cry became a children’s rhyme
“Hot cross-buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross-buns!
If you have no daughters,
Pray give them to your sons!
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny would imply there were two types of bun on sale. The origins of Easter eggs come from the custom of the German settlers to Pennsylvania during the 1700s. The children believed if they were good then the Oschter would lay a nest of coloured eggs for them. Kids would build a nest for the magical bird often using their hats bonnets. They did this in remote areas of the farm. Parents fearing the loss of expensive clothing would seek out the nests. This is now played out in reverse where parents hide the eggs and their children take pleasure in finding the eggs. The nests became Easter Baskets as the custom spread throughout the 18th century. All of course was credited to the mythical Easter Bunny. Until the 18th c the term cony was originally used to described adult rabbits, paradoxically rabbit was the preferred name for young rabbits. Cony was pronounced “cunny” which was unfortunate because this was by chance the old English term for female genitalia. So cunny had to become bunny.
The cry became a children’s rhyme
“Hot cross-buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross-buns!
If you have no daughters,
Pray give them to your sons!
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny would imply there were two types of bun on sale. The origins of Easter eggs come from the custom of the German settlers to Pennsylvania during the 1700s. The children believed if they were good then the Oschter would lay a nest of coloured eggs for them. Kids would build a nest for the magical bird often using their hats bonnets. They did this in remote areas of the farm. Parents fearing the loss of expensive clothing would seek out the nests. This is now played out in reverse where parents hide the eggs and their children take pleasure in finding the eggs. The nests became Easter Baskets as the custom spread throughout the 18th century. All of course was credited to the mythical Easter Bunny. Until the 18th c the term cony was originally used to described adult rabbits, paradoxically rabbit was the preferred name for young rabbits. Cony was pronounced “cunny” which was unfortunate because this was by chance the old English term for female genitalia. So cunny had to become bunny.
Espadrilles
Wedge shoes have been the focus of almost every shoe collection this summer. Designs range from upgraded espadrilles to fancy cotton versions fit for a royal wedding. The round toe, cone heel and wedges are tres chick and distinctly feminine. One of the hottest trends this new season are espadrilles which are available in every colour combination and style from a whole plethora of designers from Kate Spade to Donna Karan. If you prefer a more traditional version, try André Assous, who has been making espadrilles for 25 years. For some fanciful fun, New York designer Charlotte Ronson just introduced a collection of espadrilles with flat or wedge heels and playful details like embroidered strawberries and daisies. The "espardeña" or esparto grass shoe dates back to antiquity although it became associated with the Basques and a symbol of Catalonia. Its fame and comfort spread across the Mediterranean and South America becoming a cottage industry. Espadrille comes from the word sparte (a type of grass which was used to make rope). Other natural fibres like Hemp, Linen, Alfa, Jonc, Sisal and Burlap were also used to make the braid which forms the sole of the espadrille. In the 30s shoe designer extraordinaire, Salvatore Ferragamo took the concept of the Mediterranean espadrille and brought it into the 20th century when he forged the fashion cork wedge when war rationing in Italy meant he had to use raw materials in his creative shoe designs. Wedgies became synonymous with the most glamorous time in fashion in the last century, the 1930s, sandwiched between the Depression and the Second World War. Literally anything went and ever known shoe style enjoyed vogue worn by the Hollywood greats of the time. Currently as fashion trends go we are experiencing a similar run and glamour is back with a vengeance. Male fashion is also experiencing a similar renaissance with the English Look and Preppy shoes or Penny Loafer the coolest gear for the feet. Preppy is an American term which describes a university type from privilege background, men in the thirties were influenced by a well cut suits worn with shoes of distinction. A popular shoe was the Penny Loafer or Norwegian Moccasin. The shoe style was brought to North America by Scandinavian immigrants from the century before. The shoes were more robust than Native American moccasins albeit they were vaguely similar in construction. A lucky penny was kept in the shoe latch and hence they were known as Penny Loafers. This is not the first time in history university types gave their name to a shoe style, the Oxford shoe refers to foot sartoria of the academic dandies in the 17th century who wore heeled lace up shoes which were too tight for their feet. This meant they minced, sometimes painfully. The Oxford style took some time to become accepted amongst the Establishment as laces were thought to be effeminate and real men wore shoe buckles, bows or (my favourite) roses. But by the 30s they were well and truly the choice of the well dressed man and competed with Penny Loafers for popularity. By the fifties the penny loafer became vogue with teenagers who challenged convention and wore them in colourful suedes. This is the origin of Carl Perkins’s classic Blue Sue Shoes. Elvis had the hit which cemented adolescence across the globe, ironically the suede shoes the English Teddy Boy and Australian Bogies wore were not the suave penny loafers from the states but wedged dessert boots from Egypt. But that is another story.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Foot Allure
The foot is a sensitive tactile organ and according to anthropologists had made a major role in the evolution and development of other erogenous features of the human body. The unusual structure of the human foot made upright posture possible. Bipedal stance has influenced the anatomic development of buttocks and bosoms; legs and thighs, as well as tummies and hips. Segment Freud considered the development of upright stance led to display the primary and secondary sexual characteristics. In no other living creature is this so overt and indeed frontal copulation is a coital position unique to human beings. The Victorian physiologist reasoned as a species, humans had no need to develop a sense of smell because there were greater benefits in perfecting sight. The upright position allowed hands to be developed and some authorities consider from this the human brain was able to become more complex. The expansion and elaboration of the brain followed the development of the foot. Foot and shoe fetishism is common with much attention given to high heels this is referred to as acalciphilia; a leg fetish is known as crurofact; foot fetish a podophilia; and restifism a refers to a shoe fetish. Because the foot is the only part of the body to make contact with Mother Earth, many connections between fertility and reproduction can be found. For example the Zuni women (North American Indian Tribe New Mexico famous for the rain dance) keep the soil of their husbands footprint where they sleep believing this will dampen their spouses sexual urges and ensure their fidelity. In the middle ages, grooms would keep their feet on their brides shoes to assure a lifetime of compatible and productive physical union. In Spain and Mexico young ladies throw their shoes at matadors for his favour. Traditionally bull fighters were female. An old French tradition is the bride keeps her bridal shoes to assure a lifetime of compatible and productive physical union. Many cultures consider the foot and big toe as phallic symbols. Toe kissing and foot sucking feature in the Kama Sutra.
Shoe finds in houses
Whilst in Perth (WA) , we grapple with the conundrum of shoes left hanging from telephone wires and their meaning, American families have discovered a trove of old shoes hidden in house walls. Not quite an epidemic but none the less puzzling. During the Middle Ages it was commonplace to leave old shoes in roofs and attics for good luck and to ward off evil. More than a thousand concealment shoes, some dating back to the fourteenth century, have been reported in Western Europe alone. In North America concealment shoes have been reported in New England, but there have also been finds of buried shoes as far south as Virginia and far west as Missouri. Very rarely are pairs of shoes found, usually solo shoes, but many caches contain footwear from different people. Almost half the shoes concealed belonged to children with more female footwear found than males. Almost all shoes were well worn. Talisman is not restricted to shoes alone although they are commonplace. An old custom, where I come from, was to scatter coins under the carpet for good luck. Which of course meant as kids, every time mum and dad moved house we lifted the carpet. How many sceptics among us would deliberately walk under a ladder just to tempt fate. If I do I always have my fingers crossed, same goes for when you allow a pole to come between you and a friend, bad Karma, easily undone by saying “bread and butter”. First utterance on the first of the month always is “White rabbits” in our house and so it goes on. Back to shoes though. The penny loafer is a robust moccasin type shoe which had a luck penny caught in the snaffle bar just like any new purse given, as a gift should have a lucky penny within. A rare find reported recently in the US, concerned the demolition of an 18th century house where they discovered a baby's white, ankle-high shoe, some small wooden toys and some ears of corn. Since 1750 the house had undergone many additions and experts remain unclear whether the shoes were hidden at the time the chaise house was built or in a later renovation. All such shoe finds are reported now to the Northampton Shoe Museum in the UK and there they keep a register of concealed shoes. No-one has been able to explain why shoes have been used in this way. Some speculate the tradition stems from an ancient custom of killing someone then building the house over the grave, later in more enlightened days, shoes became a substitute for human sacrifice. Unlikely I think simply became shoe wearing in the very distant past was a minority sport and unless the person was fairly affluent then the chances were they went barefoot. More than likely shoes were selected because they reflected the personality of the wearer. By the Middle Ages, you still had to be pretty well off to have shoes and wearing them was status. They incorporate the spirit of a loved one and their shoe may have been kept as a form of Fen Sui. (or old shoey really). Shoe finds are usually reported near openings in the home eg doors, windows, chimneys etc. To the believer of the occult these are all places in the building that are vulnerable to evil. These finds indicate shoe concealment was widespread and long lasting yet it was not recorded in writing until references began to appear in mid-twentieth century archaeology literature in scholarly journals. Men being more secretive than women about such matters it fuels the theory hiding shoes was a male superstition, kept secret almost out of fear that telling about it would reduce its effectiveness. Another reason why this may not have been spoken off was it could have been construed in less enlightened times as a pagan ritual carrying severe punishment. It is likely here in Australia the same superstition was observed and for anyone out there involved in home renovation that involve removing walls especially around windows and doors, under roof rafters and behind old chimneys, be alert to the possibility of turning up concealment shoes. While most are found in
Eighteenth and nineteenth century homes, a find hidden as late as 1935 has been reported. If you are lucky and find concealed shoes tale a photograph as they lie because this information is as important as the shoes themselves. Then you might like to get in touch with Northampton Shoe Museum.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century homes, a find hidden as late as 1935 has been reported. If you are lucky and find concealed shoes tale a photograph as they lie because this information is as important as the shoes themselves. Then you might like to get in touch with Northampton Shoe Museum.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Shoes fashions
Of all the forms of erotic symbolism the most frequent, according to Rossi in his book the Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, is that which idealises the foot and shoe. Even to the most pedestrian, the foot is one of the most attractive parts of the body. Feet seem to provide valuable clues to people's mood. During interviews for example people feel more comfortable behind a desk. Fashion is the universal artisan of masquerade. Shoe design is not some esoteric or whimsical phenomenon. but a specialised art form. All shoe styles have sexual roots. There are eight basic styles all designed by men and for men’s' pleasure. The Boot Originated 4,500 years ago, developed into very sophisticated fashion accessories with strong S&M and psychosexual overtones. The Oxford Shoe Designed as a foot corset in 1640. Inspired by the corset, the shoe style was taken up by the Dandies and Flops. The purpose of the shoes was to make the foot smaller and more curvaceous. The Sandal Considered by experts to be the most sexy of shoes designs, introduced 6000 years ago the addition of thongs and straps has tantalised all since. The Moccasin 1500 years old often decorated to draw attention. This style eye appealing with many risqué features. The Pump Possibly the most enduring foot style, developed from slippers with added heels. Now form the biggest fashion accessory. The Mule The half shoe design on the same principle as the see through blouse or dress. The Monkstrap A low cut slip-on shoe with a wide strap across the instep. Designed for the clerics but not without a hint of impertinence The Clog or sabot added height and therefore importance to the wearer. This was the forerunner to the platform shoe.
Selling shoes and Freudian Symbolism
From a review of the literature concerning classical Freudian theory and the use of symbolism and its affects in advertising alcohol products the author considers the history of adverting sports shoes. With approximately 50% of all sport's shoes sold to non-sports persons the marketing focus for athletic footwear has become a major image promotion within modern culture. The author has assumed direct marketing would include the use of Freudian symbols to help sell their product. According to authors who have reviewed Freud's work, humans harbour a primal mode of symbolic expression which is unconscious in nature and readily accessible during the dream state (Appignanesi & Zarate, 1999; Cameron, 1967; Jones, 1956; Lesser, 1962; McElroy, 1954; ; Ruth, 1990/91; Ruth & Mosatche, 1985; Ruth, Mosatche, & Kramer, 1989; Schonbar & Davitz,1960; Starer, 1955; Thouless, 1947). These involve primitive forms of associative recognition and comparison which were considered characteristic of the id and the instinctual core of the human psyche. The id being the division of the psyche associated with instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs and the latter the mind functioning as the centre of thought, feeling, and behaviour and consciously or unconsciously adjusting and relating the body to its social and physical environment. Freud believed these associative processes unconsciously classified, recognised, and identified objects in a crude manner. He further hypothesised certain environmental objects were symbolically related to human sexual anatomy and activity. This theorem now forms the basis of classic psychoanalytical theory. Unconscious recognition of male and female genitalia and the act of sexual intercourse may be sexually arousing and motivating although the individual may not be consciously aware of the object's sexual associations and symbolic content. Objects which were sexually symbolic were referred to as phallic and vaginal symbols. By themselves, these were not thought to be embedded within the unconscious but instead the associative processes which recognised the symbol as sexual, because its characteristics were sexual. He believed symbols were connected in prehistoric times by conceptual and linguistic identity. Hence the origins of symbolic expression were primarily sexual and genetic. These were universal and unlearned, transcending cultural differences. Freud did however accept culture and learning could have a secondary effect on symbolic processes. Positive associations have been established by experimental research and most authorities would now agree the association between geometric diagrams serving as abstract phallic and vaginal symbols and ratings of masculinity-femininity are valid for non-psychiatric adults and children. (Cameron, 1967; Jones, 1956; Lesser, 1962; McElroy, 1954; Ruth & Mosatche, 1985; Starer, 1955; Thouless, 1947). When experimental data showing positive effects for sexual symbols were interpreted from a psychological perspective, several researchers have cautioned that cultural stereotyping may provide a significant confound. Schoenbar and Davitz (1960) contended several sexual symbols were stereotyped according to prevailing cultural sex roles. This implied depending on which symbols were used what may be affected is not a subject's unconscious associations due to latent sexuality of Freudian symbols, but rather the subject's associations due to obvious male and female cultural connotations. The authors concluded that certain symbols may be more culturally stereotyped due to perceived sex-role connotations whereas others may be more culturally neutral, and perhaps universal as Freudian theory suggested. Barker (reported in Lesser, 1964 ) found where culture was not a variable, sexual designations did not differ from chance; where culture was a variable, sexual designation was in terms of cultural meaning, whether it agreed with or conflicted with the Freudian projection. Schonbar and Davitz (1960) found where culture was not a factor there was no clear cut definition of sexual meaning; where culture was a factor it was in general culture rather than form which determined the sexual meaning of the object. This was true for both the denotative and connotative designations of sexual meaning. The concept that cultural factors alone determine sexual meaning in a universal way can exist only to the extent the cultural elements were similar, or identical for large numbers of people.
Freudian symbols and advertising liquor. Ruth & Mosatche, (1985) examined the effects on consumers of Freudian symbolism in the advertising of liquor. They found no main affect for sexual symbolism but sexual imagery and affect were significantly influenced in the presence of Freudian symbols in the adverts. These findings support the psychoanalytic assumption that phallic and vaginal symbols trigger unconscious recognition that is sexually arousing. Ruth (1990) suggested unconscious recognition of phallic and vaginal symbols in adverts for liquor may motivate an observer toward goal directed behaviour i.e. Freud symbols when paired with a product in an advert may motivate individuals to purchase that particular product. Results suggested that adverts for the same product may influence consumers differently when Freudian symbolism were present versus absent. The psychological theory would indicate the presence of phallic and vaginal symbols trigger an unconscious recognition due to their latent sexual characteristics. The authors held the belief the unconscious did not itself define objects or distinguish fine details but instead the genital symbols triggered an unconscious recognition of what was actually being symbolised, i.e. the male and female genitalia. Freud postulated the conscious awareness of genital sexuality was threatening for the ego and was therefore repressed in the unconscious. This could however still arose individuals without their awareness of the actual source of stimulation. The authors concluded observers were sexually aroused without being aware that the symbols in the advertisements were the agents responsible for their arousal. They believed this was supported by psychoanalytical theory. Key (1974) suggested the sexual arousal which stemmed from genital symbolism in the advertisement would, in turn, become associated with the specific product being advertised and motivated consumers purchasing behaviour.
History of footwear marketing The advertising focus of shoe advertising has remained consistent over the last century with emphasis on quality of manufacture and fashion (Shoe World website, 2000) At the beginning of the 20th century most advertisements appeared in newspapers and magazines as simple sketches of attractive shoes accompanied with descriptive copy highlighting key features of the product. (Baren, 1998). Increased competition and new advancements in technology meant shoe companies developed more astute ways to attract their customers. Manufacturers and retailers worked to create recognisable identities for their products and by the middle of last century stores were developing their own styles, running large adverts in quality fashion magazines through Co-ops. Department stores would pay part of the advert in exchange for promotion. After World War II, changes due to urbanisation and developing suburbs meant new marketing strategies including direct consumer advertising throughout the media. New footwear adverts focused on products and lifestyles which was a radical change from the illustrations and characterisations. Nike, in the 1970s were the first to present new advertising campaigns with catchy logos that appeared in image laden print as well as on television. Soon popular personalities were paid to endorse their products in print and television commercials. As shoe firms launched increasingly attractive and complex campaigns, branding became the emphasis and in the 90's, advertising strove to turn brand names into household words. This strategy was paralleled in fashion marketing as consumers recognise branded labels as the all important feature rather than the old school qualities synonymous with style and fit. Vigorito and Curry (1998) described magazine pictures and adverts as carrying significant messages about cultural (material culture of capitalism) norms and values, including the norms of gender relations. The authors believed mass media was the lens through which people saw themselves. The benefit was people could aspire to models of masculinity and femininity but rarely attained the culturally idealised form of these. A convention of mass media was to elicit a positive audience response by presenting images which reinforced stereo-typical gender definitions. According to McKenzie (1997) the emergence of a sporting culture in the last 150 years has been the acceptance of physically fit athletic men and women as cultural and aesthetic ideals. The perfect body had become an object of desire and consequently most sports clothing were designed not just to be technically efficient and increase a competitor's effectiveness but also to reveal the body beneath it. From the first release of a keep fit, aerobic video in 1982 sport's clothing became high fashion items with shoes to complete the outfit. Both media and cosmetic industries reinforced their belief in new health exercise and youth movement by promoting it as a market opportunity. Drab sweat suits became passé and were replaced by fashioned exercise gear, designed specifically to catch the eye in both gym and high street. Freedom of movement and fitness were reflected in contemporary popular music with loose fitting clothing the preferred style of the emerging 80's. Outfits were not complete unless worn with expensive sport shoes, usually endorsed by celebrities from professional sport.
Social Phenomena of Sports Shoes
Since the 70's sports shoes have become extremely popular and are now worn as fashionable footwear and not just for sport's purposes. This phenomena is not new and was first recognised by Morris in The Naked Ape (1967) who postulated most shoe design innovations were, from antiquity, modifications of shoes designed for recreation such as athletics and dancing. Shoes contain a wealth of social messages both literally as well as symbolically and these are strongly affiliated with cultural rhythms (Hanna, 1985; Rossi , 1993). In terms of sales, baby boomers make up the bulk of the consumer market and one reason for the popularity of sports shoes has been this generation want to be fitter and healthier as they grow old. Although the relationship between young people's identities and their consumer patterns remains relatively uncharted. Miles, (1995) suggested at such a vulnerable time as coming of age one of the few things to make sense is their role as consumers. The author quoted the works of Willis (1990) who attempted an analysis of the relationship between young people 's culture and the state. He conceptualised young people's efforts to use the symbolic resources provided by the cultural industries as a means of creatively fashioning youth experience, identity and expression. The authors of this paper presented some of their findings from a project that dealt with youth, identity and consumption. As part of the information gathering consumers were asked what attracted them to a particular pair of trainers; or why did they think this particular pair were popular among their peers. The priority was for the consumer to discuss the role of training shoes had in their lives and that factors might influence their role. The meanings young people endowed consumer goods with varied according to a whole range of class, gender and ethnic influences. The authors believed consumption provided a language common to all which transcended perceived differences. Trainers were not viewed as simple shoes for sport but instead become a complex system of meanings associated with a specific brand. These according to Miles reflected a complex system of negotiated communal meanings between young consumers. It was not the specific qualities of the training shoe itself that appealed to young people but the meanings endowed in such shoes in peer context. Young people readily accept the value of consumption as a means of affirming status in the social group and as long as that social group was important to them then consumer trends inevitably played a significant role. Young people focused on their training shoes as an important means of establishing social hierarchies and self identity within their subcultures. This image is thought to transcend gender.
Discussion
Positive associations have been established by experimental research and most authorities would now agree the association between geometric diagrams serving as abstract phallic and vaginal symbols and ratings of masculinity-femininity are valid for non-psychiatric adults and children. From the literature reviewed there would seem to be general consensus of opinion from informed sources as to the validity of Freud's theories on sexual symbolism. Some authors have cautioned cultural stereotyping may provide a significant confound i.e. some symbols may be more culturally stereotyped due to perceived sex-role connotations whereas others may be more culturally neutral, and perhaps universal as Freudian theory suggested. Key (1974) (cited in Ruth & Mosatche, 1985) hypothesised sexual arousal which stemmed from genital symbolism in the advertisement which could become associated with the specific product being advertised and hence influence the consumers purchasing behaviour. Ruth & Mosatche, (1985) examined the effects on consumers of Freudian symbolism in the advertising of liquor. They found no main affect for sexual symbolism but sexual imagery and affect were significantly influenced in the presence of Freudian symbols in the adverts. These findings further supported the psychoanalytic assumption that phallic and vaginal symbols triggered unconscious recognition that was sexually arousing. From an historical review of the history of shoes advertising it would seem the traditions of advertisements have changed dramatically over the last century. Subsequent to the fitness boom of the early 70's and 80's advertising copy has concentrated less on quality of manufacture and fit and more towards brand labels and life style image. With the vast majority of sports shoes selling to non- sport's persons the whole issue of marketing would seem an appropriate area for inclusion of Freud's sexual symbolism. Modern preoccupation with physical fitness as an aesthetic ideal means the perfect body or the cultural sensitive image has appeal to a wide market range i.e. from the Baby Boomer generation to today's youth culture. From the literature reviewed direct marketing of sports shoes to niche markets did contain advertisements with and without Freudian symbolism. Examples of pictures with text (no Freudian symbolism), and life style imagery (with Freudian Symbolism) were regularly featured within adult magazines.
Conclusion
From the literature reviewed there would seem to be general consensus of opinion from informed sources to support the validity of Freud's theories on sexual symbolism. Researchers have examined the effects on consumers of Freudian symbolism in the advertising of liquor and concluded the presence of Freudian symbols in the adverts had significant influence. There are many similarities between advertising liquor and sports shoes i.e. not gender specific and advertisement copy prefers the promotion of life style rather than text based presentation on quality of manufacture.
References
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Baren, M., (1998) Victorian shopping (pp 96-104) London: Michael O'Mara Books Ltd .
Cameron, P., (1967) Confirmation of the Freudian psychosexual stages utilizing sexual symbolism Psychological Reports 21 33-39.
Groth-Marnat, G., (1990) Handbook of physchological assessment (2nd ed) (pp 319- 364) New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Hanna, A., (1985) Design in strude:explorations in shoe design Industrial Design Jan/Feb 40-45.
Jones, A., (1956) Sexual symbolism and the variables of sex and personality integration Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 53 187-190.
Lesser, K., (1962) Sexual symbols structured and unstructured Journal of Consulting Psychology 26:1 44-49.
Lesser, K., (1964) Cultural & Freudian dimensions of sexual symbols The Journal of Consulting Psychology 28 46-53.
McElroy, W.A., (1954) A sex difference in preference for shapes British Journal of Psychology 45 209-216.
McKenzie, J., (1997) The best in sportswear design (pp 20-23) London: BT Batsford.
Miles, S., (1995) Towards an understanding of the relationship between youth identities and consumer culture Youth and Policy 51 25-45.
Morris, D., (1967) The naked ape London: Cape.
Rossi, W. A., (1993) The sexlife of the foot and shoe Florida: Kreiger Publishing Co.
Ruth, W.J., (1990) Effects of Freudian sexual symbolism in advertising on self reported purchasing tendencies: A preliminary intraband anlaysis Psychological Reports 67: 3, Pt 2 1207-1210.
Ruth, W.J., (1991) Cultural stereotyping versus neutrality of Freudian sexual symbols: a brief survey Psychological Reports 68: 3, Pt 1 895-898.
Ruth, W. J., & Mosatche, H.S., (1985) A projecture assessment of the effects of Freudian sexual symbolism in liquor advertisements Psychological Reports 56 183-188.
Ruth, W. J., Mosatche, H.S., & Kramer, A., (1989) Freudian sexual symbolism: theoretical considerations and an empirical test in advertising Psychological Reports 64 1131-1139.
Schonbar, R.A., & Davitz, J.R., (1960) The connotative meaning of sexual symbols Journal of Consulting Physcology 24 483-487.
Shoeworld.
Starer, E., (1955) Cultural symbolism: a validity study Journal of Consulting Psychologists 19 453-454.
Thouless, R.H., (1947) General and social psychology (2ed) (pp 452) London : University Tutorial Press.
Vigorito, A.J., & Curry, T.J., (1998) Marketing masculinity: gender identity in popular magazines. Sex Roles 39 135-152.
Freudian symbols and advertising liquor. Ruth & Mosatche, (1985) examined the effects on consumers of Freudian symbolism in the advertising of liquor. They found no main affect for sexual symbolism but sexual imagery and affect were significantly influenced in the presence of Freudian symbols in the adverts. These findings support the psychoanalytic assumption that phallic and vaginal symbols trigger unconscious recognition that is sexually arousing. Ruth (1990) suggested unconscious recognition of phallic and vaginal symbols in adverts for liquor may motivate an observer toward goal directed behaviour i.e. Freud symbols when paired with a product in an advert may motivate individuals to purchase that particular product. Results suggested that adverts for the same product may influence consumers differently when Freudian symbolism were present versus absent. The psychological theory would indicate the presence of phallic and vaginal symbols trigger an unconscious recognition due to their latent sexual characteristics. The authors held the belief the unconscious did not itself define objects or distinguish fine details but instead the genital symbols triggered an unconscious recognition of what was actually being symbolised, i.e. the male and female genitalia. Freud postulated the conscious awareness of genital sexuality was threatening for the ego and was therefore repressed in the unconscious. This could however still arose individuals without their awareness of the actual source of stimulation. The authors concluded observers were sexually aroused without being aware that the symbols in the advertisements were the agents responsible for their arousal. They believed this was supported by psychoanalytical theory. Key (1974) suggested the sexual arousal which stemmed from genital symbolism in the advertisement would, in turn, become associated with the specific product being advertised and motivated consumers purchasing behaviour.
