Pretty Women, Petty Readers

All right, so maybe I'm a broken record on this topic, but I wish people would lighten up.

Please tell me what is wrong with pretty women? There seem to be an awful lot of people out there that are offended by something nice to look at.

Take the Post. They ran a cover story about two models, one male, one female. To the horror of readers, they even included a couple of pictures. Here's a couple of letters the Post received after the disturbing images went to print:

“I was quite flabbergasted to find these two models gracing your front page,” wrote J. Raj. “Since when do we take credit for physical attributes that have nothing to do with our efforts and performance? And, looking at people disrobing or revealing their physical attributes is not the reason I buy the Post. There are more pressing issues that need our attention.”

“I have a question for the people who decided to put the picture of Jayde Nicole on the front page: Are you sure you would have wanted younger friends and/or relatives to see it?” asked David W. Lincoln. “If ‘no’ is the answer, why are you treating your audience as second class? What isn’t good enough for your younger friends and relatives ought not to be good enough for anyone.”

Oh, get over yourselves. And as for whether or not I would want my relatives to see the pic of Playmate Jayde Nicole, I can't speak for them, but if they didn't forward me the pic, I'd be pissed.

The Post isn't alone. The old time artists caught some grief for the shocking image of a human body. Here's Goya's Nude Maja, and Clothed Maja. There's all kind of rumours for why he painted the second clothed version, but no one is certain. The best guess is that people freaked at the first full-on depiction of pubic hair in Western art (over 150 years before the Pubic Wars of Playboy/Penthouse). Rather than paint over the original, Goya created a whole new painting. Today, they hang together in the Museo del Prado.

To me, the nude is a beautiful piece of art, while the clothed version looks like he painted it in an afternoon while muttering, "Fine, here you go, prudish morons."





Photo Jayde Nicole: National Post