bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

image of fetuses in the womb, medieval/renaissance

image of medieval female anatomy

p. 217

"Nature always plans and aims at absolute perfection she would, if possible, constantly bring forth men; and when a woman is born this is a mistake or defect, and contrary to nature's wishes. This is also the case when someone is blind, or lame, or with some other defect, as again with trees, when so many fruits fail to ripen. Nevertheless, since the blame for the defects must be attributed to nature, who has made them what they are, we ought not to despise them or to fail to give them respect which is their due. But to esteem them to be more than they are seems to me to be manifestly wrong."

Interesting that Nature is considered a feminine force, and this feminine force makes mistakes by making women.

Really interesting that it is manifestly wrong to give women more esteem than they deserve because they are just blatant mistakes, when what seems to me to be real effin manifestly wrong is that women are mistakenly created and nature would like to constantly bring forth men. Okay, so nature wants to constantly bring forth men eh? I guess this would happen by men impregnating each-other right? Of course we all know that men have wombs and ovaries and are TOTALLY capable of reproducing all by themselves. YES, SINCE THIS IS POSSIBLE, IT WOULD SEEM THAT WOMEN ARE TOTAL MISTAKES AND HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PURPOSE ON EARTH, NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER IN THE BIOLOGICAL REASON FOR LIFE WHICH IS PROCREATION!

I just can't understand this justification. Just can't understand it. I want to go back in time and slap all of these "manifestly wrong" men with a biology book- or wait, no- plain common sense. It would behoove them to use (at the very basic level) their eyes and brain. Maybe, men in this time period were mistakenly born with partial eyes and partial brains. Perhaps they had a lot of neuron misfires making thoughts unable to cross the synaptic cleft rendering this whole reason and logic movement stagnant and useless. And their eyes were unable to transmit images to the corresponding lobes of the brain, so they were immediately faced with a problem on their views...

BUT what the hell would I know??? I'm just an effin mistake.

Cereta...

I like her style. I will openly admit that I am attracted to style, whether it's on a garment, in a movie, or written by the pen, I like things with style (sometimes too much for my wallet's good). I really like Cereta's writing style because like she says time is a necklace, I think her letters are necklaces. She strings her words together, like beads, in a way that all of the pieces make an elegant and artfully tasteful piece. It doesn't just hang there, but can be enjoyed and aesthetically appealing.

I don't know how I feel about her disdain for women who concern themselves with fashion. I can see how she would need to fight the mindless consumption of trends and over intensity in the quest for beauty, but I think fashion is another art (think of line, silhouette, color, tonality, emotion, flow, feeling, etc.). I think that an artist (which I consider Cereta to be) should appreciate fashion. Trends and mindless fashion (for example, Louis Vuitton, Uggs)* do not inherently contain pieces of art and must be carefully inspected. I understand Cereta's anger at women who are entirely consumed by looks and perceptions, but please, accept fashion as an art. It seems to me that she was quite proud of the garments she produced- why else would she give the reader such a detailed account of her work?

*there are worthwhile pieces from these labels, just scarce in number... don't hate me please...


(disclaimer, this is from not a renaissance viewpoint)
a little blend of art and fashion

Galliano in galleries?

fashion fight!

how convenient for our class, florence and the f-word

I'll be back!

Okay Petrarch isn't so crazy

As I'm studying for the mid-term I came across Petrarch's sonnet ending with
"The wound remains, although the bow is gone."

The only thing crazy about this is that it's crazy good.

Looking Ahead at Shakespeare

So I was enjoying food, drink, and conversation with my brother's girlfriend, who happens to be a genius. She was an English major at the University of Illinois- her worst collegiate grade as an A-, yes she is bronzed in their library. Anyhoo, as I maintained my bumbling idiot charisma, the conversation shifted to Shakespeare. Her mother has committed Macbeth to memory and Katie grew up with her mother spewing Shakespearian lines around the house. (Our Shakespeare conversation actually started with a line about pomegranates from Macbeth, because her mother would say pomEEEgranate, and we had just ordered pometinis, naturally). She says she has grown to like Shakespeare. I have never been a fan of Shakespeare. Maybe because I had to make a modern Romeo and Juliet rap when I was a freshman in high school. Maybe because his every other word is invented. Maybe it's because he's so popular. Maybe because I hate the most well-known portrait of him (yes, I'm shallow and I care about looks bla bla bla), he just looks gross... Or maybe I've never been mature enough to receive Shakespeare. I don't know, but I certainly hope that I'm ready for Shakespeare in a few weeks.

I'm just not captivated by Shakespeare! Does that make me less of a HUSTie? Somehow my mind needs to make a paradigm shift by the time we start reading Shakespeare so that my class contribution and papers aren't epic failures. Plus, if I'm spending my summer interning at a publishing house in London, I think some knowledge of Shakespeare is umm slightly necessary. Guess this little Juliet needs to get her butt in gear.

It is interesting, that as a child and even now, my most absolute best premier number one all time favoritest movie was/is West Side Story. Rumor has it that I was dancing and singing all the numbers before I could actually walk and talk. And don't even get started on my "Maria dress," you know the white one with the red sash that she wears when she meets Tony at the dance!!! AAAHHHH love it forever. Oh yes, I need to get back on track. Anyway it's ironic that I love that movie so much since it's based off of Romeo and Juliet and I have most often held Shakespeare in disdain. Iron.y.

So to get myself in a more Shakespearian mood, some current music is in store. I leave you with the lyrics of Taylor Swift:

"Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone...

la la la la

It's a love story baby just say YES. Oh. Oh."

Okay so I don't actually know the words at all really...

the end

The famous "Maria dress."