History of footwear marketing The advertising focus of shoe advertising has remained consistent over the last century with emphasis on quality of manufacture and fashion (Shoe World website, 2000) At the beginning of the 20th century most advertisements appeared in newspapers and magazines as simple sketches of attractive shoes accompanied with descriptive copy highlighting key features of the product. (Baren, 1998). Increased competition and new advancements in technology meant shoe companies developed more astute ways to attract their customers. Manufacturers and retailers worked to create recognisable identities for their products and by the middle of last century stores were developing their own styles, running large adverts in quality fashion magazines through Co-ops. Department stores would pay part of the advert in exchange for promotion. After World War II, changes due to urbanisation and developing suburbs meant new marketing strategies including direct consumer advertising throughout the media. New footwear adverts focused on products and lifestyles which was a radical change from the illustrations and characterisations. Nike, in the 1970s were the first to present new advertising campaigns with catchy logos that appeared in image laden print as well as on television. Soon popular personalities were paid to endorse their products in print and television commercials. As shoe firms launched increasingly attractive and complex campaigns, branding became the emphasis and in the 90's, advertising strove to turn brand names into household words. This strategy was paralleled in fashion marketing as consumers recognise branded labels as the all important feature rather than the old school qualities synonymous with style and fit. Vigorito and Curry (1998) described magazine pictures and adverts as carrying significant messages about cultural (material culture of capitalism) norms and values, including the norms of gender relations. The authors believed mass media was the lens through which people saw themselves. The benefit was people could aspire to models of masculinity and femininity but rarely attained the culturally idealised form of these. A convention of mass media was to elicit a positive audience response by presenting images which reinforced stereo-typical gender definitions. According to McKenzie (1997) the emergence of a sporting culture in the last 150 years has been the acceptance of physically fit athletic men and women as cultural and aesthetic ideals. The perfect body had become an object of desire and consequently most sports clothing were designed not just to be technically efficient and increase a competitor's effectiveness but also to reveal the body beneath it. From the first release of a keep fit, aerobic video in 1982 sport's clothing became high fashion items with shoes to complete the outfit. Both media and cosmetic industries reinforced their belief in new health exercise and youth movement by promoting it as a market opportunity. Drab sweat suits became passé and were replaced by fashioned exercise gear, designed specifically to catch the eye in both gym and high street. Freedom of movement and fitness were reflected in contemporary popular music with loose fitting clothing the preferred style of the emerging 80's. Outfits were not complete unless worn with expensive sport shoes, usually endorsed by celebrities from professional sport.
Social Phenomena of Sports Shoes
Since the 70's sports shoes have become extremely popular and are now worn as fashionable footwear and not just for sport's purposes. This phenomena is not new and was first recognised by Morris in The Naked Ape (1967) who postulated most shoe design innovations were, from antiquity, modifications of shoes designed for recreation such as athletics and dancing. Shoes contain a wealth of social messages both literally as well as symbolically and these are strongly affiliated with cultural rhythms (Hanna, 1985; Rossi , 1993). In terms of sales, baby boomers make up the bulk of the consumer market and one reason for the popularity of sports shoes has been this generation want to be fitter and healthier as they grow old. Although the relationship between young people's identities and their consumer patterns remains relatively uncharted. Miles, (1995) suggested at such a vulnerable time as coming of age one of the few things to make sense is their role as consumers. The author quoted the works of Willis (1990) who attempted an analysis of the relationship between young people 's culture and the state. He conceptualised young people's efforts to use the symbolic resources provided by the cultural industries as a means of creatively fashioning youth experience, identity and expression. The authors of this paper presented some of their findings from a project that dealt with youth, identity and consumption. As part of the information gathering consumers were asked what attracted them to a particular pair of trainers; or why did they think this particular pair were popular among their peers. The priority was for the consumer to discuss the role of training shoes had in their lives and that factors might influence their role. The meanings young people endowed consumer goods with varied according to a whole range of class, gender and ethnic influences. The authors believed consumption provided a language common to all which transcended perceived differences. Trainers were not viewed as simple shoes for sport but instead become a complex system of meanings associated with a specific brand. These according to Miles reflected a complex system of negotiated communal meanings between young consumers. It was not the specific qualities of the training shoe itself that appealed to young people but the meanings endowed in such shoes in peer context. Young people readily accept the value of consumption as a means of affirming status in the social group and as long as that social group was important to them then consumer trends inevitably played a significant role. Young people focused on their training shoes as an important means of establishing social hierarchies and self identity within their subcultures. This image is thought to transcend gender.
Discussion
Positive associations have been established by experimental research and most authorities would now agree the association between geometric diagrams serving as abstract phallic and vaginal symbols and ratings of masculinity-femininity are valid for non-psychiatric adults and children. From the literature reviewed there would seem to be general consensus of opinion from informed sources as to the validity of Freud's theories on sexual symbolism. Some authors have cautioned cultural stereotyping may provide a significant confound i.e. some symbols may be more culturally stereotyped due to perceived sex-role connotations whereas others may be more culturally neutral, and perhaps universal as Freudian theory suggested. Key (1974) (cited in Ruth & Mosatche, 1985) hypothesised sexual arousal which stemmed from genital symbolism in the advertisement which could become associated with the specific product being advertised and hence influence the consumers purchasing behaviour. Ruth & Mosatche, (1985) examined the effects on consumers of Freudian symbolism in the advertising of liquor. They found no main affect for sexual symbolism but sexual imagery and affect were significantly influenced in the presence of Freudian symbols in the adverts. These findings further supported the psychoanalytic assumption that phallic and vaginal symbols triggered unconscious recognition that was sexually arousing. From an historical review of the history of shoes advertising it would seem the traditions of advertisements have changed dramatically over the last century. Subsequent to the fitness boom of the early 70's and 80's advertising copy has concentrated less on quality of manufacture and fit and more towards brand labels and life style image. With the vast majority of sports shoes selling to non- sport's persons the whole issue of marketing would seem an appropriate area for inclusion of Freud's sexual symbolism. Modern preoccupation with physical fitness as an aesthetic ideal means the perfect body or the cultural sensitive image has appeal to a wide market range i.e. from the Baby Boomer generation to today's youth culture. From the literature reviewed direct marketing of sports shoes to niche markets did contain advertisements with and without Freudian symbolism. Examples of pictures with text (no Freudian symbolism), and life style imagery (with Freudian Symbolism) were regularly featured within adult magazines.
Conclusion
From the literature reviewed there would seem to be general consensus of opinion from informed sources to support the validity of Freud's theories on sexual symbolism. Researchers have examined the effects on consumers of Freudian symbolism in the advertising of liquor and concluded the presence of Freudian symbols in the adverts had significant influence. There are many similarities between advertising liquor and sports shoes i.e. not gender specific and advertisement copy prefers the promotion of life style rather than text based presentation on quality of manufacture.
References
Appignanesi, R. & Zarate, J.R., (1999) Introducing Freud (pp 65) Cambridge: Icon Books.
Baren, M., (1998) Victorian shopping (pp 96-104) London: Michael O'Mara Books Ltd .
Cameron, P., (1967) Confirmation of the Freudian psychosexual stages utilizing sexual symbolism Psychological Reports 21 33-39.
Groth-Marnat, G., (1990) Handbook of physchological assessment (2nd ed) (pp 319- 364) New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Hanna, A., (1985) Design in strude:explorations in shoe design Industrial Design Jan/Feb 40-45.
Jones, A., (1956) Sexual symbolism and the variables of sex and personality integration Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 53 187-190.
Lesser, K., (1962) Sexual symbols structured and unstructured Journal of Consulting Psychology 26:1 44-49.
Lesser, K., (1964) Cultural & Freudian dimensions of sexual symbols The Journal of Consulting Psychology 28 46-53.
McElroy, W.A., (1954) A sex difference in preference for shapes British Journal of Psychology 45 209-216.
McKenzie, J., (1997) The best in sportswear design (pp 20-23) London: BT Batsford.
Miles, S., (1995) Towards an understanding of the relationship between youth identities and consumer culture Youth and Policy 51 25-45.
Morris, D., (1967) The naked ape London: Cape.
Rossi, W. A., (1993) The sexlife of the foot and shoe Florida: Kreiger Publishing Co.
Ruth, W.J., (1990) Effects of Freudian sexual symbolism in advertising on self reported purchasing tendencies: A preliminary intraband anlaysis Psychological Reports 67: 3, Pt 2 1207-1210.
Ruth, W.J., (1991) Cultural stereotyping versus neutrality of Freudian sexual symbols: a brief survey Psychological Reports 68: 3, Pt 1 895-898.
Ruth, W. J., & Mosatche, H.S., (1985) A projecture assessment of the effects of Freudian sexual symbolism in liquor advertisements Psychological Reports 56 183-188.
Ruth, W. J., Mosatche, H.S., & Kramer, A., (1989) Freudian sexual symbolism: theoretical considerations and an empirical test in advertising Psychological Reports 64 1131-1139.
Schonbar, R.A., & Davitz, J.R., (1960) The connotative meaning of sexual symbols Journal of Consulting Physcology 24 483-487.
Shoeworld
Starer, E., (1955) Cultural symbolism: a validity study Journal of Consulting Psychologists 19 453-454.
Thouless, R.H., (1947) General and social psychology (2ed) (pp 452) London : University Tutorial Press.
Vigorito, A.J., & Curry, T.J., (1998) Marketing masculinity: gender identity in popular magazines. Sex Roles 39 135-152.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Buying shoes is a voluntary action?
And you just thought going into a shop and buying your favourite pair of shoes was something you did because you wanted to, and that decision, was totally under your conscious control. Well you could be right if you are very strong willed and live devoid of the media, but for most of us we are being manipulated on a grand scale and it starts of with advertising. The primary function of marketing is to move stock and whilst there a standards of advertising behaviour, these marshal gross and obvious misrepresentation, they do little to curb the subtle, subliminal messages hidden within adverts. Our brains subconsciously recognise primal images, things we might call symbols, the most obvious have to do with fertility and appropriation. These according, to Feud affect our attitudes and behaviours and designers of adverts have used these secret messages to sell their products from the beginning. This of course does not mean to say it is bad, nor are the commodities being advertised inferior or detrimental in any way. What it does represent is the science of marketing is extremely well developed and will deliberately target our human senses to achieve their objectives. Recently we conducted and experiment at the Department of Podiatry where a selection of shoe adverts from popular magazines aimed at the young and fashionable adult were analysed for symbolism. These were then divided into two types: those with subtle sexual symbolism and those without. Two groups of subjects were randomly selected and the first were shown adverts deemed to contain no symbolism; the other was allowed to examine the dirty pictures. Both groups were then asked to describe an innocent but ambiguous picture of a young couple. The first group gave a plausible explanation with no smuttiness; whereas the second group had more saucy reasons for the coupling. It would appear then images can radically affect our attitudes and the hope from a marketing perspective is this makes us want to buy more. Even supposing we do avoid the adverts getting to the shop can present other challenges. Most shoe shops display those products they are heavily promoting at the front of their premises. This instantly appeals to the spontaneous buyer with no real idea what they want other than an appeal to the eye. Buyers also beware if you detect a mild fragrance on the premises that is another ploy to get you to part with your money. Researchers at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago conducted experiments to discover the effects of fragrance on buyer’s habits. In a shop, which sold Nike–brand athletic shoes they divided potential shoppers into two rooms: one contained only filtered air and the other was scented with a fragrance. People in the scented room expressed more interest in the footgear and were eager to buy them at inflated prices. Shoppers in the unscented room were generally less interested and fewer purchases were made. Similar experiments have been reported in other retail outlets, casinos and museums. Results show people will stay on the premise longer, examine goods/exhibits more carefully and in the case of the casino, play more money. Fruity-floral scents appeal to both men and women whereas spicy scents were less likely to appeal to female shoppers. Now you know.
References
Kodis M 1998 Love scents Victoria: Penguine Books
References
Kodis M 1998 Love scents Victoria: Penguine Books
The Nude in Art
The nude is the most enduring subject in art. According to Robson (1995) the term nude, has become synonymous with female nude because over time the latter has been most common. This may be because most artists were men. The consistent element running through the nude in art of all ages is sexuality and for centuries in European art the nude was an inspiration of artistic creativity. The naked form provided the visual embodiment of ideas and views about the most basic human concern, love whether this was earthly or sacred. This philosophical stand point joins both Eastern and Western culture.
Classical Period
During the classical period of the Greek and Roman Empires, the nude, was mainly male figures and models of human idealism were celebrated as icons of strength and beauty. The nude to the Ancient Greeks represented deity whereas real people were clothed.
Early Christian Art
According to Genesis God created man in His own image and likeness. After the third century of the Christian Empire all this changed and the nude became an expression of sin. Earlier Christian Art depicted the nude as innocent, depicting acts of appropriation. However by the fourth century a fig leaf mentality prevailed and the naked body was painted as a temptation and sin. Many of the early Christian paintings were destroyed or covered up, only a few early Christian erotic images exist.
The Renaissance
Between the 14th and 16th century, the Renaissance rediscovered the classic ideals of the perfect body and the nude again became an emblem of abstract concepts such as beauty, genius, friendship, truth or sacred love. The Judo-Christian belief that the Devine was the source of perfection meant images of humans, made in the image of their maker, were idealised. Florentine artists of the fourteenth century, such as Joso d’ Bondeni portrayed nudes as symbol of sin but imbibed them with human characteristics including expressions of emotion. During this time the economic and the aesthetic were paired in grandiose style. Vasaclus then reinvented the classic nude using the new perspective which gave figures a three dimensional appearance. The artist was associated with a new movement where the characteristics of the classic were combined with the Christian to present the natural beauty, with guiltlessness and innocence. Savenorola was a preacher at this time and spoke widely on the sinfulness of nudity. Botocelli created the Birth of Venus, but was also moved by the beliefs of the evangelist and destroyed several of his works featuring naked models. Despite this the artist was able to combine both Christian and the classical to present a nude as something beautiful and something to celebrate. When Michelangelo created David he not only reintroduced the male nude but incorporated the classic with ordered proportion. No longer idealised the figure looked outward, challenging the viewer. He did the same in his paintings incorporating his own sexuality within the religious compositions. What Michelangelo did for the male nude Titian did for the female, with his magnificent Venus of Albino (1538). The subject was inspiration for many painters capturing the reclining nude, eyes engaging the viewer as if they were voyeurs. Her hands covering her genitals in both innocent and suggestive way, with the recline and surrounding furniture as if something has just happened or likely to happen. In short, woman as a Goddess and sexual being. Only when the church allowed dissection did artists like, Leonardo d’ Vinci begin to represent true anatomical nakedness. This coincided with a greater acceptance among artisans that humans were not necessarily sinful and man, not God, had become the image to be depicted in all its glory.
The Enlightenment
Until the 17th century art was commissioned by the monarchy, church or aristocracy and used to enforce power and position. As a consequence of the Reformation, the Catholic Church supported a new movement in Art called Baroque. Reuben’s was commissioned to paint the monarchy ascending to heaven, heavily decorated with nude figures. The Baroque celebrated absolutism and the supremacy of the monarchy. The Enlightenment challenged this and instead featured the individual, the citizen, as the central feature of art. By the 18th century the population was increasing as the west became industrialised, the developing middle classes aspired to change. The depiction of the nude changed from previous times to become celebrations of equality before God. The depiction of the nude now based on scientific dissection meant the nude became mortal and was used to the celebration and vulnerability of the human condition i.e. from strength to pathos. The new movement of Neo Classicism reworked the classical nude into forms of grandising (larger than life). John Augustus Domincan Am (1862) painted nudes, which were in the neoclassic style but deeply sensual (from a men’s perspective). Until the late 19th century women were not allowed to draw nude figures. The Enlightenment forged the nude to become a political propaganda.
Realism
As the popularity for everyday subjects became vogue, the nude declined in the 18th century only to be resurrected by the Impressionists of the 19th century. The next movement called realism depicted the nude as it was. Rodan became the champion of realism and again the centre of controversy (1877). By this time photography had developed. Many exhibits of photography were removed form art galleries because they were considered scientific and not artistic. Gustave Courbet was a realist painter and by the 1860 was a bohemian artist of radical political beliefs. L’ Origine du monde (1866) until now nudes had been the prerogative of the aristocracy now it was available to the masses. The rise of the Society of Suppression of Vice (1866-1880).
The Nude
By far the most popular nude was a reclining figure introduced by Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus. This was new and had not been taken from classical art. An extraordinarily varied range of images has been granted ostensible respectability. It is thought Giogione and Titian were the first painters to use a reclining nude woman as the subject of a painting. They elevated the reclining nude to a significant status. It was this very status which the Christian Church took exception to and opposed all things carnal. Reclining figures did appear in Roman sarcophagi but were incidental to the design and not an entity by themselves.
Renoir’s Nini in the Garden was inspired by Monet's work the painter had been experimenting with the motif of young women in the garden: in size, format, and orientation. Nini in the Garden (1875-76) may be loosely grouped with Woman with a Black Dog, (1874) and Umbrella (1878). The paintings are identical in size (24 by 20 inches); each explores the problem of integrating the clothed female figure in ambient daylight and achieving a harmony between elegant Parisienne and exuberant nature. Young Girl on the Beach the model, Nini Lopez, sits on a similar garden chair wearing identical dress, but her presence is more assertive and now the chief element in the composition. Both paintings convey the delight that Renoir experienced in the large garden at the rue Cortot. His chief interest was to record the sunlight as it filtered through bushes and trees onto the diminutive and fashionably dressed Parisienne. He had already investigated these effects on the nude; Nini in the Garden marks an early stage in such treatment of the dressed figure. Somewhat tentatively, Renoir painted the reflections of foliage on Nini's face and the larger shadows on her dress. Her golden brown tresses are overwhelmed by the greens and browns of the background foliage; the forms of her dress dissolve in the dappled light and shadow. Renoir's exploration of light dancing over the human figure would achieve full expression in The Swing and Moulin de la Galette. In Nini in the Garden such effects are rendered a little hesitantly, but with the daring of experiment. Much of these works were commissioned by the affluent for their private viewing.
The Modern
The Modern movement started with Manet’s Olympia (1863). She had a classical pose but engaged her viewers confidently and shamelessly. The modern nude came to represent issues of contemporary society such as prostitution. Manet’s painting contains Tableaux Vivants (living pictures) qualities which reflect the contemporary development in photography.
By the 20th century the nude became relatively uncommon but some of the most shocking art has been in this format. This lead to impressionism spearhead by Picasso and Matisse. Picasso used multi perspectives, which led to Cubism, and Matisse forged Fauvism in his nude studies. Both these movements reflected the developing realism forged by the science and art of photography. In 1907 Picasso synthesized the ancient art form of Africa with the geometric style of Cezanne to produce cubism. His painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was in the cubist style. Matisse had a radical approach in 1905 and led a school of painters who used brilliant colours, expressive brush work and flat composition. This was called Fauvism but had only a short life.
Post Modern Movement
Although the nude continues to be a theme of post modern art, new technologies such s photography and lithography diversified the market and appeal for the nude. Since the Second World War major changes arose in the nude. The godless view of existential Europe torn by the Holocaust meant nudes became more fragmented where you were left as observer to complete the image. The male nude became more apparent and women painter depicted more female nude studies. In the 20s grotesque females, many prostitutes, featured prominently in nude art works (Bohm-Duchen, 1992). Whether this was a reaction to the aftermath of the Great War is not clear. Painters such as Otto Dix and George Grosz both depicted deformed bodies with a potent mix of relish and disgust. Evidently viewing them both as victims and symbols of the corruption of Weimar Germany (p.50).
Pop Art
Art movements post Second World War such as Pop Art, depicted nudes with stereo type of the women existing solely for the sexual gratification of the man. Tom Wesselman and Alan Jones both site the mass media culture as inspiration for their works.
References
The Nude The Renaissance 2000 Seventh Art Production (Channel 5)
The Nude 2000 The Enlightenment Seventh Art Production (Channel 5)
The Nude The Modern 2000 Seventh Art Production (Channel 5)
Robson D 1995 The art of the nude NY: Shooting Star Press
Addendum
In the Hindu religion, sexual intercourse represents an understanding of the universe. The pleasure of lovemaking was the doorway to the spirit. The embrace between men and women represented the union of the soul and the Devine.
Classical Period
During the classical period of the Greek and Roman Empires, the nude, was mainly male figures and models of human idealism were celebrated as icons of strength and beauty. The nude to the Ancient Greeks represented deity whereas real people were clothed.
Early Christian Art
According to Genesis God created man in His own image and likeness. After the third century of the Christian Empire all this changed and the nude became an expression of sin. Earlier Christian Art depicted the nude as innocent, depicting acts of appropriation. However by the fourth century a fig leaf mentality prevailed and the naked body was painted as a temptation and sin. Many of the early Christian paintings were destroyed or covered up, only a few early Christian erotic images exist.
The Renaissance
Between the 14th and 16th century, the Renaissance rediscovered the classic ideals of the perfect body and the nude again became an emblem of abstract concepts such as beauty, genius, friendship, truth or sacred love. The Judo-Christian belief that the Devine was the source of perfection meant images of humans, made in the image of their maker, were idealised. Florentine artists of the fourteenth century, such as Joso d’ Bondeni portrayed nudes as symbol of sin but imbibed them with human characteristics including expressions of emotion. During this time the economic and the aesthetic were paired in grandiose style. Vasaclus then reinvented the classic nude using the new perspective which gave figures a three dimensional appearance. The artist was associated with a new movement where the characteristics of the classic were combined with the Christian to present the natural beauty, with guiltlessness and innocence. Savenorola was a preacher at this time and spoke widely on the sinfulness of nudity. Botocelli created the Birth of Venus, but was also moved by the beliefs of the evangelist and destroyed several of his works featuring naked models. Despite this the artist was able to combine both Christian and the classical to present a nude as something beautiful and something to celebrate. When Michelangelo created David he not only reintroduced the male nude but incorporated the classic with ordered proportion. No longer idealised the figure looked outward, challenging the viewer. He did the same in his paintings incorporating his own sexuality within the religious compositions. What Michelangelo did for the male nude Titian did for the female, with his magnificent Venus of Albino (1538). The subject was inspiration for many painters capturing the reclining nude, eyes engaging the viewer as if they were voyeurs. Her hands covering her genitals in both innocent and suggestive way, with the recline and surrounding furniture as if something has just happened or likely to happen. In short, woman as a Goddess and sexual being. Only when the church allowed dissection did artists like, Leonardo d’ Vinci begin to represent true anatomical nakedness. This coincided with a greater acceptance among artisans that humans were not necessarily sinful and man, not God, had become the image to be depicted in all its glory.
The Enlightenment
Until the 17th century art was commissioned by the monarchy, church or aristocracy and used to enforce power and position. As a consequence of the Reformation, the Catholic Church supported a new movement in Art called Baroque. Reuben’s was commissioned to paint the monarchy ascending to heaven, heavily decorated with nude figures. The Baroque celebrated absolutism and the supremacy of the monarchy. The Enlightenment challenged this and instead featured the individual, the citizen, as the central feature of art. By the 18th century the population was increasing as the west became industrialised, the developing middle classes aspired to change. The depiction of the nude changed from previous times to become celebrations of equality before God. The depiction of the nude now based on scientific dissection meant the nude became mortal and was used to the celebration and vulnerability of the human condition i.e. from strength to pathos. The new movement of Neo Classicism reworked the classical nude into forms of grandising (larger than life). John Augustus Domincan Am (1862) painted nudes, which were in the neoclassic style but deeply sensual (from a men’s perspective). Until the late 19th century women were not allowed to draw nude figures. The Enlightenment forged the nude to become a political propaganda.
Realism
As the popularity for everyday subjects became vogue, the nude declined in the 18th century only to be resurrected by the Impressionists of the 19th century. The next movement called realism depicted the nude as it was. Rodan became the champion of realism and again the centre of controversy (1877). By this time photography had developed. Many exhibits of photography were removed form art galleries because they were considered scientific and not artistic. Gustave Courbet was a realist painter and by the 1860 was a bohemian artist of radical political beliefs. L’ Origine du monde (1866) until now nudes had been the prerogative of the aristocracy now it was available to the masses. The rise of the Society of Suppression of Vice (1866-1880).
The Nude
By far the most popular nude was a reclining figure introduced by Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus. This was new and had not been taken from classical art. An extraordinarily varied range of images has been granted ostensible respectability. It is thought Giogione and Titian were the first painters to use a reclining nude woman as the subject of a painting. They elevated the reclining nude to a significant status. It was this very status which the Christian Church took exception to and opposed all things carnal. Reclining figures did appear in Roman sarcophagi but were incidental to the design and not an entity by themselves.
Renoir’s Nini in the Garden was inspired by Monet's work the painter had been experimenting with the motif of young women in the garden: in size, format, and orientation. Nini in the Garden (1875-76) may be loosely grouped with Woman with a Black Dog, (1874) and Umbrella (1878). The paintings are identical in size (24 by 20 inches); each explores the problem of integrating the clothed female figure in ambient daylight and achieving a harmony between elegant Parisienne and exuberant nature. Young Girl on the Beach the model, Nini Lopez, sits on a similar garden chair wearing identical dress, but her presence is more assertive and now the chief element in the composition. Both paintings convey the delight that Renoir experienced in the large garden at the rue Cortot. His chief interest was to record the sunlight as it filtered through bushes and trees onto the diminutive and fashionably dressed Parisienne. He had already investigated these effects on the nude; Nini in the Garden marks an early stage in such treatment of the dressed figure. Somewhat tentatively, Renoir painted the reflections of foliage on Nini's face and the larger shadows on her dress. Her golden brown tresses are overwhelmed by the greens and browns of the background foliage; the forms of her dress dissolve in the dappled light and shadow. Renoir's exploration of light dancing over the human figure would achieve full expression in The Swing and Moulin de la Galette. In Nini in the Garden such effects are rendered a little hesitantly, but with the daring of experiment. Much of these works were commissioned by the affluent for their private viewing.
The Modern
The Modern movement started with Manet’s Olympia (1863). She had a classical pose but engaged her viewers confidently and shamelessly. The modern nude came to represent issues of contemporary society such as prostitution. Manet’s painting contains Tableaux Vivants (living pictures) qualities which reflect the contemporary development in photography.
