IN WHICH I CONSIDER HOW MACHO MEN PREFER MUCHO WOMEN.
In the Western world, the curvaceous feminine ideal has only sporadically triumphed throughout history — for example, as seen in ancient Greek art — the Venus de Milo — and later, the seventeenth and eighteenth century works of Rubens and Boucher.
In the last hundred years or so, the Goddess has made scattered appearances in Western culture — consider the popularity of big busted and bootied, hourglass figures at the turn of the century — and in the guise of hotties Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg (my beloved avatar), and more recently, Anna Nicole Smith. But for all intents and purposes, our culture’s ideal of womanly beauty has been the body of a fourteen-year-old boy, flat chested and shapeless; just pick up a fashion magazine to confirm this. (Nice as a clothes hanger, perhaps — but anyone up for banging those bones would be cruisin’ for a bruisin.’)
Look to macho and indigenous cultures closer to the equator for the feminine ideal, cultures with legacies of fertility goddesses in their museums, as well as in their DNA — the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa, Mexico, Central and South America, the South Pacific. The Divine Feminine is celebrated in their very cells, and the men tend to gravitate toward the larger women whose hot curves indicate fertility and the ability to nurture, the ultimate biological draw.
In these places, the cultural glorification of this voluptuous version of woman is diluted only by the pervasive influence of American culture, the boyish female body ideal spread through our domination of the world’s entertainment. Because after all, when Hollywood exports a movie, it’s also exporting Angelina Jolie’s possible anorexia — as a norm for beauty. Despite our influence, however, in these cultures the ancient reverence for the Goddess holds strong.
A chocolate is always a welcome, sensual indulgence on your bedtime pillow — but a toothpick? Not so much…
Yours truly,
