...They speak of us in the language of pastries-
cream puff, tart, cupcake
They drool over us, put their hands in our bodies
Oh honey, Oh sugar
as if plunging into layers of white meringue
We dissolve behind veils and trench coats
our faces soon dimming
the whiskey of their tongues already forgotten
Around us the scent of orchids and tobacco flowers...
-Jeannine Hall Gailey
cream puff, tart, cupcake
They drool over us, put their hands in our bodies
Oh honey, Oh sugar
as if plunging into layers of white meringue
We dissolve behind veils and trench coats
our faces soon dimming
the whiskey of their tongues already forgotten
Around us the scent of orchids and tobacco flowers...
-Jeannine Hall Gailey
Buona sera, signorinas!
There's a little bit of levity in store at Sparkles & Crumbs this evening, honeybuns. As those who have only just stumbled upon this site might not be aware, I am currently in the throes of my Masters thesis in Theology [20,000 words! Mio Greg Peck!]. My topic? How the bodies of women have been treated and represented in the Christian tradition.
Well, a while back, the lovely Kathleen requested that I share a bit more of my studies with you, beloved reader - something which I am happy to do, since it's a subject which I truly believe is more and more urgently food for thought in the world we live in - an age of gossip magazines, casual cosmetic surgery and the Dukan Diet.
Recently, I got hold of a thesis written by a former student who took my degree, on the phenomenon of online cults surrounding anorexia. It was disturbing stuff. Ultimately, women are supposed to have twice the amount of body fat as men - it's tied up with our hormones, and is necessary for fertility. So, what to make of a culture which encourages women to fear every ounce of fat and constantly attempt to slip down? In a seriously skewed way, I believe it's an attempt to deny our role as mature, adult women; to deny our natural functions and fertility; in other words, to hate our bodies.
The more I research the thesis, the more and more I'm horrorstruck by how women have been made to feel ashamed of and alienated by their bodies over the centuries in ways that still ring sadly true today.
The medieval St Jerome encouraged local teenage girls to fast until they stopped menstruating, as a sign that they had finally escaped the curse of Eve.
Von Balthasar - the most influential Catholic theologian of the last century, who informed the attitudes of figures like the former Pope - describes hell as the female body.
Today, an educated woman - Monica Migliorino Miller - calls for sexually surrendered wives, based on the reasoning that because the "vaginal tract is passive" in sex, women should be too, so that when a woman "refuses to surrender, only catastrophe follows." [My notes on this woman's books are punctuated by angry scrawls in the margin: "Really? REALLY?!"]
When it comes to women's attitudes to their own bodies, we're literally stuck in the Middle Ages. All these pro-ana sites would just love good ol' St Jerome!
Here at Sparkles & Crumbs, I say we fly in the face of those miserable saints [and that abominable Snooki from Jersey Shore hawking fad diet pills in adverts at the back of Cosmopolitan - Sophia Loren turns in her grave!] and love - nay, adore, our bodies!
[Darling, we deserve to be worshipped!]
And if you adore something, you take care of it. Let's not starve ourselves, and let's not stuff ourselves with junk. Let's not go crazy calorie-counting on the treadmill, and let's not fester on the sofa 24/7.
My two poster-girls for cherishing my flesh?
Sophia Loren
Who famously declared, "All you see, I owe to spaghetti."
Enough said. Eat like Audrey on her Roman Holiday, bella!
Enough said. Eat like Audrey on her Roman Holiday, bella!
Marilyn Monroe
"I couldn't stand exercise if I had to feel regimented about it.. By nature, I suppose I have a languorous disposition. I hate to do things in a hurried, tense atmosphere, and it is virtually impossible for me to spring out of bed in the morning."
-Marilyn Monroe
I luxuriate in languishing just as much as our mellifluous Ms Monroe - in fact, I've always loathed any kind of team sports [being surrounded by rowers and female rugby players will do that to you], and I can think of nothing worse than plodding on a treadmill in a gym in front of the TV. So deadening for the soul, mais non?
But as I've grown older [and, just perhaps, a little wiser!], I've realised that getting a good stretch and a joyous dance around really is good for you - not to mention, it keeps that fabulous hourglass figure firm! Body love, baby!
The trick, for me, has been to find something fun, flexible... and free! So I grabbed my favourite ladies and got online - now, we gather every other day, put on a fitness video, and gossip our way through it! Here are our favourites - have a try and let me know what you think, darlings! After all, if they can convert lazybones Miss Cakewise here...