By the 20th century the nude became relatively uncommon but some of the most shocking art has been in this format. This lead to impressionism spearhead by Picasso and Matisse. Picasso used multi perspectives, which led to Cubism, and Matisse forged Fauvism in his nude studies. Both these movements reflected the developing realism forged by the science and art of photography. In 1907 Picasso synthesized the ancient art form of Africa with the geometric style of Cezanne to produce cubism. His painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was in the cubist style. Matisse had a radical approach in 1905 and led a school of painters who used brilliant colours, expressive brush work and flat composition. This was called Fauvism but had only a short life.
Post Modern Movement
Although the nude continues to be a theme of post modern art, new technologies such s photography and lithography diversified the market and appeal for the nude. Since the Second World War major changes arose in the nude. The godless view of existential Europe torn by the Holocaust meant nudes became more fragmented where you were left as observer to complete the image. The male nude became more apparent and women painter depicted more female nude studies. In the 20s grotesque females, many prostitutes, featured prominently in nude art works (Bohm-Duchen, 1992). Whether this was a reaction to the aftermath of the Great War is not clear. Painters such as Otto Dix and George Grosz both depicted deformed bodies with a potent mix of relish and disgust. Evidently viewing them both as victims and symbols of the corruption of Weimar Germany (p.50).
Pop Art
Art movements post Second World War such as Pop Art, depicted nudes with stereo type of the women existing solely for the sexual gratification of the man. Tom Wesselman and Alan Jones both site the mass media culture as inspiration for their works.
References
The Nude The Renaissance 2000 Seventh Art Production (Channel 5)
The Nude 2000 The Enlightenment Seventh Art Production (Channel 5)
The Nude The Modern 2000 Seventh Art Production (Channel 5)
Robson D 1995 The art of the nude NY: Shooting Star Press
Addendum
In the Hindu religion, sexual intercourse represents an understanding of the universe. The pleasure of lovemaking was the doorway to the spirit. The embrace between men and women represented the union of the soul and the Devine.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Dead Men's Shoes
The sight of Paul McCartney walking barefoot on the famous Abbey Road Album cover was enough to start the rumour that Paul was dead. The reason was walking barefoot in some cultures symbolises a funeral. The term dead men's shoes probably originated in the Middle Ages when shoes were so expensive, it was quite common place to bequeath them to others. Following in your father's footsteps was also thought to originate at the same time. Shoes were often given as gifts and many travellers would honour their sponsors, such Kings and Popes, with exotic footwear from far off lands. Another strange custom of the time was to bury shoes with their owner. Many buildings had shoes on the roof for luck as it was commonly believed shoes retained the spirit of the wearer. History does not record whether the shoes of Joseph Merlin were kept or not. He invented by the roller skate (1760) but these were not patented until 1860. This may in part have been due to the fact that when the inventor was demonstrating his novelty footwear at a party in London he accidentally ran into a mirror incurring fatal injuries. All roller skates made between 1760 and 1863 were in-line skates most often made with metal or wooden wheels, later these were replaced by rubber wheels. American, James Plimpton patented the four wheeled skate which remained the popular model until the recent reintroduction of in-line skates. Roller skating was first a rage in the late 19th century then again in the mid 20th century and more recently in the late 70's and early 80's. Roller disco's, roller parks and roller derbies were all the rage. There has been at least one major Hollywood film (Rollerball) and a very successful stage musical "Starlight Express" featuring skates. Today, there are estimated over 20 million people skating in the US which represents an 80% increase in the last 2 years. The most typical fall injury relates to beginners, not wearing safety gear. However 20% were expert skaters with 75 % of the injured were skating for exercise alone. Most injuries involved the wrist which included broken bones and fractures. Frequently, injury was associated with an outstretched arm attempting to stop a fall. Studies have shown wearing wrist guards and elbow pads are very effective in protecting in-line skaters against injuries. In-line skaters should also wear knee pads and helmets whenever skating and avoid glass doors. Following a series of tragic cases in the UK relating to sudden death, an article in the Doctor suggested nurses had ample opportunity to murder and maim with a very low detection rate. Rather a serious charge but the cases in question involved Munchenhausen syndrome by proxy. However the doctor did finish on a lighter footnote. Patients were unlikely to murdered by their podiatrists. Always reassuring.
The Copulating Foot
I am most grateful to Raymond K. Locke, an North American Podiatrist, for his most interesting case report which appeared in one of the professional magazines several years ago. It concerned a policemen who complained of a painful foot. He was originally diagnosed as having a condition known as plantar digital neuroma (or Morton's Neuroma). This is a niggling conditions where the nerve to part of the forefoot becomes damaged, particularly under the third fourth metatarsal head, sending tingling pains and numbness towards the toes. The pain is acute and comes on suddenly often forcing the individual to stop in their tracts. Removing the shoe helps as does rubbing the forefoot. In very severe cases surgical removal of the neuroma is required. This fellow had one previous surgical experience but the same symptoms reoccurred two years later. On his second visit to the surgery he told his physician he experienced pain travelling up his leg, sometimes as high as his thigh, and the pain frequently occurred in his foot during orgasm in coitus. These symptoms are not usually associated with Morton's Neuron and he was hospitalized. The neuron was successfully removed and he was discharged never to darken the step of the podiatrist again. (one assumes). Lock was so fascinated with this interesting case he went on to research the possible connection between neuroma and pain during intercourse. He came across (and I use the words advisedly) the works of Masters and Johnson Human Sexual Response and of course, as you are aware, they described the phenomena when orgasm is imminent, the voluntary rhythmical contraction of the thigh muscles and glutei turn into involuntary spasm that remain throughout orgasm. The authors further hypothesised that hands and feet too could also go into spasm at this time. This would result, with some people, in an involuntary extension of the arch of the foot with clawing of the toes. The practitoner was convinced the symptoms described were directly related. I had a colleague who after reading the report and being naturally sceptical wanted to research the topic, himself. Eagerly he took the earliest opportunity to do so, however just at the critical time (as he waited for his toes curl) he took a most excruciating cramp. Or so his co-researcher told me! Like the depths of dark Loch Ness, the orgasmic foot retains its erotic secrets and reveals itself only to the few.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Barefooting
Before the rebellion of 1745 the Celtic population (of Scotland) went barefoot all year round. This is true of both sexes and all ages. Indeed rich and poor prided themselves on bare feet and it was out of a sense of national pride. Sassenachs were considered less hardy and required to have shoes. After the rebellion Parliament passed a number of laws including the Disarming Act of 1747 to ensure the rapid disappearance of Highland Culture. Scottish settlers to the colonies were not affected by this and managed to retain traditional Highland dress. The practice of going barefoot lasted in the American Colonies until the end of the 18th century. Modern highland dress was introduced later in history when the uniforms of the Scottish regiments deliberately incorporated aspects of traditional highland dress in order to redirect nationalism to serve the interests of the crown. These uniforms were designed to include not only shoes but also a standardised form of socks. Most family tartans, especially those of more recent origin, are illustrated in this regiment style, rather than in any pre-Hanovarian style. Queen Victoria was much taken with all things Scottish and it was during her reign much bastardisation or Balmorality of the Scottish tradition took place. The Irish went barefoot too. Within a generation, the English gentry who had been settled in Ireland by Henry VIII had gone native to the extent that in Elizabethan portraits they are typically shown elegantly attired and yet nonetheless barefooted. A similar development, albeit in a different social context, manifested itself in Victorian England, when Irish immigrants were blamed for spreading their custom of going barefoot among natives of the Liverpool area. The mountain people of the Andes, descendants of the Incas went barefoot. Pictures of Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Sherpas, depict them barefoot even when above the snow line. In later expeditions the Sherpas were all shod. Both St Francis and St Clair taught their followers to modestly cover their bodies with the simplest of habits but to leave their feet completely bare. Going barefoot was for them primarily an expression of the idea of religious poverty. Bare footing to school as a child is well within living memory. This was not the result of poverty, lack of discipline nor any neglect. Indeed in may schools there was a strict uniform code but bare feet had simply been the accepted, expected, and in some cases even the required norm. Recently bare feet have become increasingly unwelcome in public places. In most instances there is no "statutory basis" for these regulations regarding footwear and that such requirements are purely a matter of private policy. It may be the phantom laws are rather easy to enact by private citizens willing to legislate their private prejudices through rumour mongering and wishful thinking. With the exception of climatic extremes, where circulatory systems are at a disadvantage to warm the toes so far from the our torso, people can go barefoot as comfortably as cats and dogs. This is not to say there are some individuals with specific medical problems which necessitate they take extraordinary measures to protect their feet from things that would otherwise pose no significant hazards. One of the downsides to the effective propaganda in favour of footwear for the forest bound is there is a substantial number of people who genuinely love going barefoot and do almost everywhere, but who have nonetheless been convinced that they could never dare go barefoot in the woods. Barefoot Hiking (Barefoot Hikers of Thomaston, Connecticut) Our ancestors may have gone barefoot as happily as the bears in the woods, but we are civilised now. So like it or not we must wear shoes, especially in the woods, if for no other reason than to let the bears know who their betters are. (Franzine: 1993)
Franzine R K 1993 The barefoot hiker Berkeley: Ten Speed Press
Franzine R K 1993 The barefoot hiker Berkeley: Ten Speed Press
Foot and mouth
When you come to think of it the term foot is used for many purposes other than the description of that "terminal part of the leg". A quick look at Encyclopaedia of Australia will reveal such diverse references as : "she dances with a light foot" or "showing nifty footwork" meaning great agility. Apart from reference to the lower end, as in "it stands at the foot of the hill and "see the footnotes" The term foot is used in the English language to represent the most diverse set of human behaviour. The call of the grease paint and foot lights pertain to the life of an actor; "Footloose and fancy free" and "putting things on a loose footing" mean to relax formality and be without commitment. Of course a foot contains 12 inches or 30.48cm"; and in poetry the foot is a basic unit of division in scansion, Common everyday phrases include: "to fall on one's feet", "land on one's feet", with reference to be lucky or successful; "find one's feet", to become independent of the help of others. "My foot!", or complete nonsense!; "to put one's foot down", is to be strict or firm; "to put one's foot in it", is to make an embarrassing blunder; "to stand on one's own feet", to be self-sufficient; footsie footsie is sex rearing its ugly head again and "to sweep off one's feet", is often what happens as a result. When things are not going as well as they might you may find yourself "under foot", meaning in the way; and of course eventually we all end up like Victor Mildew with " one foot in the grave". My all-time favourite is "the games afoot, Watson" from Sherlock Holmes, meaning the commencement of the action starts here. Reference can be made to foot as a verb, e.g. to walk: "we footed it to the shop"; and to pay as in "he footed the bill". 'To pussyfoot about' or "to be sure footed" displays a spectrum of meaning with the former being unsure with the latter assured. Like the word "hand" both have everyday meanings other than the obvious. With the exception of head and back and of course the naughty bits, no other part of the human body features so prominently in the English language as the foot. Now why this is so, is not too clear but it may infer the importance the foot has to the human condition. Certainly we know cerebral development followed bipedal walking by two million years. This may in some way may have made the foot intrinsic to our psyche. Many cultures celebrate the foot and hold them with the greatest respect. In Biblical times to wash another’s' feet was considered the highest mark of respect. And as we know form previous broadcasts, patron saints of shoe and surgical boot makers were humble men. Many people do become obsessive about feet and shoes. One Chinese Emperor became so fascinated with forecasting the future from readings of the sole of the foot (Solestry), he commissioned a set of encyclopaedias on the subject. There were 5,020 volumes! Never one for buying one pair when she could have seventy pairs at a time, Greta Garbo could be described as a retifist. Shoe collection is a very common preoccupation with the most famous/infamous being Imelda Marcus. Gloria Swanson was an altocalciphile (she had a heel fetish) and once had a pair of shoes made with corkscrew heels studded with imitation pearls to fit her beautiful feet. Curofile (a leg fetish) D W Griffiths, the famous film director, once sponsored a beauty contest for feet and ankles with the first prize a 6 month film contract. The runner up was a pretty girl trying to break into the industry. Joan Crawford was her name, and her prize was a pair of made to measure shoes.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Shoes in Australia
It was well documented among the penal colony population that boots and shoes wore out quickly due to the harsh conditions. From 1790 convict shoemakers made large quantities of footwear from imported leathers. Problems of mass production were hampered because of the lack of raw materials. Local cattle hides were not strong enough for shoe soles although kangaroo skins were successfully treated for uppers in 1805. Convict shoe makers could not keep up with the demand and made shoes for private commission as well as for fellow inmates. In the 1828 census the outback had one shoemaker for every 236 inhabitants. Most settlers continued to sent to England for their shoes well into the 1830s. By 1840 Australian shoemaking had improved and outback bookmakers were making quality hardwearing boots for rural Australians. A letter from a lady in Perth (1830), " many respectable females with their children are going - barefoot - not a shoe maker can be got to work." The clothes worn by working people were reasonable fashionable and made in heavier materials. Women's clothes were made of softer fibres. Ready made clothes were worn by working men and women. Children wore cast offs or adult style clothes made to smaller sizes. Australian men often wore something special on Sundays. Rural dress was more practical and governed by shortages. The urban bourgeois shopped at the new stores whereas the working class bought their shoes at the slop shops which catered for the cheap and cheerful. New comers to the colonies were often met with a stare because they sported the latest European fashions. In the eighteenth century Top boots were all the rage in London but had little practical use in Australia. New arrivals immediately acquired the bush dress of rough clothes and equivalent manners. Middle-class Australian women were preoccupied with fashion. All the large shops in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane employed agents in Europe and Britain to conduct their import business. Besides European influences the affect of American styles on colonial woman's fashion was profound. None more so than the high quality shoes available around about 1890. By 1894 the American shoes had replaced British footwear in the Australian Market. The mass production stateside made them cheaper but also the range of styles and leathers were much bigger. There was an American Shoe Company in George Street Sydney selling modish forms of footwear. Australian footwear industry in the mid nineteenth century faced similar problems to clothing manufacturing. Colonial made boots and shoes commanded the local market in New South Wales from 1840-1852. The period also recorded high productivity in South Australia and shoemakers were able to provide much of the footwear for the local market. Adelaide had four tanneries in full production in 1843, and colonial articles were reputedly preferred to imported ones. The British shoes imported to Australia were not always suited to the climate. Often the leather would become mildewed on the outward journey. Local manufactures alleged the colonial boots were longer lasting. An Australian made working boot would last on average one calendar month whereas the English slops were doomed by two to three weeks. Home made footwear were more expensive then the cheaper imports. By the end of the 1850s prices women's boots cost between 3/6 to 7/- for British boots ; whereas the colonial made equivalent cost 12/6. The decade between 1850 & 1860 saw a decline in the footwear industry in New South Wales due to high wage claims caused by the gold rush. Bootmakers' wages had doubled between 1840 and 1860. The British manufacturers made deliberate attempt to capture Australian trade by flooding the market. Low manufacturing costs and mechanisation meant the UK could produce footwear at low prices even with high transport costs. By 1870 Sydney bootmakers were producing 15,000 pairs of boots each week. Once mechanisation was established bookmakers could cater for the neglected market of children's shoes. Shoes were made for men and children rather than women . Boot and shoemaking was one of the most successful of the garment industries. This has been explained because the product was produced to be profitable, hard wearing and practical not fashionable items. By 1890s the Melbourne manufacturers had converted to a modern system of mechanisation. Concentration of practical footwear meant the fashionable imports remained popular with consumers. A home grown fashion industry tried to establish itself . A Melbourne firm responded by producing shoes made form kangaroo skins. The Kangaratta was popular partly because kangaroo skin looks like superior glace kid. Unfortunately the US had captured the Australian market by the mid 1890s.
Bibliography
Maynard M 1994 Fashioned from Penury: dress as cultural practice in colonial Australia Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Michell L 1997 Stepping out: three centuries of shoes Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing
Bibliography
Maynard M 1994 Fashioned from Penury: dress as cultural practice in colonial Australia Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Michell L 1997 Stepping out: three centuries of shoes Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing
Local Derby
On the eve of lent (last day of Shraft) or Shroventide, traditionally a game of football was played in the streets and open spaces. The rough game had few rules, no set teams and had no resemblance to the comparatively gentle games we see today. This was a literal free for all with many injuries and deaths resulting. The game was played on open ground and any vacant spaces including the parish graveyard. Needless to say authorities disliked the game and many attempts were made to ban it from the streets. Similar traditional footie games were played throughout the UK from the Early Middle Ages. Christmas and Easter were other popular times. In Chester, England the fifteenth century custom was for the local shoemaker to present a ball valued at 50 cents to the local draper. The ensuing game was boisterous and dangerous. So much so it was banned in 1539 and footraces were substituted instead. The town of Derby had a similar game fought between two bitter rivals, the men from St Peters and All Saints parishes. Played between two goal posts, which were position at opposite ends of the town, sometimes three miles apart, the game started at mid-day and lasted well into the night. Casualties were anticipated and injuries including fatalities, common events. Such was the commitment to win, the term ‘local derby’ has come to represent fierce local rivalry. Concerns for public safety became so critical that the Derby game was outlawed in 1846. It took the reading of the Riot Act and troops of dragoons and special constables to convince the citizenship the game was at an end. During the nineteenth century similar local traditions were stopped in Kingston on Thames and Dorking. Some contests did survive into the twentieth century like the Chester le Street, dual between the Up-steeters and Down-streeters. This was however stopped in 1932. Shrovetide football is still played in various English towns but these games are held at Easter time. The only surviving urban footie in Scotland occurs in Orkney on New Years Day. The battle between the Uppies and Doonies still rages to this day, at it has to be said has a large list of casualties with very occasionally some seriously injured participants. Shrovetide football represented territorial rivalry often between North and South dwellers, later this came to include trades rivals and this is still very much alive particularly in the local derby clashes here in Perth, Australaia between the Eagles and Dockers. I wish I had a dollar for everytime I heard a Docker say, “As long as we beat the Eagles, then our league position is irrelevant.”
Hole C 1975 English tradional customs London: BT Batsford
Hole C 1975 English tradional customs London: BT Batsford
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Fuck-me Pumps
Right from biblical times sex workers were associated with the shoes they wore. It is documented working girls in ancient Egypt wore sandals which left the message "follow me" in the sand. The daughters of Israel were warned against wearing elevated sandals which caused them to walk in a suggestive manner. Needless to say whilst the elders did not approve many would appear to have enjoyed the charms of those who did. In the sixteenth century many prostitutes wore high platform shoes to stand out in the street. Chopines were very popular with the fashion conscious in Italy but these women rarely if ever were seen in the street, preferring as they did, to be carried everywhere in sedan chairs. Occasionally courtesans (high class call girls) would step out in public but even this was rare. During these times, sex workers were required by law to dress in a manner which would identify their profession and many wore yellow about their person. From the time of the French Revolution to the American Civil War respectable women wore low heeled pumps. Heels became associated with affluence and so men after the revolution soon dropped the style. In New Orleans about the same time it is documented the French prostitutes wearing high heeled boots became very popular with their young American clients. Historians believe the popularity of the high heeled call girls, was the main reason for the introduction of shoe fashion industry to the US. The bad girl image was sealed when in the thirties Hollywood discovered the psycho-sexual nature of shoes as a means to determine screen characterisation. Bad girls wore high heeled pumps on screen and many Hollywood glamour girls like, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe and Shelly Winters were contracted to do the same, whenever in the public eye. Shelly Winters in her biography recounts the origins of the Fuck-me pump. She and Marilyn were considered talent less by the studio with their only attribute being physical. To enhance this the girls wore heel pumps and the tern “fuck me” came not form their come hither appeal but the true exclamation when the footwear was taken off after a long day.
Shot in the Foot
The term "shoot yourself in the foot" means to bring upon yourself an added and unwanted burden. It probably has its origins in the military where soldiers in the Great War self mutilated their feet in order to avoid active duties. If proven many faced a firing squad for cowardice whilst others had a life of incapacitation. To feel "a right goat" refers to the action on an idiot. One might expect if you shot yourself through the foot, you would feel a right goat. This of course is exactly what happened in Tazewell, Tennessee. Sheriff Bruce Seal kept a small 9mm pistol in his trouser pocket but shot himself by mistake when trying to retrieve his car keys. Seems, a stray key became trapped in the trigger and the movement of the sheriff's hand, fired the gun. Fortunately no permanent damage was done to his foot, although he was lucky not to amputate part of it. Reports confirm he was able to continue his lawman duties from his bedside, which is reassuring and hopefully saved him continued embarrassment from the locals. Historically the Irish were not a nation known to use torture but the preferred punishment mooted out by many Irish terrorists was knee capping, i.e. shooting the victim through the knee. Because this was so commonplace the orthopaedic surgeons of Belfast soon perfected new reconstructive techniques which combined with improved rehabilitation meant many victims could walk without a limp. Not to be denied, the agents of terror changed to shotting their victims through the foot. Improvements in surgery have yet to match earlier successes with knees. Long before there were guns a bizarre torture practiced in Medieval France called for the victim to be tied to a bench and their feet bathed in salt water. A goat was brought to the poor unfortunate prisoner and allowed to lick their feet. The rough tongue to the sensitive soles of the feet, plus the fear of being bitten by the goat, soon brought a confession. Hence “feeling the goat“. Just when you thought you had heard everything, in Africa during antiquity obese girls were considered attractive and mothers spent all their waking hours trying to force feed their daughters to make them attractive to would be husbands. One ploy was for mother to deliberately prod the feet of their daughters with wooden sticks. The pain caused the girls to cry out and yes you have guessed it the caring sharing parent stuffed food in their opened mouth. Now whilst this has a funny side to it we must be mindful of those with insensitive feet often associated with diabetes mellitus. This disease describes an upset in the production of insulin from the pancreas gland. Diabetes mellitus (Type II) is a disease commonly associated with aging and it is thought that within the elderly population of the Western World by the end of the century the disease will be endemic. A common complication of the disease is diminished sensation, which render the diabetic food extremely vulnerable. Puncture wounds in the foot are common place Some studies estimate more than half the people who suffer with diminished sensation all have foreign bodies stuck in them. These objects range from small items like needles to children’s toys. Because of the lack of feeling, people do not feel them and are often discovered when the feet are being routinely examined at health check-ups.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
The Circus Ring Master
It is interesting to see a reprise of the old circus. Common place half a century ago but rather rare these days. The first real circus appeared in Australia in 1847. Circuses from the eastern colonies did not regularly make the voyage to Western Australia until the 1890s. The master of ceremonies was traditionally the ringmaster (usually male), and he was the personification of male elegance in his black top hat, hunting pink coat and white cravat. His boots were standard riding boots or top boots made from black leather sometimes patent and always immaculately clean. The ringmaster was the epitome of John Bull or Beau Brummel and the symbolic meaning of the boots was to show the audience just who was in charge. Boots then were officer class and above. Unruffled and powerful the circus master's image contrasted strongly with the chaotic shambling disorder of the clowns. Who were clearly out of control as their clothes make clear. Clown's costumes have evolved over the last century and, in so doing, have paid particular attention to their shoes. In every troop at least one wears elongated flat shoes. Grimaldi, a famous clown in the 19th century, was perhaps one of the first to wear long flats. The shoes forced him to take high steps which were seen by the audience as hilariously, funny. He frequently tied coal scuttles to his shoes to make his progress noisy and even more awkward. Later Little Tich or George Ralph designed long shoes which became his trademark as a clown. Ralph had polydactylism with six toes on each foot. He began his career in 1880 as black faced impersonator doing a big boot dance and long boots soon became signature. They were as long as he was tall and he would dance on his toes without loosing balance. He appeared in the Melbourne Tivoli in the 1920s on a tour of Australia but left the theatre (and presumably Australia) because he thought dropped coins on the stage were thrown in insult. In actual fact they were dropped accidentally. Shoes used in circus acts are highly specialised because of the athletics involved and are made by expert shoe makers. Many other clowns including the Whimsical Walker, Coco the Clown and even Ronald McDonald have used shoes to good effect but the classic clown, of the last century was arguably Charles Chaplin who, as many listeners will remember, ate his boots in the film, The Gold Rush. Younger people associate funny walks with John Cleese and Monty Python and the Ministry of Funny Walks. The idea funny walks, should amuse is interesting in itself. Walking is learned process and is very much a social grace. Styles of walking have changed over the centuries. This is due in no short measure to the types of footwear that were in fashion. For example in the Middle Ages when the long toed shoe was popular men were forced to walk like the clowns. Broad shoes which were popular in Henry VIII's time, had to waddle like ducks. Later when boots became fashionable, the English wore their legging in a funnel shape. Of course when it rained water would pour into the leggings and soak the feet. The bumpkin walked bow legged as a result and surprisingly this became a recognised means of walking for about 100 years. Later when leather replaced armoury, the cavalry wore long boots up past their knees to give protection to the thighs. In order to make the boot sit tight on the legs, they were soaked and allowed to dry on the soldiers leg on horseback. This meant the tight casing caught the knee bent and when the horseman dismounted he walked with his knees bent, causing him to swagger. In the eighteenth century men wore tight high heeled shoes causing them to take small delicate steps which gave a mincing gait, which was all the rage at the time. Many etiquette manuals of the day gave detailed instructions on how best to mince. Needless this eventually caught the attention of the satirists of the time and became the subject of much lampooning. So next time you see the clown and he makes you laugh, remember he is doing no more than ordinary people have been doing for years.
