There is no conspiracy.

[daphnep]

Okay, after a fair amount of interest in my "Improving Aphrodite" post from the other day, I made it public, and I'm happy to see so many people as piqued by the injustice to art and anatomy as I was

Comments

[fantasyecho]

This is an interesting discussion, but I disagree with your defense of the artists of the work. If something is harmful, it is still harmful, no matter what the intent, and the producers of this kind of work need to know it. It's even WORSE when they're not self-conscious of the stupidity they're perpetuating. If someone is being racist, for example, I'm not going to let it slide as them being ignorant of racist history, I'm going to educate them the best I can. At the very least, they'd know what they were doing and could decide whether to continue or to try to subvert their industry.

[daphnep]

In what way do you see it as harmful?

My opinion is that it can only be "harmful" if we confuse these representations with reality--if, perhaps, we take them seriously and wrap up our own self-identities with them. This is why I posted them, and why I think we should all learn to be savvy consumers of visual media. We're in a Photoshop-happy media culture, and once you start looking and really seeing what we're being fed, and what we're all pretending are representations of reality, well, it starts to look downright absurd.

But the great thing is that once you start to notice it, it loses any power. These are nothing but little plastic figurines, and badly-done ones at that.

[miera_c]

My opinion is that it can only be "harmful" if we confuse these representations with reality

But those skinnier statues *are* reality. It's all around us, the constant, overwhelming pressure for women to modify their bodies to a physical standard that the majority of us could never maintain and live with (literally).

I know, rationally, that every image in print is Photoshopped and that the female bodies I see in the media are exceptions, but that doesn't stop the simultaneous stab of self-hatred those images are designed to provoke in me so I will continue to be a good consumer. There's a reason they work after all. They're effective at stimulating body hatred so I'll buy into whatever cure they're selling

[daphnep]

Yes, I understand that the phenomenon of seeing distorted figures everywhere is terrible...and that's why I posted the pictures. I do recognize it as a representation of a larger problem, that's the only reason they're even noteworthy in the first place. We're totally on the same page on that.

But a little perspective reminds us that we do still have the originals, we still have the whole genre of "classic art" as well as the good quality reproductions. And that in this particular case, the statuettes aren't selling anything other than themselves...they're not advertising a cellulite cream, or anything. They're a late-model symptom of the bigger problem, they are not the problem themselves.

And I guess the bottom line is that I can look at images critically and reject them, and it has nothing to do with "floating" through life or some elixir I took from a bottle...it's from years and years of practice at looking at things like these and really seeing them, and calling them out for what they are. Which is why I posted that, and

[angeladunn]

After reading both of your posts and plenty of replies left I think I've reached my point of view (partly) on this subject.

At first seeing the comparisons' all I could think was 'Aww MAN why???' But with the points that people have made on the David and the talk of the proportions for them being as small as they are, it does make sense

[daphnep]

I hear you, so loud and clear. I know all about the jealousy and body insecurities. The thing is, though, that makes this more absurd to me is that what we're looking at isn't simply a "figure that most women couldn't achieve", it's a figure that's not even human. NO woman can achieve it, because it's not anatomically possible. It's a distortion of an image that was itself (as another commenter reminded me) a distortion of a real figure.

And it's pathetic. Imagine for a second that beyond mere clumsiness, the model-maker here is a heterosexual male, and imagine he was sculpting out his fantasy woman. That makes me feel sad for him, because he's longing after something that he will never find, because it doesn't exist on earth. He can never be satisfied

[intricatevision]

Alright, These were made one of two ways. They were either sculpted by hand and then made into molds for mass production Or sculpted on a 3d program and 'printed' using a 3d printer into a resin or wax model for production (the name of the machine escapes me

[daphnep]

Interesting...I don't know about the process, but I think you're right on when you say "All the good ones [3d modelers] are working in hourse at a gaming studio or film studio somewhere".

I think it's the full context that makes these less offensive...somewhere, someone made this. So what? No-one's seeing them. No-one's neccessarily buying them. They're not half as in-our-faces as many much more offensive things are, today.

[daphnep]

I'm saying that in this particular case, all the people messaging me and asking for the contact info for this company are wasting their outrage.

Those people (the ones wanting to write emails) were never gonna buy a statuette in the first place. What happens if I spread that contact info? The whole company is probably three guys with a contact in China and a small warehouse in NJ or somewhere: they open up the company email this morning and find 8000 emails of outrage from anonymous people on the internet. A moment of shock goes through the company. "What? Somebody is criticizing our product on some blog somewhere?"

Then, a funny thing happens...the week goes on, and sales of their products remain exactly the same as they were before. Because all those people who were outraged were never going to buy their products in the first place. Nobody cares if they ever do in the future, either

[daphnep]

Um, no.

First, I am a "businessman", if they come in only the male variety. Secondly, I am far, far too accustomed to hearing customers say "I prefer A" while shelling out money for B. Sometimes the words are actually still coming out of their mouths as they reach for their wallets to prove otherwise. What do I, as a "businessman", do? I go reorder more B.

If I get an angry email saying the customer demands more A, I go check the inventory. If the shelves are still full of the A that hasn't moved in weeks, and B has been reordered three times this week alone, what do I do then? I hit "delete" on the email, and keep reordering B with a shrug. It's not that hard a decision. People say one thing and do another all of the time. When it's with a product (as this discussion is), we listen to the wallets, not the mouths. [There is, however, a point at which those emails could be useful, in the product-development stage, but nobody's even wondered about that, yet, and frankly, given the lack of people in this thread who are actually in

[irishkate]

well said in both blog entries.

I would give a longer reply but so many other commenters have been more eloquent and coherent than I could be.

It is a conspiracy - one we aid and abet every time we buy into it. It is like complaining that the media invades the privacy of people while sales of magazines with telephoto lens pictures of people sell off the racks. Entries like yours are useful to remind us of how ridiculous it can get - how far from fine art these models have gone.