♥ I am literally in love with Deanne Berry, of the Call On Me video fame. In this workout, you learn the routine to Call On Me!!
♥ Cassie of Pop Pilates is incredible: her channel is a mix of quick, ten minute exercises focused on specific areas, and longer, full-length classes. I double dare you to try this one without feeling the burn!!
♥ Sadie Nardini's fat burning yoga is faaaabulous.
♥ Go all pick'n'mix with Tiffany Rothe's 10-minute workouts. Boxing? Ballet? Hip-hop? She has it all!
-Marilyn Monroe
I luxuriate in languishing just as much as our mellifluous Ms Monroe - in fact, I've always loathed any kind of team sports [being surrounded by rowers and female rugby players will do that to you], and I can think of nothing worse than plodding on a treadmill in a gym in front of the TV. So deadening for the soul, mais non?
But as I've grown older [and, just perhaps, a little wiser!], I've realised that getting a good stretch and a joyous dance around really is good for you - not to mention, it keeps that fabulous hourglass figure firm! Body love, baby!
The trick, for me, has been to find something fun, flexible... and free! So I grabbed my favourite ladies and got online - now, we gather every other day, put on a fitness video, and gossip our way through it! Here are our favourites - have a try and let me know what you think, darlings! After all, if they can convert lazybones Miss Cakewise here...
♥ I am literally in love with Deanne Berry, of the Call On Me video fame. In this workout, you learn the routine to Call On Me!!
♥ Cassie of Pop Pilates is incredible: her channel is a mix of quick, ten minute exercises focused on specific areas, and longer, full-length classes. I double dare you to try this one without feeling the burn!!
♥ Sadie Nardini's fat burning yoga is faaaabulous.
♥ Go all pick'n'mix with Tiffany Rothe's 10-minute workouts. Boxing? Ballet? Hip-hop? She has it all!
The other morning, I woke up, made love, went on a country walk with a friend and shared a plate of freshly-baked scones and raspberry jam. Now that's what I call balance, bella!
The Sparkles & Crumbs conclusion to my thesis research and its relevance to our daily lives of wondrousness and glamour?
Life is far too short to hate the skin you're in. Make a rude and defiant gesture to St Jerome, and go stretch your legs and have a scone, a la St Sophia instead!
Love, butterscotch and berets xxxx
3 comments:
great post! I love the vid for Call on Me also and need to learn the routine as you shared!! If you lived in the states, i bet you would love S Factor which is a special feminist pole dance free style dance studio that I go to. It's sooo much fun and it really teaches you to reclaim your body, and not be ashamed of being sexy or beautiful, and it gives you a place to be as sexy as you want to be in the form of totally freestyled dances each girl get to do every class. I could go on and on. it's amazing! But it has also really made me more aware of the way men throughout history have tried to make us feel ashamed of being the radiant beings women truly are...because they are scared or want to control us or whatever the reason. I used to think that I had to be thin to be beautiful as well, and struggled with my weight till this year, when through the pole dancing classes I came to see that any woman of any size can be sexy if she is channeling the sexy haha. and now i do consider myself to be very sexy at a us size 12. Anyway. great post and so important to think about. i also love that pic of marilyn zipping up her dress. As always, i love your posts. -v
so true.. but i know there's women out there who are tall and naturally skinny, yet people judge them for being too skinny.. people have to remember that there's different body types out there..and should watch what they say before it hurts someones feelings. anyways great post! i really like the pictures of Marilyn.
Arruda
http://positivesnaps.blogspot.ca/
OH ST JEROME!
For some early church balance (from an unexpected place)
"Some people suppose that women will not keep their sex at the resurrection; but, they say, they will all rise again as men, since God made man out of clay, and woman out of man. For my part, I feel that theirs is the more sensible opinion who have no doubt that there will be both sexes in the resurrection…For the first human beings, before their sin, 'were naked, the man and the woman, and they were not ashamed.'
"Thus while all defects will be removed from those bodies, their essential nature will be preserved. Now a woman's sex is not a defect; it is natural. And in the resurrection it will be free of the necessity of intercourse and childbirth. However, the female organs …will be part of a new beauty, which will not excite the lust of the beholder [and] will arouse the praises of God for his wisdom and compassion”
St Augustine, City of God.
And get that thesis to me when it's finished! xxx
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