Thespian's Foot
Now if you are like me and get a little bored at the theatre it is well worth keeping alert because all is not quite what it seems on stage. During a performance of Macbeth (The Scottish Play) in London, the great actor Peter O'Toole lost one of his shoes and unbeknown to the audience spent the rest of a scene trying to retrieve it. "Is this a dagger, I see before me? - where the Hell's my shoe." This was nothing compared to what happened to big Sylvester Stallone when he went to a public dinner. The height challenged Adonis wears lifts in his shoes to give him extra height and quietly slipped them off under the table to relax and enjoy the feast. Unfortunately when it came time to leave, a souvenir hunter had stolen Sly's shoes and the poor wee sole had to leave the premises in his stocking feet. When Nicole Kidman and ex husband Tom Cruise were visiting Paris they took their children to a top class store to buy very expensive shoes. The price tag was enormous and to appease his conscience, Tom bought shoes for all the kids in the store. The phenomena of actors setting fashion stems from about 1890 when fans took interest in the shoes worn by the popular actors of the day. They clambered to look like their heroes and subsequently sheepishly followed any fads. Actresses could wear provocative colours, like scarlet, which was the theatrical rage of late Victorian times. Colour of clothing, historically had been controlled by sumptuary laws so purple and scarlet were in the past exclusively for royals. Later when the new screen goddesses took to the colours then the masses followed. Extreme styles such as six inch heels were worn by the French music hall star Mistinguetti. Her shoes were decorated with sumptuous materials and heels bejewelled to vulgar excess. Styles hitherto unacceptable in polite society became a way of life in the new order. Actresses could wear any shoe style and frequently did including styles considered unspeakably fast on other women. Many of the grandes dames wore bright satin shoes which they would remove at dinner to let their current beau drink Champaign from them. Ruby Miller one of the great music hall stars was reputedly the first women to have Champaign drunk from her shoe. Her arch rival, Ada Reeve, let it be known the experience would have been very unpleasant for the drinker. Perhaps it was just as well they were drinking alcohol which is antiseptic and not Coca Cola. (March 12th - Coca-cola was sold in bottles for the first time, 1894. The hobble bottle after the hobble skirt). Mass production and selling to mass markets meant new stores were being established across Europe, North America and Australia, shop assistants were expected to display the store wares as well as sell them. This meant even Plain Jane could look glamorous and encouraged others to follow. Women entering the workforce was viewed by many as a backward step and soon there were reports about the ill effects of wearing fashion shoes(usually high heeled shoes). Most of these claims were fictitious but the common sense connections still remain today. In the beginning of Hollywood all but the top actors had to provide their own clothing for productions. Later when epics became vogue greater attention was paid to historical accuracy. Highly skilled craftsmen were paid to make shoes for the films, this included many influential designers. Shoes became a perk for actors and they would take the shoes to wear, socially. Legs being in vogue meant fans once again saw the shoes and just had to have them. Shoe manufacturers we keen to oblige. In the original version of The Wizard of Oz, author Frank L.Baum, gave Dorothy silver slippers but when the book was made into a film years later Dorothy appeared in ruby slippers. These are still around and feature in a exhibition which tours North America. After Diana Ross appeared in the remake, The Wiz, she was so taken with Dorothy's slippers she had several pairs made for personal use.
References
Platt R 1996 Collins eyewitness guides: cinema NSW Harper Collins
References
Platt R 1996 Collins eyewitness guides: cinema NSW Harper Collins
Friday, July 15, 2005
Lucky
Do you remember when you were a kid all the things you did in order to avoid bad luck? Things like not stepping on a crack in the pavement or if you stubbed your toe, you had to go back over the object and return sucking your thumb while holding the other hand behind your back. All perfectly illogical but none the less typically human. Some of the more bazaar superstitions found in common folklore include keeping salt (or sulphur) in your shoes as a cure for rheumatism. Another was when washing your hands and feet in the morning, always dry your hands first and you will never have rheumatism. Would things be that simple. Something I connect with the summer, particularly in Scotland, and that was the few days of sun we got, millions of people went to the beach. Nothing of course like the wonderful beaches in WA but none the less there they all were catching every UV rays with a vengeance. With my bucket and spade I well recall the words of my mother as she warned us not to step over another's feet when they are lying on the sand, otherwise it was bad luck for both. Usually that meant it would rain. Now you might also be like me and have experienced the stumble in the street. It is interesting to note the first reaction when you trip in public is embarrassment. Anger comes later but the brain's initial reaction is it has lost control and it is not quite sure why? Billy Connolly has a lovely segment when he describes a similar event on an escalator. To accentuate the point he recommends repeating the same stumble pretending it is something you do all the time. Not surprising to the superstitious stubbing your toe or stumbling means wherever you were going your presence was not be wanted. This is small consolation when nipping to the loo in the middle of the night. However it is a good omen if you stumble with your right foot; the left foot being unlucky. How to overcome these supernatural warnings is simple, all you need to do is remember your childhood, when everyone knew, after a stumble to avoid bad luck you keep your fingers crossed until you meet a person who passes without looking at you. Something little boys were very guilty of as I remember was catching the heels of someone walking in front of them. To the superstitious if this involves the toes, then it is very unlucky. Apart from the risk of serious injury the idea of unbalancing someone has the same cerebral effect as stumbling. This type of tripping is frowned upon in the football codes and heavily penalised, for good reason. Back to these nocturnal journeys we all experience, tripping over shoes is bad luck, so always put them carefully away in a safe place. There are many superstitions about where shoes should be kept which we have covered last century but if you are in any doubt, let me know and I will fill you in. Just when you thought it was safe to walk-on, one last foreboding is it is bad luck to walk backwards out of a door. Try telling that to Sir Charles Chaplin who in his heyday often filmed himself walking backwards then running the film in reverse to accentuate the silly walks for which he was so famous.
Down to Earth
The more unusual and novel shoe styles of the last thirty years have come from some pretty interesting inspirations. Anne Kalso was studying Yoga when she noticed stretching her heel below the ball of her foot felt the same as when she was sitting in the Buddha position (lotus) of meditation. Observing barefoot walkers she saw the heel sank lower in the ground than the rest of the foot. Convinced there was something in it Kalso together with a shoe maker started to experiment with shoe design. For ten years she developed and refined her earth shoes until she reached the final form called the negative heel shoe. Convinced of their success she tested her prototypes on walking trips, some five hundred miles and more. The shoes looked a little unusual and had a thicker sole under the ball of the foot with no heel. The inventors reasoning was people in the twentieth century had become too used to walking on hard flat surfaces which she felt was incompatible an inconsistent with a healthy and natural lifestyle. The negative heel shoe stretched the tendo Achilles because heel sat lower than the toes. Despite the inventors claims the shoe was the most comfortable thing on this Earth the footwear proved unpopular and the Earth shoe soon passed into the history books. When Dr. Kathleen Farrell experienced a near death experience she vowed to help others. Being deeply religious she decided to make the presence of her maker felt with every footstep. Farrell put Jesus on Jesus Sandals quite literally and had the message "Jesus Loves You" stencilled onto the sole of her thongs. The novel idea has caught on and now the sandals are sold throughout the world. Dr. Farrell may not have been aware but the call girls of Ancient Egypt used to have 'EM WOLLOF". etched on the soles of their sandals. These left tell tale foot prints with "Follow Me" in the sand which were eagerly taken up by the tired executives of the time in search of rest and recreation.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Superstitions
At sometime in our lives we are all guided by superstition. Whether we avoid walking under a ladder, take extra special care on Friday 13th, or use a lucky coin to play scratchy. All of us a prone to believe our future can be influenced by events and things that probably have no obvious bearing upon it. Belief in superstition gives people the idea that they can, to some degree, predict the future. Good or bad, seeing our destiny is obviously compelling and being able to avoid certain courses of action or conversely, by performing certain rituals seems a fair exchange. Some superstitions may have a certain logic such as the obvious dangers of walking under a ladder with someone working overhead, others are less obvious like avoiding cutting your toenails on a Sunday. To believe in every superstition would be impossible so people tend to put store by the folklore they are familiar with. This is a possible reason why there are so many minor variations on common themes across the world. On the whole feet and shoes are associated with good luck. Old shoes were often hidden in the roofs of Medieval buildings for good luck. It was a common belief old shoes retained the character of their owners. One explanation of this belief is shoes in the Dark Ages were very expensive and it was a common practice to bequeath them to family members. This custom was thought to be where the phrase, "following in your father's footsteps" came from. A gift of shoes from loved ones was considered good fortune. So by extension leaving old shoes in a buildings would also bring good luck. Perhaps not so easily explained was the old Egyptian habit of inhaling the fumes from burning shoes to cure headaches. One explanation might be the shoes (sandals) were made from vegetable materials which contained natural salicylates. The smoke released these to the atmosphere and like aspirin offered an analgesic effect. In prehellenic times people burnt their shoes to scare away evil spirits, perhaps in this case the unpleasant smell have the desired repellent effect. The demon king seemingly does not like human things like smelly feet or bottoms. It was customary in days gone past to ward off evil spirits by either "farting loudly" or "mooning" (showing your bare bottom). The sight of female genitals was also thought to heal the sick or scare away storms and devils. Stone carvings of vaginas date back to 35,000 BC. These were carved in a round stone with three line indentations. Later this took the form of a horseshoe which as everyone known brings good luck when nailed upside down above a door. The symbolism of entering through door, I shall leave to your fertile imagination. It is widely believed people with holes in the soles of their shoes would become wealthy. This refers to following in your father's footsteps. People in the Middle Ages believed it was proper to live within the station of society they were born into and thought it unnatural to move socially upward (or downwards). Holes in your shoes meant hard times now, but good fortune round the corner. .An old Lancashire was "Clogs to clogs in three generations" Meaning no matter how the family may rise from their humble station in life their offspring will be poor again within three generations. In the past travelling carried with it many pearls and to avoid bad Karma or ill omens many people believed in rituals such as before setting out on a journey it was considered good luck to drop an old shoe outside your front door. Throwing shoes at someone who going on a journey was considered very good luck and today throwing confetti at weddings is thought to be a remnant of this custom. Journeys were viewed with great suspicion. If on a journey the path of travellers was crossed by a barefooted women then this was thought to be bad luck and could only be rectified by drawing blood from her forehead. To dissolve the spell meant a return to your abode, cross the threshold with the right foot, eat and drink then set out again. Meeting a barefooted woman on the way to a wedding was a particularly bad omen and likened to meeting a witch. An old greeting to the bride and groom is "a happy foot" and when travelling to the wedding it was customary for the bride to kiss fellow travellers. It was also the done custom for travellers met on the way to a wedding to join the party otherwise to continue of their original journey would bring bad luck to the couple.
The Well Heeled
Madame de Pompadour, (1721-64) was the advisor and paramour of Louis XV and had tiny feet. She wore distinctive heels which were named after her. The heels were high and curved into a small base. the style became very popular among the courtiers. For a short time French courtesans (high class call girls) bound their feet to catch the attention of the king. This corresponded to a time when Europeans were strongly influenced but the styles of China and Japan. The Chinese movement in Europe was eventually replaced by gothic. The foot binding was less severe and practiced by grown women. The foot was made smaller and these women wore tight high heeled shoes. The distinctive walk was considered extremely attractive to the French and Italian men. The origins of modern ballet comes from this period of history. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1741-1762) was the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I. She was a most powerful ruler, and some say a ruthless one too. However in her private quarters she always insisted on being attended by Arab boys dressed in ankle high boots with upturned toes and extravagant ribbon bows. Her successor Catherine .the Great.” was rather well known for entertaining rather bigger boys in her boudoire. Marie Antoinette (1755–93 ) was the Queen of France and married to Louis XVI. Unhappy, the queen surrounded herself with a dissolute clique and threw herself into a life of pleasure and extravagance. She had shoes for all her outfits and her servants would catalogued them to prevent the Queen from wearing the same pair. Since her highness would rarely, if ever, appear outside her palaces, the shoes were delicate works of art with no practical function. In October 1793 she was tried by a revolutionary tribunal and sentenced to death by guillotine. After the trial Marie Antoinette was taken to the "bathroom of the condemned" for the brief interval before her execution. She took time to prepare herself with care, in the spirit. and in the body and wore a white dress with black stockings and fine heeled shoes. It was usual for these condemned to death to wear a mourning dress by Marie Antoinette was an exception. The Prince of Wales (Edward VIII 1936) was a man with style much on his mind he popularised spectator shoes (or two tone shoes). These were popular in the US and were very much associated with the new music popular at the time, Jazz. Edward also broke with convention and wore suede shoes for semi-formal, town wear. Until this time suede shoes were considered the sign of a cad and bounder. Edward played golf and was of often photographed wearing his two tone brogues. These too became very popular and remain so to this day. When King George VI (1895-1952. Ruled 1936-1952). suddenly found he had difficulty in walking up hill, his doctors diagnosed the problem as flat feet. Unfortunately the king's arches may have fallen but the man was suffering from severe intermittent claudication. The blood flow to his arteries was severely hampered due to his excessive smoking. The man poor suffered dreadful pains in his legs and died from lung cancer. The few times Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was ever seen in public not wearing high heels was on a visit to South Africa in 1946. One of her shoe heels broke and the Princess Elizabeth had to gave her walking shoes to complete the trip. Seeming the Queen to be was very dismissive of her mother's behaviour and reported to have remarked 'How typical of mummy...' Princess Diana did break a Royal tradition whereas the Queen has always dressed perfectly, she often did so without care for popular fashion. Her clothes throughout have basically remained modified, fifties fashion. The shoes represent the top of the range and are available in retail chains where they sell in the millions to the middle aged, middle class women in there millions. Diana, rather like the Queen Mother was a dedicated follower of fashion and carried a large, expensive wardrobe of designer clothing. She had shoes for all occasions from low heeled loafers to high heeled shoes in gold and silver. Jimmy Choo made shoes for Princess Diana and on the day of her death her shoe maker had an appointment to deliver hand made shoes. The Princess only wore higher heeled shoes after her divorce from the Prince, for the primary reason she was obliged to wear flat heels so as not to tower over the future king.
Sexualisation of the foot
Seems each time the world has faced an epidemic of sexually transmitted disease there has been an increased sexual focus on the female foot. Historically we know over the previous millennium there have been four distinct episodes. In the thirteenth century crusaders returning from the Holy Land brought back with them a gonorrhoea epidemic; both in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries syphilis epidemics devastated the populations of Europe; and today the ravages of Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome are all too apparent. Researchers published a paper last year in Psychological Reports showing a direct connection between the incidence of sexually transmitted disease and the promotion of foot sex as a deterrent. By comparing the literature corresponding to the outbreaks of STD with other times in history they found the romantic literature included reference to women's feet as objects of beauty. Contemporary troubadours waxed eloquent about the female foot in their poetry, and in the best seller of medieval times, The Romance of the Rose, there are copious and detailed references to the pedal aspect of the female anatomy. The idealised (sexy) female foot was based on the Judo-Christian belief that all physical characteristics were god-like. According to the poetry of the time the ideal stereotype female foot of the thirteenth century was white, narrow with high arches and long straight toes. The Roman foot with a long first toe was preferred and provided there was no webbing or skin flaps between the toes then the feet were perfect. Toe nails should be long with large white moons on pink pale nail beds. By the 1400s, like the thighs, buttocks and breasts the feet had acquired a standardised image. This came at a time when the poulaine was popular among male courtiers and had overt phallic connotations whereas women wore heel less slippers in the image of the Madonna. Churchmen acknowledged the trends and considered them as part of the general degeneracy as the idealised aspect of medieval love disintegrated into the adulterous aspects of high gothic courtly love. By the end of the gonorrhoea epidemic literature reference to the sexy foot was less in evidence. In the sixteenth century with the outbreak of syphilis reappeared another interest in foot fetish. The movement seemed to start in Spain then moved to Italy before engulfing the whole of Europe. Painters specialised in the female foot with toe cleavage an artistic interpretation for seduction. Partially covered feet became the voyeuristic mark of the time and the vogue of courtiers enjoyed by both sexes. In the literature idealised foot of the troubadour was revived, re-eroticised and idolised. The long second toe became popular (i.e. the Greek Foot) and clothed prostitutes paraded before customers unshod. This fetish remained popular until the treatment of mercury provided a primitive cure for syphilis. In the nineteenth century when a second epidemic of syphilis reappeared this seemed to mirror another interest in foot fetish. Brothels began, for the first time, to specialise in foot eroticism on a large scale. Victorian schools of painting included the idealised female foot. In the developing area of photography to avoid sensitivities the female foot was excluded from photographic tintypes. While contemporary portrayals showed men with their boots exposed, women's feet were covered by dresses or lap shawls or were mechanically cropped from the plate. . George du Maurier's "Trilby" became a best selling novel (1894) and spurned the fashion for foot shaped objects from ice creams to sausages. Foot shaped jewellery became the fashion with men's tobacco pouches and hip flasks the rage. Isadora Duncan revolutionised ballet by dancing in her bare feet. Subsequent to the 1980's, with the emergence of HIV and AIDS an amazing interest in the sensual foot has been witnessed in erotophile literature. To quote the Economist ".. a review of the sex industry has identified foot fetishism as a growth area while readership for most mainstream softcore magazines has plummeted." The Internet has over one million entries on the subject.
Reference
Gianni AJ, Colapietro G Slaby A Melemis SM Bowman RK 1998 Sexualization of the female foot as a response to sexually transmitted epidemics: a preliminary study Psychological Reports 83 491-498.
Reference
Gianni AJ, Colapietro G Slaby A Melemis SM Bowman RK 1998 Sexualization of the female foot as a response to sexually transmitted epidemics: a preliminary study Psychological Reports 83 491-498.
Club Feet
Club feet, unlike Disco Feet is not a term to describe what happens to you when you over do it down at the club. Instead it is medical conditon which describes a deformed foot. Today this might be seen as a physical impairment but in antiquity club feet were considered
holy. The Pelasgian kings (Greek Islands) of ancient prehellenic times as well as Welsh kings of Celtic tribes went through real barbaric rigmarole to acquire a holy heel. The ceremony involved an enforced dislocation of their hip which would be pretty painful. No one is sure for what reason ancient royal rulers went to so such extremes to have an equinus or horse like foot. People with club feet are forced to walk on the ball of their foot, with the heel seldom if ever making ground contact. One reason may have been this peculiar style of walking was historically considered regal and god like. A common belief in ancient Greece was sacred kings succeeded by tripping their rivals to the thrown. The penalty for this deed was never again to place their heel on the ground. Ancient mythology abounds with heroes with sacred feet or heels (Achilles, Diarmait, Harpocrates and Mopsus to name but a few). The infant Achilles, greatest of the Greek heros, was held by the heel and dipped into the river Styx by his mother Thetis. This made him invulnerable but with one fatal flaw, his heel. In the Bible, Jacob, while in the womb, was reported to have tripped his twin Esau by catching his heel. Jacob were destined to become King. In Genesis I: 24-26 , Jacob wrestles an Angel and has his own hip dislocated with a subsequent equinus deformity of his foot. There are several translations of Jacob but a popular one is Heel-God. Dancing with a limp is referred to in Kings I and most theologians now consider this is a reference to Jacob (the lame king or Lord of the Dance). Today club feet is considered a birth deformity and feet present with the front part turned inwards and pointing to the ground, the heel sits higher than the ball and the foot resembles a horse hoof or equinus deformity. Varus means the forefoot is turned inwards. It occurs in 1:1000 live births and is more common in boys and can effect one or both feet. Thought to be familial but not in all cases. Today baby’s born with club feet (talipes equino-varus) will have the deformities corrected early and usually by manipulation. Throughout modern history people with club feet have been considered talented with Abraham Lincoln, Lord Byron and Charles Dickens to name but three. Actor, Eric Richard who played Sgt Bob Cryer in The Bill was born with club feet, and so to was Troy Aikman from the NFL Dallas Cowboys. The very talented Dudley Moore was also a club foot person. The foot has also been used as a symbol of speed, vitality and success and in the ancient cultures was inscribed as such on coins, amulets and tablets. The Greek word for foot and female genitalia come from the same phonemic pattern and words like foot, sandal, earth, and shackle have identical etymological origins. Even today our feet have strong symbolic meaning which in language take us from the cradle to the grave. These feelings reflect our unconscious beliefs and fantasies from language, culture and mythology. As recent as last week there was reported in the media concern relating to the suggestiveness of an advert for shoes. At the beginning of the last century Freud recognised his patients references to feet and foot symptomatology revealed rich and significant psychological data. He wrote three essays on the theory of sexuality (1905) and noted the foot served as a sexual symbol (phallic) whilst later he referred to shoes and slippers as female genitalia (1910). Freud was interested in exploring early life traumas and what he referred to as the castration threat. He believed males were psychologically challenged when they saw a women with no penis. For some the foot became a substitute for the invisible penis and because this made the women complete some men were left attracted to the foot or shoe i.e. the sight of a women wearing uncomfortable footwear become sexually exhilarating. Freud also described the smelly foot as the object of sexual interest. Modern research has shown the presence of pheromones in human sweat and the existence of a small sensitive organ, up your nose, called the vomeronasal organ (VNO). This sensitive organ helps pick out scents which allow us to become attracted sexually to our partners.
holy. The Pelasgian kings (Greek Islands) of ancient prehellenic times as well as Welsh kings of Celtic tribes went through real barbaric rigmarole to acquire a holy heel. The ceremony involved an enforced dislocation of their hip which would be pretty painful. No one is sure for what reason ancient royal rulers went to so such extremes to have an equinus or horse like foot. People with club feet are forced to walk on the ball of their foot, with the heel seldom if ever making ground contact. One reason may have been this peculiar style of walking was historically considered regal and god like. A common belief in ancient Greece was sacred kings succeeded by tripping their rivals to the thrown. The penalty for this deed was never again to place their heel on the ground. Ancient mythology abounds with heroes with sacred feet or heels (Achilles, Diarmait, Harpocrates and Mopsus to name but a few). The infant Achilles, greatest of the Greek heros, was held by the heel and dipped into the river Styx by his mother Thetis. This made him invulnerable but with one fatal flaw, his heel. In the Bible, Jacob, while in the womb, was reported to have tripped his twin Esau by catching his heel. Jacob were destined to become King. In Genesis I: 24-26 , Jacob wrestles an Angel and has his own hip dislocated with a subsequent equinus deformity of his foot. There are several translations of Jacob but a popular one is Heel-God. Dancing with a limp is referred to in Kings I and most theologians now consider this is a reference to Jacob (the lame king or Lord of the Dance). Today club feet is considered a birth deformity and feet present with the front part turned inwards and pointing to the ground, the heel sits higher than the ball and the foot resembles a horse hoof or equinus deformity. Varus means the forefoot is turned inwards. It occurs in 1:1000 live births and is more common in boys and can effect one or both feet. Thought to be familial but not in all cases. Today baby’s born with club feet (talipes equino-varus) will have the deformities corrected early and usually by manipulation. Throughout modern history people with club feet have been considered talented with Abraham Lincoln, Lord Byron and Charles Dickens to name but three. Actor, Eric Richard who played Sgt Bob Cryer in The Bill was born with club feet, and so to was Troy Aikman from the NFL Dallas Cowboys. The very talented Dudley Moore was also a club foot person. The foot has also been used as a symbol of speed, vitality and success and in the ancient cultures was inscribed as such on coins, amulets and tablets. The Greek word for foot and female genitalia come from the same phonemic pattern and words like foot, sandal, earth, and shackle have identical etymological origins. Even today our feet have strong symbolic meaning which in language take us from the cradle to the grave. These feelings reflect our unconscious beliefs and fantasies from language, culture and mythology. As recent as last week there was reported in the media concern relating to the suggestiveness of an advert for shoes. At the beginning of the last century Freud recognised his patients references to feet and foot symptomatology revealed rich and significant psychological data. He wrote three essays on the theory of sexuality (1905) and noted the foot served as a sexual symbol (phallic) whilst later he referred to shoes and slippers as female genitalia (1910). Freud was interested in exploring early life traumas and what he referred to as the castration threat. He believed males were psychologically challenged when they saw a women with no penis. For some the foot became a substitute for the invisible penis and because this made the women complete some men were left attracted to the foot or shoe i.e. the sight of a women wearing uncomfortable footwear become sexually exhilarating. Freud also described the smelly foot as the object of sexual interest. Modern research has shown the presence of pheromones in human sweat and the existence of a small sensitive organ, up your nose, called the vomeronasal organ (VNO). This sensitive organ helps pick out scents which allow us to become attracted sexually to our partners.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Feet and Anti-semitism
A basic assumption we all make is the arch of the foot is so important for proper functioning that its absence, as in flat feet, would have serious and pathological consequences. For the vast majority of people this would seem unfounded and hence the whole idea quite without foundation. To understand why we continue to believe these myths about our body has much to do with western society's belief in mediatisation. i.e. the complete commitment that doctor knows best. Not I am suggesting physicians have alternative motives to caring and sharing but history would certainly caution, even the most devout believer, that not all was what it appeared. Flat feet are a good example. Our pre-occupation with shape is not a new and has its origins in early Christian times. The belief, people were made in the image of God gave substance to the existence of an idealised human form. Research has shown human beings prefer curved shapes to straight lines and the statues and paintings of antiquity give excellent examples of this. Needless to say flat footedness was viewed with considerable suspicion and references abound in ancient superstition. The basis for modern western medicine is there are two states i.e. normal (or healthy) and abnormal (or diseased). This logic is consistent with the fundamental Judo-Christian belief i.e. the universe is in constant balance between good and evil. In the past disease was often described as demonic possession which could be relieved only by exorcism. As was the custom, the presence of the devil was always accompanied with external signs to help good Christian people recognise evil. The absence of a longitudinal arch of the foot was considered the mark of the devil. Superstitious people in the Middle Ages feared a hidden foot (under the cover of a shoe) because it could mask flat feet. This may explain why shoe makers in fairytale literature were often depicted as elfin and Puckarian. The logic being the shoe maker was in some way implicated in providing a cover for the evil foot. From the Renaissance onwards there was a greater emphasis and value on medical physicians as the influence of the church became less obvious in the care of the sick. Western medicine with its pseudo scientific focus was principally responsible for the quantum shift from devil to disease. The concept of arch perfection was further established during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the theorem some races were inherently weaker than others and therefore more likely to suffer/ and or carry disease. Contemporary ethnologists described the flat feet of aboriginal peoples as atrovistic signs, or a throwback to early stages of development. In a culture where differentiation ruled, any perceived difference was taken as important and hence the shape of feet became a criteria to classify race. Anti-Semitism in Europe has sadly a long and atrocious history. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries much of the rhetoric of religious anti-Judaism shifted to the rhetoric of the pseudo-science of anti-Semitism. A popular belief among the medical community was Jewish people had inherently different anatomical structures from Christians. In eighteenth century Europe, weak feet were identified as the common link in Jewish people and this was cited as the reason why so many men could not serve their country in the armed forces. To be classed with weak feet then was synonymous with being branded as congenitally incapable and unworthy of being completely integrated into the social fabric of the modern state. Flat feet became a social stigma. This might explain why men even today have a deep rooted aversion to admitting to suffering from foot problems. By the end of the nineteenth century the attitude was so ingrained within the medical scientific community, acceptance of the "Jewish body" was synonymous with diseased states. Diabetes mellitus became so closely associated with Jewish communities that it was condescendingly referred to as the "Jewish Disease." By the twentieth century and the establishment of orthopaedics, the flatfoot once again became a criteria to grade men, only this time for military service. Sadly many millions went to war because they happened to have the conceptualised, ideal, Christian foot. Others were excused on the basis of their flat feet. We now know foot shape is no justification criteria in itself and must accept selection was based on the mistaken belief flat feet were seriously inappropriate. We must also accept this concept was based on both recent and distant historic events. Today, we talk about the pronated foot and like our forebears we do not understand it but we continue to condemn it for what seems no other reason than, it does not comply in shape and behaviour to the idealised foot.
