Female nudes (as opposed to naked bodies, male or female, to borrow John Berger's distinction), for straight guys, function as fetishes that they need to hide their fear of 'falling short' of the Ideal Manhood (pun intended, of course). On the other hand, straight guys are instructed to run scared from male nudes. Read, for instance, Peter Lehman's _Running Scared: Masculinity and the Representation of the Male Body_ on this subject.
Carl abuses poor Shakespeare:
>Poor choice of words, considering the topic. Let me invoke the newly
>popular Bard: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall
>be no more cakes and ale?"
The bard didn't mean cheesecakes and (blonde & bronze girls in) beer (commercials), however. Shakespeare (who wrote of his beloved, "A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling,/ Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth") had more in common with Derek Jarman than straight guys who drool over the Swimsuit Issue or het porn websites. Watch Jarman's _The Angelic Conversation_, a sublime cinematic representation of male bodies and same-sex eroticism, with the voice-over narration of Judy Dench reading Shakespeare's sonnets.
What is your substance, whereof are you made, That millions of strange shadows on you tend? Since every one hath, every one, one shade, And you, but one, can every shadow lend. Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit Is poorly imitated after you; On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set, And you in Grecian tires are painted new: Speak of the spring and foison of the year; The one doth shadow of your beauty show, The other as your bounty doth appear; And you in every blessed shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
And Doug replies to Jane:
>Actually a porn site, efox.com, reported doesn't have the cash to pay its
>models, but it's been giving them stock options in advance of a hoped-for
>IPO.
Evidently, efox.com is an antithesis of Shakespeare who wrote so slyly and ironically of the impossibility of possession in the dialectics of desire.
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know'st thy estimate: The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate. For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? And for that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, And so my patent back again is swerving. Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking; So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.
In any case, straight guys on lbo empirically demonstrate to me that 'auto-critique' is indeed impossible.
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