References
Gilman SL 1990 The Jewish body: a "footnote" Bull Hist Med 64:4 588-602
References
Gilman SL 1990 The Jewish body: a "footnote" Bull Hist Med 64:4 588-602
Big Foot
Haji Mohammad Alam Channa was once named the world's tallest man in the Guinness Book of Records. Sadly the 2.32m giant died recently, aged 42 and his place was taken by North Korean Ri Myiong-hun, a mere 7 feet 8.5 inches. If you are a women with larger than average feet, chances are, you have experienced shoe stress. With fewer shopping options, the shelves designated for outsized footwear are not exactly brimming with pedic treats. Small consolation but you may share the pied gross image with film stars like Melanie Griffith, Elizabeth Taylor and even Big Foot herself, Greta Garbo. All these fashionista however have the wherewithal to employ their personal shoemakers to overtake the challenge. Many women less affluent are faced with the ultimate humiliation of wearing men's shoes, just because there are no alternatives. No problem you might think whilst unisex styles are fashionable but why should women with big feet be singled out at all. Although there are specialist who supply shoes for the larger foot these are more expensive and often have a narrower range of fashionable options. Women with small feet at least seem to have the consolation of children’s shoes which, from a fashion perspective, are difficult to tell from adult styles. Most stores refuse to carry stocks of larger sizes even when they are available from the manufacturer in fear they will not be able to sell them within the season. With only an estimated 5% of women wearing size ten or above it does not make good economic sense to cater for this minority say the shopping mall retailers. Recent studies have shown there is a shift within population and because we eat a more well balanced diet both men and women are getting taller and their feet are getting bigger. Calls to the shoe industry to wake up and meet the demands of these physical changes are falling on deaf ears. Another complication which besets the pedic innocent is when people have odd sized feet. Body asymmetry is a common occurrence but usually the differences are so small as to make no difference when buying clothes and footwear. However for some this can be very irritating with many having considerable size difference from one foot to another. Not quite so bad a few years ago when the broad toed shoe for ladies was back in fashion. Mary Jane's or broad toes shoes had not enjoyed a vogue since the 1960's when they replaced the long toed shoe or winklepicker. For the price of one pound the ladies of Perth could have their sharp toed shoes, guillotined by shoe makers to turn them into the new chisel-toe fashion. The only other time in history when broad toed shoes were fashionable was in the sixteenth century Europe. By implication fashions which display excess occur at times in history when there is affluence and economic growth. No surprise then to find we are all wearing sharper shoes.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Green and Gold old timers
DVs & KT-26s sounds more like jargonise from computer geeks than two traditional Australian icons, but that’s what they are. And probably, as Michaels Caine is famed as saying, “not a lot of people know that.” The Dunlop Volley started life as a tennis shoe, by now it has become an Australian icon every bit the match of ugg boots and the humble thongs. The secret of the DV is their soft sole, which gives excellent grip on all surfaces, even greasy rocks. If you do not believe me take a look at your friendly roof tiler, DVs are popular with the roof walkers. DVs are also preferred and recommended by many walking clubs in the Blue Mountains. Canyon walking presents many challenges to the foot and DVs appear to match 4 wheel drive footwear types. The soles give excellent traction provided the pattern on the sole lasts. New shoes are recommended. The edges of DVs grip well on slopes if used correctly, and cause less damage underfoot compared to heavier boots. DVs, to the uninitiated. are lightweight canvas topped sports shoes, comparatively cheap as these things go, retailing under 30 dollars. The soles have been improved over the years and give sure grip but DVs do wear quickly. So be prepared to buy two pairs a year. This compares favourably with brand leader equivalents sometimes 4 or 5 times more costly. The Dunlop KT-26s is an up-market version of the tennis shoe. Stronger then DVs, the upper is made from leather with reinforced heel cups which provides much needed padding, and stronger carbon rubber soles give better cushioning with a tread traction superior on dry surfaces but not so good on very wet rocks and logs. KT-26s are ideal for general walking with the cheaper DVs more indicated in the conditions of canyon walking. As with all sports shoes these are rarely available in half sizes and it is very important to have shoes that fit and feel comfortable. From their inception in the late 30s Dunlop sport shoes represented the thinking sportsperson’s footwear and had no equal. For two decades between the 50s to the 70s, they became synonymous with Australian sport. A household name during the nation's sporting 'Golden Era', post war they became associated with many of the sporting legends of the time Adrian Quist, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Tony Roche, John Newcombe, Evonne Goolagong, Margaret Court, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman and more lately Mark Philippoussis. In the days before hard courts the Dunlop Volley was perfect for grass court competition. Devised by Quist these were an excellent example of matching sport with shoe design. By the eighties however the fad for fashion trainers, with airbags and springs, heavily endorsed by sporting personalities, saw a meteoric rise in multinationals such as Nike and Reebok. The popularity of Sneakerisation remained until the turn of the century. Despite this, the old Australian icon has kept going by its loyal band of fans to become an evergreen and far outselling any of its trendy rivals. Cream rises top the top and in the 21st century, the humble Dunlop has had a complete turn around as retro fashion enjoys resurgence among the youth market. Their popularity is due in no short measure due to sk8’s, thrashers need tough, lightweight footwear with excellent grip and protection. And that is precisely the quality mark of the Dunlop Volley and K26. The post grunge and neauveaux punk generation of urban dwellers well suits the Dunlop. In the 70s, rather than follow the fashion fads of their rivals invested in technology making models like KT26 (1976) which were tough, hardwearing, excellent quality and good value. They were without doubt not only the best running shoes of their time but crossed over in other outdoor leisure activities such as trekking as well as teenage fashion. Not high fashion, but a right of passage, the first pair of trainers, kids were bought. With cantilever soles made of black rubber these were guaranteed to leave marks on any school gymnasium. A fabulous source of frustration to authority and the “Kilroy was here attitude” appealed to the adolescent. Shoes with literally indestructible soles, and uppers that attracted teenagers meant these were good valued purchases for parents too. Now the same properties, minus bells and whistles are needed for extreme sport and this has introduced them to a new legion of fans. Ironically the new surfies rejected the hi tech outlets preferred by the major sports shoe retailers in preference for niche surfie shops or discount outlets. Now of course there is a major industry supported by global consumers. Despite Australians buying more designer trainers than any other western country sale have shown negligible growth over the last four years. Dunlop now has a 14% market share in dollar terms and in volume terms the brand is the clear market leader. Dunlop Volley is the top-selling athletic shoe (sold over 24 million pairs since 1939), and the number-two brand is Dunlop, KT26. But if you have not laid eyes on Dunlop’s since your youth, don’t be surprised to find the green-and-gold has been replaced with a red-and-black design. Bure be assured the new Volley shoes are made to the same design used in the 1950s but made from out of these world materials (synthetic polymers).
References
The Sports Factor ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/sportsf/stories/s746615.htm
References
The Sports Factor ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/sportsf/stories/s746615.htm
Cowboy Boots
The origins of the Cowboy Boot are well researched and started life as riding boots for the marauding Mongol tribesmen. Horsemen wore red wooden heels and conquered all before them. The fashion caught on and was popular for centuries among nobility and horse riders. English Cavaliers took the style to extraordinary lengths wearing thigh high riding boots with Cuban heels. Once defeated by Cromwell, the Cavalier Stuarts immigrated in their droves to the New World. They took with them their boots and many settled in the south forming the southern plantation class. After the civil war many southerners migrated west to Texas taking with them their noble footwear. Standard cavalry issue during the American Civil War was the Wellington boot. In 1815 Arthur Wellsley, First Duke of Wellington, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. The popular victor became a national icon and both men and women emulated his sartorial style of footwear. The modern Wellington had a low cut heel which was calf high and not thigh high. This made them easier to mass produce. Unfortunately during the American Civil War unscrupulous contractors supplied below par footwear and many of the cavalry boots were mass produced using reinforced cardboard. Climatic conditions took their tool and horse soldiers suffered deep cuts to their feet. A Chiropodist General to the US cavalry was appointed at this time. Our lexicon was enriched with the word shoddy meaning manufacturers willing to compromise for profit. Right and left boots were introduced and they were most unpopular. As a result shoe manufacturers decided not to introduce right and left shoes to the masses for another half century. At the end of the war the federal government had half a million pairs of boots surplus to requirements. Systematically during the following years troops stationed on the frontier were supplied with the shoddy boots. Shoe historians believe the foundation of the cowboy boot trade in the frontier was based on the simple necessity for civilian bookmakers to replace defective military footwear. By the 1880's the cowboy boot was beginning to emerge as a distinctive style. Starting life as a dress Wellington or full Wellington, the fashion merged with the hard wearing lace up boot (or packer), worn by drovers. Later the three piece military boot was incorporated and worn by Hollywood's Cowboys. Tejas (or Napoleon style boots) with their peacock flair and ostentatious inlays were worn by megastars Tex Ritter and Tom Mix and became incredibly popular during the 30's and 40's. Somewhat surprisingly today’s cowboy boots are really fantasy footwear fabricated by Hollywood but the history of their development mirrors the history of boot manufacture from Genghis Khan to modern man.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Shoe Metaphors
As early hominids took to bipedal walking two million years before they developed the brain we now accept as out own, it gave them plenty time to think on their feet. A residual aspect of our primitive existence is the inclusion of reference to the foot and shoes into our common language. So the spectrum of life is subconsciously caught from the ‘patter of tiny feet’, heralding the beginning of life to the inevitable, ‘popping your clogs’ and ending up in ‘Boothill’, in our lexicon. All languages contain more metaphoric reference to the lower limb than any other part of the human body, including the naughty wobbly bits. The foot still fascinates the bipedal primate, no matter how sophisticated and superior the species becomes, we need to concede the sage words of Bernard Breslaw “You need feet”. Life is to do with getting from A to B and from beginning to the end that depends on feet. Lets start at the very beginning when we ‘take out first step’, sure footedness is something we learn and getting there can cause our parents some concerns but once we have our foot on the first rung of life’s ladder there is no stopping us. Of course there are rules and we need to be good foot soldiers. The quicker we learn to control the Id (ego), then the more likely we become productive members of the tribe. To integrate we need to do the leg work and must be mindful not to lose our footing on the way. Trying to keep our foot out of our mouths can be a challenge at times, especially when young and impetuous, but through length of days and treading the hard road, comes understanding and the ability to listen more than talk. No one can do more harm to ourselves in life than, ourselves especially when we put our foot in it and trip over our own feet. Pick your steps wisely, is good advice. Some succeed by standing on others’ toes, but a good footnote is to remember the people you step on, on the way up the ladder, will be waiting to trip you up when you inevitably come tumbling back down. A good idea is to foot the bill and take the responsibility for your own mistakes. In life’s journey when you recognise others are taking advantage of your good nature you need to learn to say no, and put your foot down. Laying our troubles at the feet of others is the tactic of a heel. The primary function of the species is to leave our footprints in the sands of time. Hence the circle of life continues as our offspring follow in our footsteps. But let us not forget the pathway of life may not always be rosy and trouble free and hence the need to get footloose once in a while.
Women on top
The pointed shoe recently enjoyed the height of women’s fashion and did not come without controversy. The foot police were quick are vocal with condemnation and forecasts of foot doom and deformity to all who wore them. Problem was, there is no evidence to support their claims. Certainly discomfort may result when anyone wears tighter clothing that is comfortable. Hazards do also await the foot challenged who squeeze their feet into a triangular shaped shoes smaller than their feet, but as a shoe design, pointed shoes do not present real harm to feet. Provided feet and shoes are physically compatible and worn for short periods then no real harm can come to the wearer. So why do pointed shoes come in for such criticism? I study the foot in health as well as disease and have become fascinated with the psycho-social aspects of shoe design. There are only seven basic shoe types and fashion is made from the innumerable combinations of these styles. The origins of pointed shoes are quite simple to locate and these were worn in biblical times. Historians believe the style had more to do with poor shoemaking than style per se but people who wore peaked sandals were considered ‘free spirited’. The fashion for long toed shoes became an obsession for men in the middle Ages and lasted 500 years. Over half a millennium, the size of the shoes got longer and longer until they were 24 inches longer than the foot. Poulaines or beaks were thought to be used as sex toys in courtly love and have been associated with promiscuity ever since. As a style it did not reappear until 1960s with the sexual revolution. The style along with the stiletto loved by youth met with warnings of foreboding from the establishment. Now there is no evidence to show the sixties generation have more deformed feet today because of their fleeting association with pointed shoes. So why all the fuss? The mediatisation of the feet is probably a metaphor and represents a moral backlash against promiscuity. Pointed shoe styles and high heels have become stereotypically associated with Jezebels, and appear to many misogynists as sartorial pornography. What made this all the more real was the recent pointed shoe fashion was a female phenomenon, whereas in the sixties, it affected both genders. Now power dressing for women has arrived.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Foot Flirtations
In the early 90s, Dianne Brill was a model, actress and fashion designer. Dianne was voted the most desirable body of the decade and her body image was taken by Adel Rootstein and used for her shop window mannequins. In her book Boobs, boys and high heels she includes a section on Foot Flirtations, which I thought, might intrigue our listener. Playing footsie has been known since the Middle Ages but perhaps never described in such detail as Dianne does in her book. According to this fashion dogne, there are six ways you can play footsie. The first starts with a toe nudge followed by delicate investigation up under the trouser hem. She suggests you follow this by resting your foot against your partner, alternating between removing the pressure then pushing again. To be effective this should be done in a spontaneous manner so the pathetic individual in unsure if the contact is intentional or utterly innocent. Another way to torment men is by sitting at a distance then continue to cross and uncross the legs. Done slowly and sensuously, the sound of the legs gliding languorously over each other is reported to be hypnotic. When sitting facing a partner, the Cross-Action B method comes into play. Here the lady wraps her right leg over his left leg so it rests between his legs. The temptress then swings her calf before finally pointing the toes at which point the poor partner is left as if putty in her hands. Foot flirtations continue with the Seductive Adjustment A move which is still in the same position as Cross Action B but this time the lady leans forward to adjust the base of her shoe. Leaving her fingers to linger on the feet she actively engages her partner in eye contact. This move is guaranteed to make the coldest victim's heart melt. A variation on this theme is when the lady stands leaning forwards over her hips. With one leg bend at the knee, she toys playfully with her shoe strap or stocking. Coming up to full height the head is tossed haughtily as her hips swivel forward and she wears that smile. No mortal can resist the temptation. The Devilish Dangle is the last position to be described. Here the lady sits cross-legged with one shoe allowed to slip off revealing the tender underside of the foot. Slight movement of the legs allows the shoe to dangle from the toes in a tantalisingly manner. The author does suggest you practice this at home until perfected otherwise if the shoe plops loudly to the floor then the magic, seductive spell is broken. All of these moves require tremendous muscle action and am sure could be gainfully used in the prevention of economy class syndrome not to mention making flying experience even more exciting.
Reference
Brill D 1999 Boobs, boys and high heels 1993 London: Vermillion
Reference
Brill D 1999 Boobs, boys and high heels 1993 London: Vermillion
Trench Foot
When English yachtsman Tony Bullimore was medically examined after being pulled from the cold waters of the Southern Ocean a few years back it was discovered he was suffering Trench Foot. Trench Foot is the result of prolonged exposure of the extremities to cold (non freezing) conditions. Prolonged exposure results in both vascular and nerve injury. Depending on the severity symptoms range form a feeling of coldness and paraesthesia (pins and needles). During the hyperaemic stage the extremity becomes hot and swollen often with bleeding under the skin. This may be complicated with lymphangitis, cellulitis and thrombophlebitis. The late vasospastic stage is very painful with excessive sweating and paresthesia. These symptoms may last for years. This condition was first discovered during World War I when soldier’s legs and feet were immersed in cold muddy waters for weeks on end. Their ligaments gave way and the feet collapsed. Solders were literally unable to move. A morbid and sordid fact of war, but often the boots of the dead were removed in order to continue combat. In the Falklands War there was a reoccurrence of Trench Foot because the boots of the British Forces' were unsuitable for the weather conditions. Some military experts have postulated had the Argentineans been prepared to prolong hostilities they would have won because of casualties to Trench Foot. A similar condition known as Immersion foot gives similar symptoms but is associated with prolonged exposure to warm and wet conditions. This was common in Vietnam, were fighting in the jungle swamp necessitated combatants remained in warm moist conditions for long periods of time. Tony Bullimore was also suffering from frostbite. This describes tissue necrosis (death to the tissue) and is caused by exposure to subfreezing temperatures. Depending on the degree of frostbite determines symptoms. Fourth degree frostbite usually results in autoamputation.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Size matters
Men with big feet do not necessarily have a large manhood, a study suggests. Researchers at University College London say there is no evidence linking a man's shoe size to the length of his penis. After measuring the vital parts of more than 100 men, they concluded that the theory has no scientific basis. It has long been suggested that various parts of a man's body - his nose, hands or feet - could indicate penis size. But Dr Jyoti Shah and colleagues at UCL and St Mary's Hospital London say their findings dispel the theory around feet, at least. The ability to predict the size of a man's penis by observing his shoe size is a common misconception. They examined 104 men attending a London urology clinic. They included teenagers and pensioners and the average age was 54. The researchers measured the men's penises when soft and gently stretched. Writing in the British Journal of Urology International, they said: "All lengths were measured by two urologists and recorded to the nearest 0.5cm. The age and shoe size was documented." While the true size of the penis can only be determined when erect, the researchers said that their method provided a good indication of length. The researchers found that the average penis was 13cm when soft and gently stretched. This figure ranged from 6cm at the lower end of the scale to 18cm at the higher end. The men had an average British shoe size of 9 or 43 in European measurements. However, they found no correlation between shoe size and penis length. The researchers said: "Many believe that the size of a man's penis can be estimated by assessing various other parts of his body, notoriously his shoe size." But they added: ""The ability to predict the size of a man's penis by observing his shoe size is a common misconception. On the heels of a previous report that debunked the notion that a man's shoe size could be used to estimate the length of his penis, a new study now claims that those with inquiring minds need merely take a gander at a man's forefinger. According to Greek scientists, the length of a man's index finger can accurately predict the length of his penis. In the study researchers measured penile length and testicular volume in 52 healthy young males between the ages of 19 and 38 and compared them with other body measurements including height, weight, body mass index, and index finger length and waist/hip ratio. Age and (body measurements) were not associated with the size of the genitalia, excluding the index finger length, which correlated significantly with the dimensions of the flaccid, maximally stretched, penis. While we are on strange but true foot or shoe size could be a reliable indicator of how long we will live. Two consecutive studies in 1997 and 1999, were conducted by a team of orthopedic surgeons, in Umea, Sweden. When the researchers found a strong correlation between foot size and life span they were so incredulous they conducted a follow-up study with even a larger group. The findings confirmed those of the original study. While the foot/shoe sizes found no direct correlation with any particular diseases or causes of death, the link to life span was consistent and definite. Shoe width played no role in the findings. Persons with half sizes fell generally in the longevity ranges predicted for the next larger sizes. Interestingly, the longer life spans belong to men and women in the middle size ranges-sizes 6 and 7 for women, 10 to 12 for men.
Chevs and Yugg
Something had to replace the ugg in the fashion world of the high fashionista. Australian Uggs definitely established boots 21st century style across the globe and like thongs, were effortlessly removed so the fast set traveller could skip swiftly through security checks and still express the beauty of their feet and leg equally as well. Uggs will remain good sellers although not enjoy the zenith a vogue dictates. Now it appears the new queen of the feet for this season anyway are Mukluk boots. Origins, Aboriginal North American Eskimo, the sealskin boots are soft with the fur on the outside, including pom poms. There is no doubt the power of endorsement is influential in marketing and one of the champions of the mukluk, among many, is UK beauty, Coleen MacLoughin. Now before you rush to look up your Who’s who of celebrities, you are unlikely to find her name along with Naomi Campbell or Elle McPherson. Well not yet anyway for Coleen, is a new breed of celebrity in the UK. She is a Footballer’s wife, (well fiancées to be more accurate). Her fiancé is Manchester Unity’s enfant terrible, Wayne Rooney. The tabloid press has latched on to their oft-troubled relationship and in particular the 19 year old Coleen especially now that Vogue magazine’s editor had decided to turn McLoughlin into a fashion icon. According to fashion cynics, Coleen’s McLoughlin is to style what a bicycle repair kit is to a Formula One car. She has been described as a shopaholic whose undiscerning accumulation of expensive clothes has earned her the term "looting chic". With typical random attire of a Dolce & Gabbana puffa jacket, tight Juicy Couture jeans and Mukluk boots, once perceived as a ghastly combination, is now being copied on the street. And the fashion industry has followed closely behind her because the whole luxury market is now about accumulating possessions and putting them together without any subtlety. When comes to absence of subtlety, Ms Coleen McLoughlin is a master and has a caused a furore (maybe it should be fur oray) with her comments regarding her Mukluk boots which are made from rabbit skins. The fashion doyen was quoted as saying"Why waste the (rabbit) skins after all they are killed for food," which has cause a backlash from the animal right lobby. Apparently seven rabbits need to die to make the skins for a pair of faux Mukluks. Most of the fashion boots are made in China, which is the biggest exporter of fur clothing and the largest fur trade production and processing base in the world. Sadly the absence of restrictive welfare regulations and abundance of cheap labour mean animal and human rights are not a priority in the pursuit of profit. Animal activists are convinced tens of thousands of animals are being held in conditions of terrible suffering and die in a horrendous way. According to figures from the British Fur Trade Association selling furs in the UK brings in more than A$230 billion and an increasing proportion of that is made up of rabbit. The fad for Mukluk indicate fur is now back in fashion, but on this one I would ask you to vote with your feet. The British press has recently given the name ‘Chav’ to people classified, in their mind, as ignorant, mindless violent and with very bad dress sense. The term Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century but modern connotation has it as an acronym for "Council House and Violent" or "Chelsford Average". I am amazed how influenced newspapers still are in moulding the English lexicon. The typical female chav has a love of flashy gold jewellery (hooped earrings, thick neck chains, sovereign rings and heavy bangles, which all may be lumped together under the term bling-bling); the wearing of white trainers (in what is called "prison white", so clean that they look new); clothes in fashionable brands with very prominent logos; and baseball caps, frequently in Burberry check, a favourite style. Hair also comes into the stereotype and a ‘council house facelift’ a euphemism for dyed hair tied back in an ultra-tight bun. The older Chev wears skirts too short for their mottled blue thighs, and exposes too much of their distressingly flabby midriffs". The UK is still class ridden and the middle class press, keen to identify an underclass in their reporting style.
And did these feet....!
A recent discovery has set the archeological world on its feet because they have just unearthed an Iron Age shoe in Wales which is thought to predate previous finds of Roman sandals. The shoe is a rectangular bag of leather but has vertical stitching at the heel and six pairs of lace holes in the vamp so it is definitely a shoe. Usually animal and vegetable materials perish in the ground but due to unusual conditions the artifact was preserved in pristine condition thanks to the clay which surrounded it. The shoe has been dated to between 700BC and 43AD. Whereas the first Roman Invasion of Britain was in 55 BC. Footwear from this period is extremely rare although a handful of relics have been found in other European countries. The shoe had no partner and experts believe it may have been left as a lucky charm, a common practice in the middle ages. Excavations of a Romano-Celtic temple complex at Tabard Square in Southwark, London recently unearthed a bronzed foot, which is by itself a rare find. However worse to come and the pedal extremity had the fashion audacity of wearing socks and sandals. Oh how uncouth. It has long been thought the humble sock was around 2000 years ago and no reason why it would not be worn but this is the first actual physical evidence to confirm it. The weather in Britain at that time was terrible. (What’s new?) and Tacitus recorded this at the time. Archeologists are still undecided but believe the foot may have belonged to a statue of the god Mars Camulos who was worshipped in northern France and Britain. Inscriptions of the god's name have been found elsewhere on the temple site. Alternatively the foot may be from a statue of an emperor. Since statues were never made of the plebs it may just have been an isolated case of bad taste. Leg coverings have been discovered in bog bodies and bodies trapped in glaciers, which predate the current, find. So people I colder climates would most certainly cover their feet for protection. It would take until knitting was discovered before actual socks, as we would understand them to appear costume accessories. There was an earlier find in York, England, which included a cache of Roman Sandals, many of which had been worn. Surprisingly from scientific analysis of the examples, which spanned children to adult sizes, they found the same wear marks as would be seen in modern shoes. The long and short of it would be in two millennium the anatomy of human feet have not changed despite the influence of footwear. However something we may all be grateful to the Roman’s was the reason they were able to conquer lands so far from the Mediterranean, certainly by land, was because they militarized the humble sandal. By using metal tacks to join the sole of the shoe to the upper they strengthened the footgear and were able to march further than any previous civilization. As the empire expanded into other climates the cleaver Romans incorporated the shoe making of the regions into their own. Supply lines became too convoluted to have supplies from the homeland and hence the Romans introduced sandal making to the Barbarians and took the waterproofed shoes from the French back to Rome or Gauls to golashes.
Something sexy, up your nose!
It is well recognised that smells can be a strong form of arousal and medical terms like Osmolagnia, Osphresiolagnia, & Ozolagnia all describe forms of this strange phenonmena. To the foot lover the smell of the foot is associated with the smell of the naughty bits. Restifists, shoe fetishists, prefer the smell of shoes. In each case the smell adds allure and sexual excitement no one is sure why this is and for most foot lover it has much to do with behavioural conditioning often due to early experiences. Toddlers view the world from a near carpet existence and may discriminate gender by shoes or feet. As our love map is developed some irregularities may arise and inanimate objects may become embroiled in out psyche. The role of smell in linking the development of fetishism with pregenital stages has been used by psychoanalysts to offer explanation for the interest in smells that can accompany or play an important part in fetishism. Often these take on a talisman role and people may become dependent on these fetishes to function as sexual beings. For many a passing interest in feet or shoes in a sensual way is considered normal whereas in troubled paraphilics the dependency has become an obsession. Now in reality whilst some people may be attracted to the smell of body odour caused by the breakdown of skin bacteria (Bromidrophilia is quite a rare paraphilia where body smell has an arousal effect), this is not usually the main attraction feet and shoes have to foot lovers. Instead a second set of sweat glands secrete a scentless excretion called pheromones. These are naturally produced by the body and are a series of short chain aliphatic acids with a distinctive aroma, which if picked up can sexually excite a partner. To do this efficiently you need to have a fairly well developed vomeronasal organ (Jacobson’s organ), up your nose. Not everybody has one and hence feet can turn some people on and not others. Gas from the unscented sweat glands enter the nose and cling to a receptors found in the nasal cavity. The vomeronasal organ does not respond to any other scents but specifically picks up on the pheromones and distributes them to the brain. Exposure to pheromones effects skin temperature, and brain activity, some with an immediate response, while others induce long-term changes in behavioural or endocrine states. Pheromones effect the autonomic nervous system, producing a "relaxation response," opposite to the fight or flight reaction. Some pheromones work better for males, while others work only for females. Many authorities believe we may have lost the appreciation for pheromones because we evolved in clans, and our primary dependence on vision overtook the scent of pheromones.
"Poppycock", I hear you bay. "what has that to do with orgasm?"
Well in the past men did strange things for instance it was common in the 16th century for gentlemen to keep and apple in the codpiece. The custom was a well-travelled apple absorbed the secretion of the crutch and was excellent fare to give to a damsel you wanted to impress. Whilst the idea would certainly repulse us today, based on pheromone theory, these tasteless additions to the fruit would enter the bloodstream through the gut and have the same affects on the brains as if sniffing it directly. By Victorian times young women would hold their handkerchiefs under their armpit whilst dancing. Then the girls would favour their partner at the end of the evening by gifting them their sweat soaked, handkerchief. Research today would confirm axillary odour contains enough chemical differences in the odour profile to allow for discrimination between individuals. Other independent studies have also shown women prefer male odours that have a Human Leucocyte Antigen type different from their own as this can effect the length of the menstrual cycle. Mysophilia is a condition where some people become sexually aroused by smelling, chewing or rubbing against foul smelling objects like socks, nylons or pantyhose. Experts believe mysophiles may have increased sensitivity to pheromones produced in body excretions.
"Poppycock", I hear you bay. "what has that to do with orgasm?"
Well in the past men did strange things for instance it was common in the 16th century for gentlemen to keep and apple in the codpiece. The custom was a well-travelled apple absorbed the secretion of the crutch and was excellent fare to give to a damsel you wanted to impress. Whilst the idea would certainly repulse us today, based on pheromone theory, these tasteless additions to the fruit would enter the bloodstream through the gut and have the same affects on the brains as if sniffing it directly. By Victorian times young women would hold their handkerchiefs under their armpit whilst dancing. Then the girls would favour their partner at the end of the evening by gifting them their sweat soaked, handkerchief. Research today would confirm axillary odour contains enough chemical differences in the odour profile to allow for discrimination between individuals. Other independent studies have also shown women prefer male odours that have a Human Leucocyte Antigen type different from their own as this can effect the length of the menstrual cycle. Mysophilia is a condition where some people become sexually aroused by smelling, chewing or rubbing against foul smelling objects like socks, nylons or pantyhose. Experts believe mysophiles may have increased sensitivity to pheromones produced in body excretions.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Bunionsex
Wendy Perriam is an English novelist, nothing unusual in that but her literary works, Tread Softly, won the 62-year-old author the dubious honour of the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction award. This was the third time she had been put forward. Previous winners have been Alan Titchmarsh, Melvyn Bragg and Sebastian Faulks, so she is in good company. What clinched her recent accolade was a scene in ‘Tread Softly’ where the intrepid heroine, a 30-something convalescee, recovering from a bunion operation, with complications, makes love to her husband whilst fantasizing about her foot surgeon. Convent-educated Perriam attributed her love of explicit scenes to her strict religious upbringing. Apparently the author did not receive sex education at home or school and has been fascinated with the subject ever since. But I ask myself does that excuse bringing bunions into the sex equation. I am also alarmed anyone would have untoward thoughts about me as a toenail cutter & bunion scrapper. Well at least they might let me know. Let’s get on to the more serious subject of bunion surgery. Operations to the old bunions are very common and recent patient satisfaction survey from the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons would support over 90% of patients experienced significant pain relief (96%), increased their physical activity (92%), and would recommend the procedure (89%). These findings would reflect others form the UK and elsewhere. To the uninitiated, bunions describe a bursitis (inflamed fluid filled sac) which appears on the inside of the big toe joint. Swells up when agitated by friction usually from shoes which have less volume than the anatomy of the foot would require. The condition can become more pronounced if the metatarsal bone slips its ligament attachment causing the head of the bone to protrude. Then the condition is referred to as Hallux Abducto-Valgus, commonly, but mistakenly called ‘bunions’. The situation becomes more complex with osteoarthritis of the big toe joint and often suppuration (inflection) of the fluid filled sac is compounding factor. In any event bunions or HAV can be very painful, inhibit normal walking, and make it difficult to fit the feet into some shoes. Contrary to popular belief, bunions are aggravated, not caused, by tight shoes. Hallux Abducto Valgus is due to faulty foot mechanics which place intolerable stress on the foot’s big joint. Pain is the primary reason people seek medical attention with the majority of bunion surgeries are performed on women. This is more to do with their skeletal make up than any demonisation of fashion shoes, per se. The recent report does show overall spectacular success after bunion operations. But as always conditions apply and other studies have shown long term outcomes would support a high return of HAV after surgical intervention. This is easily explained because the cause of the deformity relates to foot mechanics, which are often ignored at the expense of the orthopaedic procedure. The overall good news is patients seldom are troubled with the reoccurrence of their bunions and there are several theories as to why this is the case but my favorite is psychologically the condition is cured with the first operation and re-occurrence is not registered. Out of sight out of mind. In truth, HAV is probably more natural to the functioning foot than we give it credit and out idealized straight toe joint is as unnatural as Lara Croft.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Who invented damp proof socks?
As every school child knows, Scotsman, John Logie Baird, invented the first working television. Logie Baird was the youngest of four children of a clergyman and was born on August 13th, 1888, in Helensburgh, Dunbarton, Scotland. Right from the beginning Logie Baird was a compulsive innovator. As a laddie he set up an electrical supply system and telephone exchange in his father's manse. As a young man he trained as an electrical engineer and was fascinated with talking pictures. He funded his obsession for inventing with the profit made from a most unlikely source, he invented damp proof socks. John kept ill health and found the harsh Scottish climate challenging, now at least he could keep his feet warm, if not on the ground. Driven by his obsessions he continued to invent but not all of his inventions worked out, as his unsuccessful cure for hemorrhoids was to show. When he tried it on himself, and was unable to sit for a week, it went for the rustless razor, which left him scarred for life, and the pneumatic shoes that burst. When he was dismissed from his job for creating a blackout in Glasgow, whilst experimenting with making diamonds from coal dust, the inventor took heed of a friend’s advice and moved to Trinidad. The warmer climate suited the frail Scotsman and he decided to make living purveying cotton and safety pins. Sadly nobody wanted his wares, but by this time he saw the potential to develop a preserves industry using the islands’ natural and abundant fruit. By day the mad Scotsman studied cookbooks, hired helpers, and set to work in his remote wooden bungalow. A giant copper cauldron, formerly a washtub, could hold 112 pounds of fruit, and he suspended it over a brick fireplace, stirring frantically in the heat. The boiling fruit attracted wasps, bees and hornets by the score. Most of which ended up entombed in the bottles of preserve. Needless to say the jam making business was doomed. By night he continued his life’s work to produce television, driven by the progress he had made before he left Glasgow. The nocturnal flashing lights and weird noises coming from Chateau Logie Baird soon attracted the attention of his superstitious neighbours. In fear the stranger was a dealer in supernatural forces they called him Obeah man. Obeah is a form of witchcraft practiced in the Caribbean. The Obeah man can summons up Duppies and plant them in the home to curse the occupants. So not that far removed form television when you think of it. In any event one night an angry crowd gathered outside his house to protest. Keen to rid themselves of the Obeah man they threw stones at his bungalow the hot tempered Scot, annoyed at their ignorance, stood his ground, and through the missiles back. Eventually things settled down Logie Baird perfected the rudiments of television and returned to England to promote his latest invention. He created the first televised pictures of objects in motion (1924), the first televised human face (1925) and a year later he televised the first moving object image at the Royal Institution in London. He then pioneered colour television (1928) and developed something we have not yet seen commercialized, three-dimensional television. Publically Logie Baird was lampooned and dismissed as another crank by the public. The significance of television was not missed by the British Secret Service and Nazi Germany. The German post office gave Logie Baird facilities to develop a television service in 1929. His system was originally adopted by the BBC in 1936 but in the same year Crystal Palace was mysteriously destroyed by fire. Many conspiracy theorists believe this was the work of Third Columnists, intent on destroying Baird's work. In any event by February 1937 the BBC had adopted the Marconi EMI system. As a broadcaster he developed the basic television techniques for outside broadcasting, used today. The right clever clogs even saw the potential for video recording and his first working radar developed the technology we now know as fibre optics. High-speed facsimile transmission via television played a vital role in the Second World War. Not bad for an Obeah Man who invented damp proof socks.
Reference
The Secret Life of John Logie Baird (Hutchinson, London, 1986), journalist Tom McArthur and mechanical engineer Peter Waddell
Reference
The Secret Life of John Logie Baird (Hutchinson, London, 1986), journalist Tom McArthur and mechanical engineer Peter Waddell
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Miracles
In 1225 the Caliph of Baghdad and Mosul hated Christians and spent his waking moments thinking of ways to make them converts. Those who refused would be killed. His advisers hatched a plan, which related to the Old Testament belief if a Christian had as much faith as a grain of mustard; he could, by praying to his God, move mountains. He summoned together the Christian leaders and offered the following proposal. The Christians had to use divine power to move a mountain that neighboured the city. Failure to do in ten days would require conversion to the religion of Mohammed, or death. This caused great concern to the Christian community and for eight days and nights they prayed. On the eighth night an angel appeared to a particularly saintly bishop and said.’ Go to the cross-eyed shoe maker and tell him to pray for the mountain to be moved.’ The shoemaker was an honest man who lived a chaste life, was a good Christian and shared his food with the poor. He was well known because as a young man he was not always so. A young woman came to his shop to buy a pair of shoes. She was beautiful and the shoemaker asked to see her uncovered legs and feet. Temptation and lechery overcame him and he misbehaved. In the Old Testament when the eye offended, it had to be plucked out and that was what the shoemaker did. He deliberately blinded his eye with a shoemaker’s awl and became a virtuous and devout man thereafter. The Christians begged him to pray for them and eventually he agreed. The shoemaker prayed and the mountain moved.
Cheesecake: From Gibson to Jones
Depiction of the female form as witnessed in gentlemen’s magazines from the middle of the nineteenth century has become passé in recent years. Despite the influence on modern graphic aesthetic, ‘Cheesecake’ has been largely ignored within scholarly journals. The author attempts to inform the reader by providing a brief social history and evolution of the ‘pin up’, and their illustrators. Despite the rise of pornography and the controversial debate over its effects on equality within contemporary society there remains little evidence to support the artist rendered nude has contributed. For many males seeing girls with little on was not the demeaning assault on the opposite sex, so often depicted within the anti pornographic debate. Taken within an historical context the popularity of the pin up has coincided with global economic peaks and troughs including two world wars. Technology made available to millions of ordinary young men, forcibly parted from their sweethearts, intimate glimpses of the girls they had left behind. Most consoled themselves with the image of the Varga Girl and many died with her image as their only intimate experience of the female form. The author has restricted this inquiry to artist rendered depiction of young women with the main thrust of the paper directed at Girlie Magazines, Adult Comics and Pulp Fiction dust covers. Other medium have been briefly included but only where they relate directly to the above. Cheesecake had its golden age between the 1920s and 1950s spanning Art Deco to Modern Art. The former featured the female figure as a glamour icon and illustrators took this theme and crossed it over to pin up (Martignette 1996, p. 38). For the benefit of the reader the following definitions may be helpful. The term ‘pin-up’ became synonymous with ‘girlie’ illustrations as and from the beginning of the twentieth century. The origins of the term are unknown but many historians attribute the honour to servicemen during WWII who avidly collected magazines and cut out their favourite pictures to display in lockers, mess rooms and on tanks and aeroplanes. Betty Grable was considered the Queen of the pin ups in the 40s and made a film entitled ‘Pin-up girl’. (Gabor 1996. p.21). According to this author (p.23) a ‘pin up’ is a sexually evocative image reproduced in multiple copies in which either the expression or the attitude of the subject invites the viewer to participate vicariously in or fantasise about a personal involvement with the subject. From 1944 onwards many photographic models became known as ‘pin-up’ models, the popularity of the format meant it could be enjoyed more freely for its own sake and as a valid pictorial form. Aesthetic standards improved and the once tardy picture became an acknowledged high art form. ‘Cheesecake’ was a young woman depicted displaying female comeliness and shapeliness and appeared in magazines. adverts, posters, and cards (Bishop & Osthelder, 2001 p 392). According to Gabor (1996, p.27) the origins of ‘cheescake’ came from a newparer editors’ exclamation at seeing a ‘leggie’ publicity picture of Elivira Amazar (Russian diva) in 1915. The conventional image relies on the notions of teasing and allure, frequently with underlying humour. The classic ‘cheesecake’ shows a curvy woman with her sumptuous breasts exposed (or nearly exposed), posing coquettishly in a predictable stylised setting. (Gabor 1996).
Pin ups were intended to stimulate the voyeur, as an aperitif would prepare the digestive juices for a rich meal.
Archaic antecedents
According to Koetzle and Scheid (1994 p.13) what was classified as pornography in earlier times adorns the covers of today’s magazines. Something considered taboo in one culture might raise few eyebrows in another. Hence it is impossible to link modern cheesecake to images of the past by way of explaining the phenomena, instead, archaic antecedents preceded the modern pin up but may have little relevance to explain them. The first poster featuring a naked lady appeared in the 15th century. (1491), a wood cut to advertise a Belgian edition of Jean d’ Arras’s Histoire de la Belle Melusine. The readership was almost exclusively the clergy and subsequently would not be seen by a wider community (Gabor, 1996 p. 14). It took until the 18th century before William Hogarth (1697-1764) made popular images of ordinary people in contemporary society. This included the seamier side of life and presented Western Society of women as sexual beings. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) continued the theme into the next century and
produced engraved caricatures of London’s ‘lowlife’ as well as the decadence of the upper classes. Later, James Gillary (1757-1815) treated sexual subjects with broad humour. Gabor (1996, p.33) credits the invention of the high speed printing press (1850) for the increased incidence of exploitative images as more of the general public were accessed to reading. The word magazine appeared for the first time with the introduction of Gentleman’s Magazine (1731). According to Holland, 1998) this contained a collection of newspaper articles, original writing with some verse. Aimed at the upper and middle classes these publications thrived throughout the 19th century. Almost ¾ of the adult population in the UK were literate due to The Education Act in 1870 and ambitious publishers were eager to capitalise on leisure and recreation. Penny Dreadfuls (UK) and Dime Novels (US) were directed at adult readership, whereas the pulps (25c), were for consumption by pre-pubescent boys. From this a new culture grew and according to Gabour (1996) the pin–up phenomenon was an American innovation. In European publications women had been presented as ornate accessories whereas in the new world woman were seen as sexual objects (Gabor 1996 p.36). This was not without a sense of irony, and the same author noted the young American males may have felt they were missing out on the indulgences of the Belle Époque.
The Illustrators
Until the invention of the camera all artists illustrated. A maxim of the pin-up artist was “Pose, clothes and expression.” Rather than depict the nude, emphasis was placed more on human vulnerability. The human spirit rising about the indignance of serendipity. The origins of the pin up can be traced to the works of Charles Dana Gibson, Howard Chandler Christy and in the early works of Roy Armstrong and Albert Vargas. Between 1930 –1960 the pin up girl permeated every part of life. Hollywood greats like Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth may have filled the film screens and movie magazines but was the pin up girls that decorated the walls, wallets and lockers. Aubrey Beardsley (1872 –1898) was a remarkable English illustrator who developed a perverse and playfully theatrical style partly inspired by Greek vase painting. The artist captured the decadent theme of evil by emasculating woman. These figures were often grotesque but with venomous elegance. Beardsley described these drawings as ‘naughty’ and may have unconsciously given form to the ‘vamp.’ In contrast Charles Dana Gibson was an illustrator for popular magazines which were very influential in Victorian times. The artist inspired Americans through the turn of the 20th century with hopes and ideals expressed though his pen-and-ink drawings in Life Magazine. The Gibson Girl first appeared in from 1887 (Martignette 1996 p.35) and her outstanding characteristic was her dignified self-confidence and her sense of privacy. She was a feisty female uninhibited by males. The antithesis of Victorian conservatism and role model for suffrage. She was tall, spirited and independent, yet altogether feminine. She wore stiff shirtwaist, her soft hair piled into a chignon, topped by a big plumed hat. Her flowing skirt was hiked up in back with just a hint of a bustle. She was poised and patrician. Though always well bred, there often lurked a flash of mischief in her eyes. She was spunky and sentimental, down-to-earth and aristocratic at the same time. And she appeared in drawings that captured with bold craftsmanship such timeless themes as love, money, self-deception, and social climbing. For almost a quarter of a century she became a role model for young modern women and was idolised by millions. (Gabor 1996 p.47). ‘Gibson-mania’ prevailed at the turn of the century and merchandising was on the level of Mickey Mouse or Star Wars. Large size books, china plates and saucers, ashtrays, tablecloths, pillow covers, chair covers, souvenir spoons, screens, fans, umbrella stands all bore the image of Gibson's creations. There was even wallpaper for bachelor apartments, with the lovely Gibson faces in endless array. A popular hobby of pyrography saw people burning the Gibson Girl into leather and wood; and the image was traced and stitched into handkerchiefs. There were plays, songs, and even a movie based on his creation. The greatest honour and most lasting memento of the Gibson Girl was the when the Coca Cola Company patented their bottle containers in the shape of the Gibson Girl. Amid this adulation, the well-bred young ladies of the time came (with their chaperones) to Gibson's studio to pose; later, many of them claimed to have been the "original" Gibson Girl.
Dirty Postcards
A common belief is pin ups first appeared on French Post Cards as an early as 1870s but this is unlikely (Gabor, 1996). The picture post cards, as we understand them, were invented by a French bookseller called Leon Besnardeau and the first pin-ups did not appear until 1895 or 1900. The earliest postcards were bathing beauties, which became popular in England. At first these were artistic depictions of women bathing created by artists. Later with photography the models posed against hand painted beach background. The best-known post card artist was Austrian born Raphael Kirchner (1875-1917). His artistic treatment of women was so unique that his provocative women were referred to as Kirchner Girls. In 1901 he came to Paris and created several series of suggestive postcards. In erotic pictures no accessory was too outré as long as it served to project sexual arousal. (Koetzle &Scheid, 1994 p.14). Curtains, drapes, carpets and small items of furniture all served to recreate the atmosphere of the boudoir but what was considered most shockingly precocious were images of women smoking. Liberal attitudes were sweeping through all phases of society during the Belle Époque ( Martignette, 1996 p 36) and Kirchner included many when he depicted his models cothed or coyly showing their charms. The post card reached its zenith by the First World War and the Kirchner Girl was by far the most popular. US soldiers returning home took the cards with them with two main results. According to Martignette (1996, p 36), straight line fashions shown in Italian postcards, were introduce to the US and became the impetus for the “flapper style” which prevailed throughout the 20s also nostalgia meant the images started to be reproduced in cheesecake colanders. The end of the post card era came in 1925.
True Confessions
The National Police Gazette was established in 1845 (US). The popular broadsheet featured both sports and crime and from 1878 onwards sex pictures and sex advertising appeared regularly. Front covers always flagrantly displayed the main stories and when this involved prostitutes they appeared voluptuous and well fed. According to the editors the function of the National Police Gazette was to protect the innocent with moral editorials to guide the reader, thus was juxtaposed with sensational revelations equivalent to what might be found in the National Enquirer (US) or Sunday Sport (UK). The 1870s presented a changing morality in the US with the influence of burlesque and its preoccupation with exposing parts of woman’s bodies having a massive influence on young Americans. The exploitation of the female figure steadily increased and these images were eagerly replicated in the emerging adult’s magazine. (Gabor, 1996.p 40). From 1878, the New Police Gazette was printed on pink paper and distributed to saloons and cheap hotels. It became the barbershop bible until 1922, when hair bopping became vogue and the barber’s clientele changed to accommodate the female fad. (Gabour, 1997. p. 36). By 1890 the rag featured the stars of Burlesques, especially the leggy lovelies of the girls in tights genre. These acts became incredibly popular at this time and the magazine offered pull out supplements of quality photographs, suitable for display. After the Great War the magazine’s circulation plummeted. By this time newspapers had developed were reporting crime and sports more efficiently. To continue to attract readership, editorial emphasis in the 20s highlighted sensationalism and sex. A more enlightened post war society where everything goes were less impressed with the cheap salaciousness of the magazine and the Police Gazette went bankrupt by the next decade. Playful girlie magazines and confession magazines proliferated at this time and all featured colourful front covers (Gabor, 1996. p.37) Gabor (1996) argues these popular rags were partly responsible for the forging the male view; women were happy go lucky sexual objects. A decade later these journals were writing about a more serious side to women’s sexuality. This also corresponds to the Cinema Noire period of Hollywood. Female characters became more complex and were often depicted as sinister. Most media studies experts believe this was as a reaction to women entering the work force, which triggered a misogynistic backlash. By depicting the lighter aspects of the female character in the pin-up may ironically have been a deliberate attempt to promote gender harmony. Certainly more female illustrators started to show their influence at this time. As pulp fiction took hold more and more dust covers depicted lurid paintings, showing heroines in bondage or mortal danger (Martingnette & Meisel, 1996 p 17). Many of the stories were quite innocuous but the front cover, according to Holland (1993, p.), was given the femme fatale treatment. These were aimed to sell the book and had little to do with the story within. Once the thirties accepted the pin up, publishers moved more to include photographs. (Gabor, 1996 p, 76). Cheap paper made from wood pulp i.e. paperbacks sold in large numbers and between the Wars every niche interest was catered for (Holland, 1993). Rationing during the war years temporarily halted growth but when paper was eventually deregulated, cheap girlie magazines proliferated in the 50s. (Holland, 1993 p.13). Interest in American style crime and Nazi torture meant sex, sadism and drug peddling were topics avidly read about . Many of the Science Fiction and Western paperbacks were spiced up with covers highlighting the promise of smut (Holland 1993 p. 65). The dust covers genre showed alluring ladies dressed in the briefest wisps of lace, often depicted in the bedroom guaranteed to make the heart pound. Low brow stories had sex workers posing for business, the popular gangster cover had buxom dames game for a challenge or frail flowers about to be traumatized (Holland 1993 p. 76).
The domesticated role which had women at home, mother, cook and chief domestic manager may have meant young male American felt they were missing out on the indulgences of La Bell and needed something to spice up their lives. Along with sports, drinking, and gambling, the dance halls helped fill the gap. Burlesque came form England and spicy magazines achieved enormous circulations.
Art Mags
In the evolution of the pin-up , one main assumption was paramount and that was young men preferred to be teased by semi-nude poses than to become instantly acquainted with a woman’s innermost gynaecological organs (Turczyn, 2003). Predating the more graphic pornography of the mid to late 50s were art magazines devoted to the female form. These were sold under the guise of artistic magazines or health publications. The first nude photography magazine was “Camera Works” and was founded in 1902 by Albert Stieglitz. Not all the pictures were nudes but when featured all pubic hairs were airbrushed out which gave the image a surreal quality. From a marketing perspective males were more comfortable buying magazines of artistic expression, but certainly the models were professional and the quality of photography better than most of the later girlie magazines. Frontal nudity was restricted until the laws changed comparatively recently (in the 60s & 70s). Until then skin rags featuring frontal nudity were either illegal or their publishers would use the protective umbrella of ‘art photography to gain as large an audience as possible (Gabor, 1006 p. 65). To avoid the censor’s attention text and captions stressed drawing, painting or photographic techniques but the pictures the subjects the styles and the lack of artistry or creativity in the photography made it evident that serious study of the material for artistic purposes was most unlikely. As part of the same movement from mid 30s until the 50s ‘Mutoscope cards’ or art cards were sold from arcade vending machines. These sold in their millions (Martignette, 1996 p 33)
Skin rags: Gentlemen’s Fair
The Covent Garden Magazine was first erotic periodical in UK and emerged in 1773. The Pearl or Journal of Faceriae and voluptuous reading ran from 1879 to 1886 and contained 36 obscene coloured lithographs. In 1783, The Rambler’s Magazine (alternative title: The annals of gallantry, glee, pleasure and the bon ton: Calculated for the entertainment of the polite world) was another popular read. One of the more respected publishers and celebrated eroticist of the nineteenth century was Mary Wilson who produced a wide variety of material but it was not clear whether these were exclusively for men. It took until the First World War before the pin up appeared in specialised magazines. Until then they were featured in popular reading of general interest. The US was by far the greatest consumer and producer of art magazines, girlie mags and Hollywood fan mags. France came second but well behind North America. French girls had a special allure in the minds of young Americans and they appeared to regard French women as more exotic and sexually sophisticated than their own women. This may have had something to do with the famous French prostitutes in New Orleans. The leading magazine during WWI was Captain Willy’s Whiz Bang, published by Fawcett Publications (NY) priced 25 cents. In 1926 it had a circulation of 425,000. The first girly magazines were intended to be respectable empathically and not pornographic. The Esquire Monthly was published from 1933. It was directed at the fashionable elite male and included in the first issue a pin-up drawn by George Petty (Curtis 1997 p, 83). In the ensuing years the Petty Girl rivalled the Gibson Girl for popularity (Austin, 1997 p. 33). She was always accompanied with a humorous caption and the artist’s themes dealt with marital infidelity, promiscuity, money, and flirtation, to appeal to high-class sophistication and humour. One reason why the paint medium was chosen was to celebrate the femininity of American women (Martignett, 1996, p. 33.) Many of the pin-ups were two-three page foldouts.
In 1941 the Memphis Belle (p. 95)
The Petty girl last appeared in Esquire in December 1941 and was replaced by the Varga Girl (drawn by Albeto Vargas). She started to feature from October 1940 and continued until 1946. No longer in cartoon form the drawings were accompanied by humorous verse. Both the Petty Girl and Varga Girl were sex objects, vivid yet unreal, functioning in their own world, and representing the fantasies of men. In accord with the times Varga Girl was patriotic and a film favourite with the enlisted men. Both beauties appeared as ‘nose art” (Martignette 1996 p.43) on planes and tanks as lucky talismen (Gabor 1996 p. 77).
By World War II there were many more girlie mags for the troops including the Reveille (UK). By far the modest famous pin–up during the second world war was Betty Grable and her million dollar legs. The image first appeared in Times overseas edition, 1942) but also was reproduced in Yank, the official GI magazine. She was a` lucky talisman for the men at war. In the late 1940s Alberto Vargas left Esquire and the sophisticated men's magazine tried to find a replacement among the most talented commercial artists of the day. These included such gifted commercial artists as Ward Bennett, Ren Wicks, Robert Patterson, Eddie Chan and Al Moore. However none of their creations reached the pinnacle of the Petty and Varga Girls. By 1958 Esquire had shown its last pin-up collage and Playboy had taken over the mantle. (Gabor, 1996 p.77). Playboy first appeared in 1953 and was a man’s magazine dedicated to the indoor, sophisticated, city dweller. Hugh Hefner, Playboy’s founder, was keen to re-energise the essence of the pin–up days of Esquire with a magazine dedicated to sensuous pleasure. In the first edition, December 1953, Playboy featured articles by Norman Holland and Bob Norman among others including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The ‘Sweatheart of the month’ was Marilyn Monroe (photographed by Tom Kelley) (Playboy magazine archive –1953, 2003). The photo pin-up became progressively bolder yet despite featuring some of the most beautiful women in the world these images were contrived into was an idealised forms with clever ‘touch ups’ and removal of skin blemishes and image editing. In truth the images were no different from the pin up images of Petty and Varga. The term lifelike would be appropriate and the same description may be attributed to computer generated images of, today’s Gibson Girl, Ms Lara Croft. Playboy continued with the popular genre of young vulnerable women in the same tradition of early years. Eg ‘The Adventures of Little Annie Fanny’. History records there was much criticism from the feminist movement at the time, and the ‘Playmates’ was considered to represent the worst features of male chauvinism. The drawings of Alberto Vargas began to appear in Playboy during the 60s and 70s.
The unprecedented popularity of Playboy brought many imitators, the majority of which were inferior quality but several had stand out graphic design and photography. In the UK, Penthouse started in 1965 and was followed by Mayfair (1966), and Men Only (1971). Penthouse was aimed at a more mature readership and contained more risqué pin-ups. Penthouse Pets were less servile and had the independent spirit of the Gibson Girl with an appeal to the young. The magazine was the first to included pubic hair (April edition 1970). When Hustler (US) stripped away the need for pseudo-sophisticated content and romanticised photography, the cheesecake days were numbered. From the 70s onwards the popularity for graphic beauties faded as the need for more photographic exhibits took hold and the traditional pin-up became passé. (Turczyn, C The Gallery of forgotten girlie magazines).
Queen Fetishist
After the Second World War material started to become more raunchy. Between 1942 and 1958, Robert Harrison published a range of cheesecake and humorous photostories. His maxim was ‘girl’s gags and giggles’ (Riemschneider, 2001). Harrison’s crop of girlie magazines included; Beauty Parade: The World’s loveliest girls (1942-1956); Eyeful: Glorifying the American Girl (1943-1955); Titter : Americas Merriest Magazine (1943-1955); Wink: A whirl of girls (1944-1955); and Flirt: A fresh magazine (1947-1955). The successful publisher did not approve of nudity and had his girls caught in slapstick situations with apt captions to match the situation. Only the covers of the magazines were drawn whereas the contents were photographs in black and white. The models were most scantily clad. The eye-catching dust covers were painted by many well known artists including Peter Driben, Earl Morgan, and Billy De Voss. Being formally trained their fresh, tasteful pin up illustrations satisfied all aesthetic standards. Wink followed the formula developed for Beauty Parade but did contain two innovations to set it apart from its rivals, The first was a strong fetish element added to the photo stories. Wink contained girls in chains, whip wielding "wild sirens" and spanking stories. The magazine also ran a reprint of John Willie's "Sweet Gwendoline" comic strip, a double page bondage saga concerning the exploits of Sweet Gwendoline and the dastardly Sir d'Arcy (see picture). For a quarter of a century in the UK, Jane, a comic pin up, appeared in the Daily Mirror (London) (1932 –1959). Many of her comic adventures found her involved in bondage. Eric Stanton was a pioneer in erotic art and founding father of fetish art. Rated alongside, John Willie, both artists featured in magazines produced by publisher Irving Klaw in the 50s. The latter was a photographer whereas Eric Stanton was a graduate of the New York, School of Visual Arts. From 1958 to 1966, he shared a studio with his friend Steve Ditko (creator of Spiderman). They collaborated and Stanton drew the outlines of the comic adventures in India ink and Ditko hand-coloured them. Most of his works were for private commissions but his fame came via mail-order picture stories featuring elaborate, imaginative drawings of plump breasts, tight buns, stiletto heels all incorporated into soft contemporary bondage. According to Hanson (2001), the artist recognised the feminist struggle evoked a strong sexual arousal in men, harbouring guilt for female submission. Among active feminists he was acknowledged as a male feminist in his popular dominance fantasies. By the late sixties and seventies Stanton’s work was featured in transvestite magazines. From the 50s photographers like Elmer Batters had specialised in leg art. The traditional Cheesecake had featured complete body studies but from the late 60s onwards more fetishistic images appeared in the plethora of magazines catering for niche interests. Publications such as Black Silk Stockings, Leg-O-Rama, Nylon Double Take, Sheer Delight, Tip Top and Thigh High all featured Batters’ works. The artist had been very much influenced by Elvgreen’s art of World War II. As a photographer he wanted to create the same allure for legs as had been previously centred on breasts. His favourite subject was Caruska. She had an amply proportioned figure with a cherub type face and according to the artist “ legs from the tip of her toes to the tops of her hose.” Her calves were well formed her feet highly arched with, flexible toes and curved heels. Whilst the eighties witnessed the end of the Cheesecake tease era to be replaced by more explicit pornography there was a bondage-cross over to fashion in the new youth culture of Punk. Inspired by mail order catalogues and fetish magazines of the 40s and 50s, the English painter Alan Jones ironically took the Cheesecake fetishist theme into high art during the Pop Art Movement of the 60s and 70s. Like Stanton he was interested in gender qualities and this became a constant theme throughout his works, often iconically represented by the symbolism of legs, high-heeled shoes and colours. (The pocket library of art: Alan Jones London: Brockhampton Press 1997).
Calenders and Posters
Brown and Bigelow of Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA) became the first and largest calendar company in the world (Reed 1996, p. 16). They company started in 1896 (Martignette, 1996 p 34) and set the glamour art standard for the industry. The first girlie calendar was Colette (1903), taken from a painting by the Italian, Angelo Asti. Sales were sufficient to encourage the company to start a series of pin-up style calendars in 1904. The company were keen to avoid stark nudity and the studies showed provocative but clothed girls in topical, allegorical, or exotic settings. Rolf Armstrong was engaged to draw some of these beauties. In the 20s the artist had become well know as an artist for magazine covers and song sheets with his girls with dazzlingly smiles, flowingly hair and supple limbs. The first nude pin up calendar appeared in 1913, the year the Great War ended. September Morn was inspired by an oil painting by Paul Chabas (1869-1937), entitled Matinee Septembre. It had become a cause cėlèbre when the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice objected to its suggestiveness. The image was pirated, reproduced on calendars and sold in its millions (Gabor 1996 p.22; p.177). By the 40s, Brown and Bigelow were making one image girlie calendars or ‘hangers’ (Martignette, 1996 p. 33), exclusively for a retail market and producing sexier pin-ups aimed at the GI market. Many of these were drawn by Gil Elvgren whose heroines were often caught in humorous but distressing situations. An Elvgren model was never portrayed as a femme fatale rather the girl next door whose charms were revealed in that fleeting instant when she's been caught unaware in what might be an embarrassing situation. The elements conspired in divesting her of her clothing. The artist’s exquisite oils and lush brush stroke, technique made his gorgeous girls appear as glowing wonders. In 1937, Gil began painting calendar pin-ups for Louis F. Dow, another one of America's leading publishing companies. These pin ups were easily recognizable because they were signed with a printed version of Elvgren's name, as opposed to his later cursive signature. When contracted to Brown and Bigelow, he turned out twenty calendar girls each year, ranging from cowgirls of the golden west to sultry sirens of the Riviera. Elvgren looked for models with vitality and personality, and chose young girls who were new to the modelling business. He felt the ideal pin-up was a fifteen-year-old face on a twenty-year-old body, so he combined the two. Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) worked for Esquire magazine and produced the Varga Calender (1941). After Al Moore's three-year solo stint as Esquire calendar artist, the 1952 edition presented the next batch of contenders, including Robert Patterson, Ward Bennett, Ren Wicks and Chiriaka. The ultra-modern, even harsh style of, Mike Ludlow brought the famed calendar series to a close in 1957, by which time Playboy's similar but photographic calendars had made Esquire's painted ladies an anachronism. Even by 1951 photographic pin-ups had became more popular with perhaps the most famous, Marilyn Monroe (1951), published by John Baumgarth Co. (g.p.177). Despite this Brown & Bigelow continued to produce artist rendered pin-ups until 1970s. Throughout the 60s the art reflected the sexual revolution with a much bolder style. Fritz Willis was the last major pin-up artist and was recognised for depicting brazenly sensual '60s women in semi-nude disarray.
By the middle of the nineteenth century posters were used to advertise events. Parisian, Jules Cheret (1836-1932) was a dominant figure and used Japanese woodcut techniques to produce brightly coloured figures of sensuous and careful carousal. His subjects displayed delicate limbs and torsos, beneath gossamer garments. Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) was inspired and produced more sensual figures but with less ecstatic allure of his mentor. In the early movement the most popular poster subject was Loie Fuller, an American actress, who starred at the Folies Bergere in Paris (1893). (Gabor, 1996 p. 201) The peak of pin-up poster popularity spanned 1914 to 1960. During the war years, posters took on vitriolic roles and glamorised war but paper shortages meant the poster had less impact. Throughout 20s and 30s posters emphasised less sex appeal with more on good looks, health and cheerfulness as the Western World slavishly followed the body beautiful. The introduction of television had an immense impact and posters they were relegated to ‘lobby art’. (Gabor 1996, p.203). Post 60s, improved printing combined with digitally enhanced photography has given new life to the art form, which appeals to the young.
Censorship
As more fetish type girlie magazines sold in their millions more concerns were expressed as to the effects of obscene publication on social order in 1954 a New York psychiatrist, Fredric Wertham, published a sustained attack on the comic book industry. He convinced many the violent and sadistic contents of comic books would lead to the breakdown of common order and the destruction of ‘Christian civilisation’(Finnane, 1998 p. 49). His works were widely (and wildly) cited to bolster the fight against comics across the western world. From this time onwards the graphic depiction of torture was illegal in comic books. In Australia the ensuing legislation was aimed not just at comics but other forms of mass media including detective novels, romance magazines and the growing number of male-orientated sex magazines (Finnane, 1998 p. 50). According to Shiell (1998) strong censorship laws were such a disincentive there were no examples of Australian cheesecake magazines. Unger (1998 p 69-79) described the works of Kath O’Brien, Australian penman and her creation Wanda the war girl (1942). In the fashion of Jane, she was young, shapely and glamorous and partook in crime and mystery type adventures. In 1949 Moira Bertram was another Australian artist who used a legs, thighs and a glimpse of silk stockings to feminize her villains (Unger, 1998 p.77).
Bibliography
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Barker, R. 1979 Gentleman’s relish 1979 London: Hodder & Stoughton
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Curtis, DG 1997 Perspective on acquaintance Rape http://www.aaets.org/arts/art13.htm The Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.
Elmer Batters Köln: Taschen 1996
Elmer Batters: The Caruska Sittings Köln: Taschen 1996
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Holland S 1993 The mushroon jungle: A history of postwar paperback publishing Westbury: Zeon Books.
Jones, A. 1979 Sheer magic NY: Congreve Publishing Co.
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Koetzle M, & Scheid U 1994 Feu d’Amour: Seductive Smoke Köln:Benedikt Taschen
Kroll, E (ed) 1996 Eric Stanton: For the man who knows his place Kőln: Taschen
Martignette C The Great American Pin up In etc p 33
Martignette C G Meisel L K 1996 The great American pin-up Köln: Taschen
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Néret, G. 2001 Dessous: Lingerie as erotic weapon Köln: Taschen .
Néret, G. 2001 Erotica: 19th Century : From Courbet to Gauguin Köln: Taschen.
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Riemschneider, B (Ed.) 2001Pin-ups Köln: Taschen.
Robson, D 1995 The art of the nude NY: Shooting Star Press
The pocket library of art: Alan Jones London: Brockhampton Press 1997
Shiell A (ed.) 1998 Bonzer : Australian comics 1900s-1990s Redhill South Victoria: Elgua Media. Turczyn, C. 2003 The Gallery of Forgotten Girlie Mags http://www.popcultmag.com/oddglimpses/mensmags/mens1.html
WonderClub.com Playboy magazine archive –1953 http://wonderclub.com/magazines/playboy/playboy_magazine_1953.htm
Pin ups were intended to stimulate the voyeur, as an aperitif would prepare the digestive juices for a rich meal.
Archaic antecedents
According to Koetzle and Scheid (1994 p.13) what was classified as pornography in earlier times adorns the covers of today’s magazines. Something considered taboo in one culture might raise few eyebrows in another. Hence it is impossible to link modern cheesecake to images of the past by way of explaining the phenomena, instead, archaic antecedents preceded the modern pin up but may have little relevance to explain them. The first poster featuring a naked lady appeared in the 15th century. (1491), a wood cut to advertise a Belgian edition of Jean d’ Arras’s Histoire de la Belle Melusine. The readership was almost exclusively the clergy and subsequently would not be seen by a wider community (Gabor, 1996 p. 14). It took until the 18th century before William Hogarth (1697-1764) made popular images of ordinary people in contemporary society. This included the seamier side of life and presented Western Society of women as sexual beings. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) continued the theme into the next century and
produced engraved caricatures of London’s ‘lowlife’ as well as the decadence of the upper classes. Later, James Gillary (1757-1815) treated sexual subjects with broad humour. Gabor (1996, p.33) credits the invention of the high speed printing press (1850) for the increased incidence of exploitative images as more of the general public were accessed to reading. The word magazine appeared for the first time with the introduction of Gentleman’s Magazine (1731). According to Holland, 1998) this contained a collection of newspaper articles, original writing with some verse. Aimed at the upper and middle classes these publications thrived throughout the 19th century. Almost ¾ of the adult population in the UK were literate due to The Education Act in 1870 and ambitious publishers were eager to capitalise on leisure and recreation. Penny Dreadfuls (UK) and Dime Novels (US) were directed at adult readership, whereas the pulps (25c), were for consumption by pre-pubescent boys. From this a new culture grew and according to Gabour (1996) the pin–up phenomenon was an American innovation. In European publications women had been presented as ornate accessories whereas in the new world woman were seen as sexual objects (Gabor 1996 p.36). This was not without a sense of irony, and the same author noted the young American males may have felt they were missing out on the indulgences of the Belle Époque.
The Illustrators
Until the invention of the camera all artists illustrated. A maxim of the pin-up artist was “Pose, clothes and expression.” Rather than depict the nude, emphasis was placed more on human vulnerability. The human spirit rising about the indignance of serendipity. The origins of the pin up can be traced to the works of Charles Dana Gibson, Howard Chandler Christy and in the early works of Roy Armstrong and Albert Vargas. Between 1930 –1960 the pin up girl permeated every part of life. Hollywood greats like Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth may have filled the film screens and movie magazines but was the pin up girls that decorated the walls, wallets and lockers. Aubrey Beardsley (1872 –1898) was a remarkable English illustrator who developed a perverse and playfully theatrical style partly inspired by Greek vase painting. The artist captured the decadent theme of evil by emasculating woman. These figures were often grotesque but with venomous elegance. Beardsley described these drawings as ‘naughty’ and may have unconsciously given form to the ‘vamp.’ In contrast Charles Dana Gibson was an illustrator for popular magazines which were very influential in Victorian times. The artist inspired Americans through the turn of the 20th century with hopes and ideals expressed though his pen-and-ink drawings in Life Magazine. The Gibson Girl first appeared in from 1887 (Martignette 1996 p.35) and her outstanding characteristic was her dignified self-confidence and her sense of privacy. She was a feisty female uninhibited by males. The antithesis of Victorian conservatism and role model for suffrage. She was tall, spirited and independent, yet altogether feminine. She wore stiff shirtwaist, her soft hair piled into a chignon, topped by a big plumed hat. Her flowing skirt was hiked up in back with just a hint of a bustle. She was poised and patrician. Though always well bred, there often lurked a flash of mischief in her eyes. She was spunky and sentimental, down-to-earth and aristocratic at the same time. And she appeared in drawings that captured with bold craftsmanship such timeless themes as love, money, self-deception, and social climbing. For almost a quarter of a century she became a role model for young modern women and was idolised by millions. (Gabor 1996 p.47). ‘Gibson-mania’ prevailed at the turn of the century and merchandising was on the level of Mickey Mouse or Star Wars. Large size books, china plates and saucers, ashtrays, tablecloths, pillow covers, chair covers, souvenir spoons, screens, fans, umbrella stands all bore the image of Gibson's creations. There was even wallpaper for bachelor apartments, with the lovely Gibson faces in endless array. A popular hobby of pyrography saw people burning the Gibson Girl into leather and wood; and the image was traced and stitched into handkerchiefs. There were plays, songs, and even a movie based on his creation. The greatest honour and most lasting memento of the Gibson Girl was the when the Coca Cola Company patented their bottle containers in the shape of the Gibson Girl. Amid this adulation, the well-bred young ladies of the time came (with their chaperones) to Gibson's studio to pose; later, many of them claimed to have been the "original" Gibson Girl.
Dirty Postcards
A common belief is pin ups first appeared on French Post Cards as an early as 1870s but this is unlikely (Gabor, 1996). The picture post cards, as we understand them, were invented by a French bookseller called Leon Besnardeau and the first pin-ups did not appear until 1895 or 1900. The earliest postcards were bathing beauties, which became popular in England. At first these were artistic depictions of women bathing created by artists. Later with photography the models posed against hand painted beach background. The best-known post card artist was Austrian born Raphael Kirchner (1875-1917). His artistic treatment of women was so unique that his provocative women were referred to as Kirchner Girls. In 1901 he came to Paris and created several series of suggestive postcards. In erotic pictures no accessory was too outré as long as it served to project sexual arousal. (Koetzle &Scheid, 1994 p.14). Curtains, drapes, carpets and small items of furniture all served to recreate the atmosphere of the boudoir but what was considered most shockingly precocious were images of women smoking. Liberal attitudes were sweeping through all phases of society during the Belle Époque ( Martignette, 1996 p 36) and Kirchner included many when he depicted his models cothed or coyly showing their charms. The post card reached its zenith by the First World War and the Kirchner Girl was by far the most popular. US soldiers returning home took the cards with them with two main results. According to Martignette (1996, p 36), straight line fashions shown in Italian postcards, were introduce to the US and became the impetus for the “flapper style” which prevailed throughout the 20s also nostalgia meant the images started to be reproduced in cheesecake colanders. The end of the post card era came in 1925.
True Confessions
The National Police Gazette was established in 1845 (US). The popular broadsheet featured both sports and crime and from 1878 onwards sex pictures and sex advertising appeared regularly. Front covers always flagrantly displayed the main stories and when this involved prostitutes they appeared voluptuous and well fed. According to the editors the function of the National Police Gazette was to protect the innocent with moral editorials to guide the reader, thus was juxtaposed with sensational revelations equivalent to what might be found in the National Enquirer (US) or Sunday Sport (UK). The 1870s presented a changing morality in the US with the influence of burlesque and its preoccupation with exposing parts of woman’s bodies having a massive influence on young Americans. The exploitation of the female figure steadily increased and these images were eagerly replicated in the emerging adult’s magazine. (Gabor, 1996.p 40). From 1878, the New Police Gazette was printed on pink paper and distributed to saloons and cheap hotels. It became the barbershop bible until 1922, when hair bopping became vogue and the barber’s clientele changed to accommodate the female fad. (Gabour, 1997. p. 36). By 1890 the rag featured the stars of Burlesques, especially the leggy lovelies of the girls in tights genre. These acts became incredibly popular at this time and the magazine offered pull out supplements of quality photographs, suitable for display. After the Great War the magazine’s circulation plummeted. By this time newspapers had developed were reporting crime and sports more efficiently. To continue to attract readership, editorial emphasis in the 20s highlighted sensationalism and sex. A more enlightened post war society where everything goes were less impressed with the cheap salaciousness of the magazine and the Police Gazette went bankrupt by the next decade. Playful girlie magazines and confession magazines proliferated at this time and all featured colourful front covers (Gabor, 1996. p.37) Gabor (1996) argues these popular rags were partly responsible for the forging the male view; women were happy go lucky sexual objects. A decade later these journals were writing about a more serious side to women’s sexuality. This also corresponds to the Cinema Noire period of Hollywood. Female characters became more complex and were often depicted as sinister. Most media studies experts believe this was as a reaction to women entering the work force, which triggered a misogynistic backlash. By depicting the lighter aspects of the female character in the pin-up may ironically have been a deliberate attempt to promote gender harmony. Certainly more female illustrators started to show their influence at this time. As pulp fiction took hold more and more dust covers depicted lurid paintings, showing heroines in bondage or mortal danger (Martingnette & Meisel, 1996 p 17). Many of the stories were quite innocuous but the front cover, according to Holland (1993, p.), was given the femme fatale treatment. These were aimed to sell the book and had little to do with the story within. Once the thirties accepted the pin up, publishers moved more to include photographs. (Gabor, 1996 p, 76). Cheap paper made from wood pulp i.e. paperbacks sold in large numbers and between the Wars every niche interest was catered for (Holland, 1993). Rationing during the war years temporarily halted growth but when paper was eventually deregulated, cheap girlie magazines proliferated in the 50s. (Holland, 1993 p.13). Interest in American style crime and Nazi torture meant sex, sadism and drug peddling were topics avidly read about . Many of the Science Fiction and Western paperbacks were spiced up with covers highlighting the promise of smut (Holland 1993 p. 65). The dust covers genre showed alluring ladies dressed in the briefest wisps of lace, often depicted in the bedroom guaranteed to make the heart pound. Low brow stories had sex workers posing for business, the popular gangster cover had buxom dames game for a challenge or frail flowers about to be traumatized (Holland 1993 p. 76).
The domesticated role which had women at home, mother, cook and chief domestic manager may have meant young male American felt they were missing out on the indulgences of La Bell and needed something to spice up their lives. Along with sports, drinking, and gambling, the dance halls helped fill the gap. Burlesque came form England and spicy magazines achieved enormous circulations.
Art Mags
In the evolution of the pin-up , one main assumption was paramount and that was young men preferred to be teased by semi-nude poses than to become instantly acquainted with a woman’s innermost gynaecological organs (Turczyn, 2003). Predating the more graphic pornography of the mid to late 50s were art magazines devoted to the female form. These were sold under the guise of artistic magazines or health publications. The first nude photography magazine was “Camera Works” and was founded in 1902 by Albert Stieglitz. Not all the pictures were nudes but when featured all pubic hairs were airbrushed out which gave the image a surreal quality. From a marketing perspective males were more comfortable buying magazines of artistic expression, but certainly the models were professional and the quality of photography better than most of the later girlie magazines. Frontal nudity was restricted until the laws changed comparatively recently (in the 60s & 70s). Until then skin rags featuring frontal nudity were either illegal or their publishers would use the protective umbrella of ‘art photography to gain as large an audience as possible (Gabor, 1006 p. 65). To avoid the censor’s attention text and captions stressed drawing, painting or photographic techniques but the pictures the subjects the styles and the lack of artistry or creativity in the photography made it evident that serious study of the material for artistic purposes was most unlikely. As part of the same movement from mid 30s until the 50s ‘Mutoscope cards’ or art cards were sold from arcade vending machines. These sold in their millions (Martignette, 1996 p 33)
Skin rags: Gentlemen’s Fair
The Covent Garden Magazine was first erotic periodical in UK and emerged in 1773. The Pearl or Journal of Faceriae and voluptuous reading ran from 1879 to 1886 and contained 36 obscene coloured lithographs. In 1783, The Rambler’s Magazine (alternative title: The annals of gallantry, glee, pleasure and the bon ton: Calculated for the entertainment of the polite world) was another popular read. One of the more respected publishers and celebrated eroticist of the nineteenth century was Mary Wilson who produced a wide variety of material but it was not clear whether these were exclusively for men. It took until the First World War before the pin up appeared in specialised magazines. Until then they were featured in popular reading of general interest. The US was by far the greatest consumer and producer of art magazines, girlie mags and Hollywood fan mags. France came second but well behind North America. French girls had a special allure in the minds of young Americans and they appeared to regard French women as more exotic and sexually sophisticated than their own women. This may have had something to do with the famous French prostitutes in New Orleans. The leading magazine during WWI was Captain Willy’s Whiz Bang, published by Fawcett Publications (NY) priced 25 cents. In 1926 it had a circulation of 425,000. The first girly magazines were intended to be respectable empathically and not pornographic. The Esquire Monthly was published from 1933. It was directed at the fashionable elite male and included in the first issue a pin-up drawn by George Petty (Curtis 1997 p, 83). In the ensuing years the Petty Girl rivalled the Gibson Girl for popularity (Austin, 1997 p. 33). She was always accompanied with a humorous caption and the artist’s themes dealt with marital infidelity, promiscuity, money, and flirtation, to appeal to high-class sophistication and humour. One reason why the paint medium was chosen was to celebrate the femininity of American women (Martignett, 1996, p. 33.) Many of the pin-ups were two-three page foldouts.
In 1941 the Memphis Belle (p. 95)
The Petty girl last appeared in Esquire in December 1941 and was replaced by the Varga Girl (drawn by Albeto Vargas). She started to feature from October 1940 and continued until 1946. No longer in cartoon form the drawings were accompanied by humorous verse. Both the Petty Girl and Varga Girl were sex objects, vivid yet unreal, functioning in their own world, and representing the fantasies of men. In accord with the times Varga Girl was patriotic and a film favourite with the enlisted men. Both beauties appeared as ‘nose art” (Martignette 1996 p.43) on planes and tanks as lucky talismen (Gabor 1996 p. 77).
By World War II there were many more girlie mags for the troops including the Reveille (UK). By far the modest famous pin–up during the second world war was Betty Grable and her million dollar legs. The image first appeared in Times overseas edition, 1942) but also was reproduced in Yank, the official GI magazine. She was a` lucky talisman for the men at war. In the late 1940s Alberto Vargas left Esquire and the sophisticated men's magazine tried to find a replacement among the most talented commercial artists of the day. These included such gifted commercial artists as Ward Bennett, Ren Wicks, Robert Patterson, Eddie Chan and Al Moore. However none of their creations reached the pinnacle of the Petty and Varga Girls. By 1958 Esquire had shown its last pin-up collage and Playboy had taken over the mantle. (Gabor, 1996 p.77). Playboy first appeared in 1953 and was a man’s magazine dedicated to the indoor, sophisticated, city dweller. Hugh Hefner, Playboy’s founder, was keen to re-energise the essence of the pin–up days of Esquire with a magazine dedicated to sensuous pleasure. In the first edition, December 1953, Playboy featured articles by Norman Holland and Bob Norman among others including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The ‘Sweatheart of the month’ was Marilyn Monroe (photographed by Tom Kelley) (Playboy magazine archive –1953, 2003). The photo pin-up became progressively bolder yet despite featuring some of the most beautiful women in the world these images were contrived into was an idealised forms with clever ‘touch ups’ and removal of skin blemishes and image editing. In truth the images were no different from the pin up images of Petty and Varga. The term lifelike would be appropriate and the same description may be attributed to computer generated images of, today’s Gibson Girl, Ms Lara Croft. Playboy continued with the popular genre of young vulnerable women in the same tradition of early years. Eg ‘The Adventures of Little Annie Fanny’. History records there was much criticism from the feminist movement at the time, and the ‘Playmates’ was considered to represent the worst features of male chauvinism. The drawings of Alberto Vargas began to appear in Playboy during the 60s and 70s.
The unprecedented popularity of Playboy brought many imitators, the majority of which were inferior quality but several had stand out graphic design and photography. In the UK, Penthouse started in 1965 and was followed by Mayfair (1966), and Men Only (1971). Penthouse was aimed at a more mature readership and contained more risqué pin-ups. Penthouse Pets were less servile and had the independent spirit of the Gibson Girl with an appeal to the young. The magazine was the first to included pubic hair (April edition 1970). When Hustler (US) stripped away the need for pseudo-sophisticated content and romanticised photography, the cheesecake days were numbered. From the 70s onwards the popularity for graphic beauties faded as the need for more photographic exhibits took hold and the traditional pin-up became passé. (Turczyn, C The Gallery of forgotten girlie magazines).
Queen Fetishist
After the Second World War material started to become more raunchy. Between 1942 and 1958, Robert Harrison published a range of cheesecake and humorous photostories. His maxim was ‘girl’s gags and giggles’ (Riemschneider, 2001). Harrison’s crop of girlie magazines included; Beauty Parade: The World’s loveliest girls (1942-1956); Eyeful: Glorifying the American Girl (1943-1955); Titter : Americas Merriest Magazine (1943-1955); Wink: A whirl of girls (1944-1955); and Flirt: A fresh magazine (1947-1955). The successful publisher did not approve of nudity and had his girls caught in slapstick situations with apt captions to match the situation. Only the covers of the magazines were drawn whereas the contents were photographs in black and white. The models were most scantily clad. The eye-catching dust covers were painted by many well known artists including Peter Driben, Earl Morgan, and Billy De Voss. Being formally trained their fresh, tasteful pin up illustrations satisfied all aesthetic standards. Wink followed the formula developed for Beauty Parade but did contain two innovations to set it apart from its rivals, The first was a strong fetish element added to the photo stories. Wink contained girls in chains, whip wielding "wild sirens" and spanking stories. The magazine also ran a reprint of John Willie's "Sweet Gwendoline" comic strip, a double page bondage saga concerning the exploits of Sweet Gwendoline and the dastardly Sir d'Arcy (see picture). For a quarter of a century in the UK, Jane, a comic pin up, appeared in the Daily Mirror (London) (1932 –1959). Many of her comic adventures found her involved in bondage. Eric Stanton was a pioneer in erotic art and founding father of fetish art. Rated alongside, John Willie, both artists featured in magazines produced by publisher Irving Klaw in the 50s. The latter was a photographer whereas Eric Stanton was a graduate of the New York, School of Visual Arts. From 1958 to 1966, he shared a studio with his friend Steve Ditko (creator of Spiderman). They collaborated and Stanton drew the outlines of the comic adventures in India ink and Ditko hand-coloured them. Most of his works were for private commissions but his fame came via mail-order picture stories featuring elaborate, imaginative drawings of plump breasts, tight buns, stiletto heels all incorporated into soft contemporary bondage. According to Hanson (2001), the artist recognised the feminist struggle evoked a strong sexual arousal in men, harbouring guilt for female submission. Among active feminists he was acknowledged as a male feminist in his popular dominance fantasies. By the late sixties and seventies Stanton’s work was featured in transvestite magazines. From the 50s photographers like Elmer Batters had specialised in leg art. The traditional Cheesecake had featured complete body studies but from the late 60s onwards more fetishistic images appeared in the plethora of magazines catering for niche interests. Publications such as Black Silk Stockings, Leg-O-Rama, Nylon Double Take, Sheer Delight, Tip Top and Thigh High all featured Batters’ works. The artist had been very much influenced by Elvgreen’s art of World War II. As a photographer he wanted to create the same allure for legs as had been previously centred on breasts. His favourite subject was Caruska. She had an amply proportioned figure with a cherub type face and according to the artist “ legs from the tip of her toes to the tops of her hose.” Her calves were well formed her feet highly arched with, flexible toes and curved heels. Whilst the eighties witnessed the end of the Cheesecake tease era to be replaced by more explicit pornography there was a bondage-cross over to fashion in the new youth culture of Punk. Inspired by mail order catalogues and fetish magazines of the 40s and 50s, the English painter Alan Jones ironically took the Cheesecake fetishist theme into high art during the Pop Art Movement of the 60s and 70s. Like Stanton he was interested in gender qualities and this became a constant theme throughout his works, often iconically represented by the symbolism of legs, high-heeled shoes and colours. (The pocket library of art: Alan Jones London: Brockhampton Press 1997).
Calenders and Posters
Brown and Bigelow of Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA) became the first and largest calendar company in the world (Reed 1996, p. 16). They company started in 1896 (Martignette, 1996 p 34) and set the glamour art standard for the industry. The first girlie calendar was Colette (1903), taken from a painting by the Italian, Angelo Asti. Sales were sufficient to encourage the company to start a series of pin-up style calendars in 1904. The company were keen to avoid stark nudity and the studies showed provocative but clothed girls in topical, allegorical, or exotic settings. Rolf Armstrong was engaged to draw some of these beauties. In the 20s the artist had become well know as an artist for magazine covers and song sheets with his girls with dazzlingly smiles, flowingly hair and supple limbs. The first nude pin up calendar appeared in 1913, the year the Great War ended. September Morn was inspired by an oil painting by Paul Chabas (1869-1937), entitled Matinee Septembre. It had become a cause cėlèbre when the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice objected to its suggestiveness. The image was pirated, reproduced on calendars and sold in its millions (Gabor 1996 p.22; p.177). By the 40s, Brown and Bigelow were making one image girlie calendars or ‘hangers’ (Martignette, 1996 p. 33), exclusively for a retail market and producing sexier pin-ups aimed at the GI market. Many of these were drawn by Gil Elvgren whose heroines were often caught in humorous but distressing situations. An Elvgren model was never portrayed as a femme fatale rather the girl next door whose charms were revealed in that fleeting instant when she's been caught unaware in what might be an embarrassing situation. The elements conspired in divesting her of her clothing. The artist’s exquisite oils and lush brush stroke, technique made his gorgeous girls appear as glowing wonders. In 1937, Gil began painting calendar pin-ups for Louis F. Dow, another one of America's leading publishing companies. These pin ups were easily recognizable because they were signed with a printed version of Elvgren's name, as opposed to his later cursive signature. When contracted to Brown and Bigelow, he turned out twenty calendar girls each year, ranging from cowgirls of the golden west to sultry sirens of the Riviera. Elvgren looked for models with vitality and personality, and chose young girls who were new to the modelling business. He felt the ideal pin-up was a fifteen-year-old face on a twenty-year-old body, so he combined the two. Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) worked for Esquire magazine and produced the Varga Calender (1941). After Al Moore's three-year solo stint as Esquire calendar artist, the 1952 edition presented the next batch of contenders, including Robert Patterson, Ward Bennett, Ren Wicks and Chiriaka. The ultra-modern, even harsh style of, Mike Ludlow brought the famed calendar series to a close in 1957, by which time Playboy's similar but photographic calendars had made Esquire's painted ladies an anachronism. Even by 1951 photographic pin-ups had became more popular with perhaps the most famous, Marilyn Monroe (1951), published by John Baumgarth Co. (g.p.177). Despite this Brown & Bigelow continued to produce artist rendered pin-ups until 1970s. Throughout the 60s the art reflected the sexual revolution with a much bolder style. Fritz Willis was the last major pin-up artist and was recognised for depicting brazenly sensual '60s women in semi-nude disarray.
By the middle of the nineteenth century posters were used to advertise events. Parisian, Jules Cheret (1836-1932) was a dominant figure and used Japanese woodcut techniques to produce brightly coloured figures of sensuous and careful carousal. His subjects displayed delicate limbs and torsos, beneath gossamer garments. Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) was inspired and produced more sensual figures but with less ecstatic allure of his mentor. In the early movement the most popular poster subject was Loie Fuller, an American actress, who starred at the Folies Bergere in Paris (1893). (Gabor, 1996 p. 201) The peak of pin-up poster popularity spanned 1914 to 1960. During the war years, posters took on vitriolic roles and glamorised war but paper shortages meant the poster had less impact. Throughout 20s and 30s posters emphasised less sex appeal with more on good looks, health and cheerfulness as the Western World slavishly followed the body beautiful. The introduction of television had an immense impact and posters they were relegated to ‘lobby art’. (Gabor 1996, p.203). Post 60s, improved printing combined with digitally enhanced photography has given new life to the art form, which appeals to the young.
Censorship
As more fetish type girlie magazines sold in their millions more concerns were expressed as to the effects of obscene publication on social order in 1954 a New York psychiatrist, Fredric Wertham, published a sustained attack on the comic book industry. He convinced many the violent and sadistic contents of comic books would lead to the breakdown of common order and the destruction of ‘Christian civilisation’(Finnane, 1998 p. 49). His works were widely (and wildly) cited to bolster the fight against comics across the western world. From this time onwards the graphic depiction of torture was illegal in comic books. In Australia the ensuing legislation was aimed not just at comics but other forms of mass media including detective novels, romance magazines and the growing number of male-orientated sex magazines (Finnane, 1998 p. 50). According to Shiell (1998) strong censorship laws were such a disincentive there were no examples of Australian cheesecake magazines. Unger (1998 p 69-79) described the works of Kath O’Brien, Australian penman and her creation Wanda the war girl (1942). In the fashion of Jane, she was young, shapely and glamorous and partook in crime and mystery type adventures. In 1949 Moira Bertram was another Australian artist who used a legs, thighs and a glimpse of silk stockings to feminize her villains (Unger, 1998 p.77).
Bibliography
Brown, R. A. Spiry card sets Kitchen Sink Press
Robert A. Brown's two Spiry card
Smilby, F. 1981 Stolen Sweets Playboy Press
The Ilustrated Book of Sexual records 1974,1982,1997-2001 G.L. Simons.
List of magazines can be found at: 1950 –60’s Mens Magazines
http://www.erosarchives.com/fifties.htm 2000.
References
Austin, R. 1997 Petty: The classic pin-up art of George Petty New York
Barker, R. 1977 Sauce London: Hodder & Stoughton
Barker, R. 1979 Gentleman’s relish 1979 London: Hodder & Stoughton
Belle epoque nudes London: Hachette 2000
Bergen, RK 1996 Wife rape: Understanding the response of survivors and service providers Thousand Oaks,CA : Sage.
Bishop, C, Osthelder X. 2001 Sexualia: From prehistory to cyberspace Cologne: Konemann
Bohm-Duchen, M 1992 Themes in art: The nude London: Scala Publications
Bonynge, R 1998 A collector’s guide to theatrical postcards London: Grange Books
Curtis, DG 1997 Perspective on acquaintance Rape http://www.aaets.org/arts/art13.htm The Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.
Elmer Batters Köln: Taschen 1996
Elmer Batters: The Caruska Sittings Köln: Taschen 1996
Finkelhor, D & Yllo, K 1985 Licence to rape: Sexual abuse of wives NY: Rinehart & Winston.
http://www.eroticadrawings.com/unabash/an12en12.txt
Finnane M ‘A moral miasma’ comics and censorship in the 1950s In Shiell A (ed.) 1998 Bonzer : Australian comics 1900s-1990s Redhill South Victoria: Elgua Media. 49-67
Gabor, M. 1996 The pin-up:a modest history Taschen: Köln
Gibson-Girls: Charles Dana Gibson’s elegant drawings captured the spirit of the age http://www.gibson-girls.com
Hanson, D 2001 The fetish king In Schmidt N (ed) Eric Stanton: Renunion in ropes & other stories Köln: Taschen 6-9.
Holland S 1993 The mushroon jungle: A history of postwar paperback publishing Westbury: Zeon Books.
Jones, A. 1979 Sheer magic NY: Congreve Publishing Co.
John Willie’s Bizarre Köln: Taschen 1996
Koetzle M, & Scheid U 1994 Feu d’Amour: Seductive Smoke Köln:Benedikt Taschen
Kroll, E (ed) 1996 Eric Stanton: For the man who knows his place Kőln: Taschen
Martignette C The Great American Pin up In etc p 33
Martignette C G Meisel L K 1996 The great American pin-up Köln: Taschen
Myer, S E America greatest illustrators
Néret, G. 2001 Dessous: Lingerie as erotic weapon Köln: Taschen .
Néret, G. 2001 Erotica: 19th Century : From Courbet to Gauguin Köln: Taschen.
Reed WA 1996 In Martignette & Meisel
Riemschneider, B (Ed.) 2001Pin-ups Köln: Taschen.
Robson, D 1995 The art of the nude NY: Shooting Star Press
The pocket library of art: Alan Jones London: Brockhampton Press 1997
Shiell A (ed.) 1998 Bonzer : Australian comics 1900s-1990s Redhill South Victoria: Elgua Media. Turczyn, C. 2003 The Gallery of Forgotten Girlie Mags http://www.popcultmag.com/oddglimpses/mensmags/mens1.html
WonderClub.com Playboy magazine archive –1953 http://wonderclub.com/magazines/playboy/playboy_magazine_1953.htm
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Bunions
The term bunion probably comes from the Old French word "bugne, "meaning "a swelling caused by a blow."
To the uninitiated, a bunion is a fluid filled sac (like a balloon) which appears over the base of the big toe. The bursa may lie dormant or become inflamed (bursitis) due to shearing against shoes. Initially the fluid filled sac is a protection for the joint but can become a problem on its own. What most people refer to when they talk about bunions is a bony malalignment at the same part of the foot which results in an often unsightly bump on the inside of the foot at the base of the big toe. This is called hallux abducto valgus. In some cases as the conditions worsens then the great toe lies over (or under the second toe frequently partially dislocating it causing a hammer toe. The damaged joints are subject to further bursitis and/or arthritis (osteoarthrosis). No one has ever been recorded as being born with bunions or hallux abductio valgus but many people may have a genetic disposition. Bunions and HAV, affect women more than men and the condition may be exacerbated by ill-fitting shoes, but this is rarely the cause. Discomfort from bunions include swollen, tender, big toe joints and joint pain, stiffness and lack of function may accompany HAV can be alleviated by conservative means. Surgery although an option should never be considered unless no alternative can be found. Whilst 85% of patients are reported to be satisfied by surgery, the procedures are not minor and can have complications such as long healing times, delayed return to work as well as imperfect results. People living with developing bunions can try a variety of conservative treatments, including wearing wider-toed shoes and foot orthoses to help restore proper balance in the foot. Persistent pain calls for more drastic measures. Depending on the type and severity, and the age and activity level of the person, there are several operating procedures commonly carried out in Australia. By far the most preferred method involves reconstruction of the large bone which supports the big toe. This has two main attractions; it keeps the joint intact as well as allowing the joint to appear straight. Sometimes a wedge of bone may be removed or an area may be fused to keep it in position. Pins may be inserted and surrounding ligaments, tendons and nerves often must be realigned with the bones. In some cases, a walking cast may be required. Full recovery may take a year albeit this is the exception rather than the rule. One reason for not getting the surgery done is to be able to revert back to high fashion ill fitted shoes. Sadly, even with a perfect job, reoccurrence of the deviation of the toe does arise and although, for the majority, this does not involve irritating symptoms, surgery is not a cure.
To the uninitiated, a bunion is a fluid filled sac (like a balloon) which appears over the base of the big toe. The bursa may lie dormant or become inflamed (bursitis) due to shearing against shoes. Initially the fluid filled sac is a protection for the joint but can become a problem on its own. What most people refer to when they talk about bunions is a bony malalignment at the same part of the foot which results in an often unsightly bump on the inside of the foot at the base of the big toe. This is called hallux abducto valgus. In some cases as the conditions worsens then the great toe lies over (or under the second toe frequently partially dislocating it causing a hammer toe. The damaged joints are subject to further bursitis and/or arthritis (osteoarthrosis). No one has ever been recorded as being born with bunions or hallux abductio valgus but many people may have a genetic disposition. Bunions and HAV, affect women more than men and the condition may be exacerbated by ill-fitting shoes, but this is rarely the cause. Discomfort from bunions include swollen, tender, big toe joints and joint pain, stiffness and lack of function may accompany HAV can be alleviated by conservative means. Surgery although an option should never be considered unless no alternative can be found. Whilst 85% of patients are reported to be satisfied by surgery, the procedures are not minor and can have complications such as long healing times, delayed return to work as well as imperfect results. People living with developing bunions can try a variety of conservative treatments, including wearing wider-toed shoes and foot orthoses to help restore proper balance in the foot. Persistent pain calls for more drastic measures. Depending on the type and severity, and the age and activity level of the person, there are several operating procedures commonly carried out in Australia. By far the most preferred method involves reconstruction of the large bone which supports the big toe. This has two main attractions; it keeps the joint intact as well as allowing the joint to appear straight. Sometimes a wedge of bone may be removed or an area may be fused to keep it in position. Pins may be inserted and surrounding ligaments, tendons and nerves often must be realigned with the bones. In some cases, a walking cast may be required. Full recovery may take a year albeit this is the exception rather than the rule. One reason for not getting the surgery done is to be able to revert back to high fashion ill fitted shoes. Sadly, even with a perfect job, reoccurrence of the deviation of the toe does arise and although, for the majority, this does not involve irritating symptoms, surgery is not a cure.
That'll be the day
Buddy Holly wore brown suede shoes. One of his many hits and popular evergreens was “Peggy Sue” the later “Peggy Sue got married”. The song lyrics relate not to a girlfriend of Buddy but that of Jerry Alison a member of the Crickets. A country girl, they were childhood sweethearts and married early much to the consternation of Buddy. Then for a pop star to be married had less appeal to the young teenagers. Attractive Peggy Sue lacked the sophistication of the city crowd surrounding the Holly cortège. Encouraged by her husband she was sent out to gear up. She bought a pencil tight skirt and fashionable high heels. Later that night she dined with Buddy and Phil Everly, her hero, and respective partners before attending a film premier. Poor Peggy Sue could not negotiate the tight skirt and stumbled over her heels as she emerged from their chauffer driven limo. One of her heels lodged in the subway gate and snapped off. She fell her full self infront of the glitzy New York crowd. Buddy, knight in shining armour, came to her aid. He convinced her to jettison the steels and walk with him barefoot. Now there is tale to tell the foot police that would not let the rock royals in the local cinema here. Buddy Holly came to Australia and landed in Sydney on January 30, 1958. The tour had Jerry Lee Lewis and Paul Anka. Jerry Lee Lewis offended Australian fans finer feeling when he accused them of being so dumb when inebriated as to not be able to tell the difference between piss and beer. To illustrate the point he urinated into a beer bottle in a Brisbane bar, and put it in front of a patron. Sharp as the fellow was quick to recognise it was not his usual brew. In a Melbourne interview Buddy Holly was asked to comment on Johnnie O’Keefe’s version of Jesse Hill’s “ Oop Poop A Doo.” The Texas star drolly replied “Pretty horrible.” Johnnie was present in the studio at the time and dismissed the put down as “(Buddy) you’re hysterical.” O’Keefe was fan of the bespekled Lubbock star. Sadly Holly’s life was cut short along with the Big Bopper and ….. Many rock music historians herald the US musician with being the most influential of the 20th Century. Now that is big shoes to fill..blue suede or otherwise.
Reference
Amburn E 1995 Buddy Holly: A biography NY: St Martin’s Press
Reference
Amburn E 1995 Buddy Holly: A biography NY: St Martin’s Press
Put a sock in it
The noun "sock" comes from the Latin word "soccus," which means "light shoe or slipper," and when "sock" first entered Old English around A.D. 725, it meant a slipper or lightweight shoe. The kind you might wear only indoors and recent finds from Roman Britain, would suggest the Romans started the sartorial splendor of wearing socks with their thongs. By the early 14th century, "sock" had arrived at its modern meaning of "a short stocking covering the ankle and usually part of the calf." Such stockings were (and are) usually worn over the foot and under a heavier pair of shoes. By about 1840 the word sock had become the accepted term describing hose for men and boys. It took until 1880 before it was accepted as clothing for young girls. At first fashion conscious men wore silk socks with suspenders attached to below the knee. Working men wore woollen socks tied up with elastic garters. The phrase 'pull up your socks' is likely to have its origins about this time. Improved kitting techniques and the incorporation of elasticised fibres later in the twentieth century meant socks could stay up on their own with no need for suspender or garter. After World War II and clothing rationing, cotton and wool mixtures provided standard fare for most male fashions. By the end of the twentieth century, clever manipulation of polymer structures not only offered more robust coverings for the feet but also included anti-microbial action, which was used to combat unwanted smells and fungus. The arrangement of shoes-over-socks is important in understanding the common term "knock your socks off." The phrase first appeared in the mid-19th century meaning "to beat or vanquish someone thoroughly," at first used literally to mean to win in a knock-down fistfight so savage that the loser might expect not to only lose his shoes in the fracas but his socks as well. The number of brawlers who actually lost their socks was probably pretty small, but a threat "to knock your socks off" was one of a number of such hyperbolic pugilistic phrases popular at the time, including "knock your lights out" and "knock you into next week." Among the less violent the term came to represent in a more general sense, "to win decisively,” This was applied to all manner of competition. It was a small hop, skip and jump to "to have one's socks knocked off" which meant "to be amazed, delighted, very impressed," as in "The new version of Frank Sinatra’s My Way by Des O’Connor, will blow your socks off." You might retort Des should “Put a sock in it.” Well this means to be quiet and originates from the time of early gramophones which had no volume controls. To play them more quietly you had to put a sock into the trumpet (speaker). If you are tone deaf then you may welcome Des singing by saying “Sock it to me.” We do associate the phrase with 60s, US comedy series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh in. You may recall it was Judy Carne’s catchphrase and thinly implied a sexual invitation, but later this came to mean ‘bring it on.” The phrase “to give someone sock” meant in the late seventeenth century, UK, to give someone a thrashing. The phrase crossed the Atlantic and by 1866, term sock was low slang meaning to hit or punch, to give somebody a heavy blow, to assault or beat someone as in “Having heard enough from Des we socked him on the jaw”. The term sockdolagr was used in boxing vernacular to mean a knockdown blow. Its main claim to fame is that it was virtually the last word President Lincoln ever heard. In Tom Taylor’s play Our American Cousin, there occurs the line “Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologising old man-trap”, and as the audience laughed, John Wilkes Booth fired the fatal shot.
Moccasins or sandals?
Early shoes involved three types: moccasins, sandals, and boots. The style were determined by climate, terrain and life style and hence evolved in different parts of the world almost simultaneously. Sophisticated footwear appeared when crafts were mastered and passed through generations. Clothing historians believe the earliest shoes were probably moccasins, followed by sandals then boots. It is only in the last two centuries that have shoes been mass produced and up until then were handmade at a cost most ordinary people could not afford. Even with today’s mechanised factories, shoes still require considerable manual work, which determines production costs. In an effort to optimise profits, manufacturing companies engage cheaper labour workforces in off shore and developing countries. Units costs are minimised which makes it difficult for home based companies to compete in the marketplace and many in Australia have either diversified or gone to the wall. There are several notable exceptions, of course, but these are rare and exist within the higher priced retail bracket sector. Going off shore for production is a financial reality in today’s competitive global market place. Some multi-national companies have found the temptations to ‘penny pinch’ so attractive they have consistently infringed of the Human Rights of their workers. Inventive defence to continued abuse has met with the rhetoric, ‘better poor working conditions, than no work at all”. To compound the situation the footwear industry is often a stalwart anchor of the national economy of developing countries and many governments are keen to keep the patronage of large international quangos as a priority. This means buying shoes has a political dimension, both in terms of Nationalism as well as maintain the dignity and Human Rights of the workers. The former may appear prominently in the marketing splodge but never the latter. Instead the consumer is bedazzled with “newness” and “more improved” type statements. Since the birth of capitalism, newness has become embedded in our psyche as the ultimate mark of prestige, status and sophistication, a concept so wedded to our innate desire for social recognition that it actually assumes greater importance than the commodities to which it pertains. Consumers are thus led to believe that shopping for fashionable goods is equivalent to gaining a more permanent foothold in the social hierarchy. There’s something to mull over when buying your next pair of shoes
Reference
Rachel Bowlby, 'Modes of Modern Shopping: Mallarmé at the Bon Marché', pp.186-204, in The Ideology of Conduct: essays on literature and the history of sexuality, ed. Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse (New York: Methuen, 1987).
Reference
Rachel Bowlby, 'Modes of Modern Shopping: Mallarmé at the Bon Marché', pp.186-204, in The Ideology of Conduct: essays on literature and the history of sexuality, ed. Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse (New York: Methuen, 1987).
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