Posted on 05/19/2022 6:57:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Sports Illustrated is making headlines for its annual swimsuit edition again. This year, the magazine featured Yumi Nu, described as “the first plus-sized Asian American model” to make the cover of the swimsuit edition. The decision has garnered a great deal of positive press both for Nu and Sports Illustrated.
Not everyone was impressed, however. Dr. Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist, YouTube personality, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and bestselling author of several books.
Peterson is a complex character -- brilliant and unafraid to stand up to the worst excesses of contemporary culture, a trait that has earned him both widespread respect and equally vociferous loathing. (He has also suffered from depression and crippling anxiety -- no doubt exacerbated by his frequent forays into contentious debates on the most hot-button issues of our time.)
Peterson’s tweet about this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover ignited yet another of his famous firestorms. He wrote: “Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.” The backlash was immediate. In response to his critics, Peterson elaborated in a subsequent tweet: “It’s a conscious progressive attempt to manipulate & retool the notion of beauty, reliant on the idiot philosophy that such preferences are learned & properly changed by those who know better.”
Peterson is entitled to his opinion, of course. In my opinion, his critique is misplaced.
His protests notwithstanding, there is plenty of evidence that historical “notions of beauty” included plumper, more rounded women, and that men have found such women very attractive indeed. Artifacts from antiquity, like the Venus of Willendorf and countless Greek and Roman statues, often depicted goddesses and other female ideals as full-figured. Seventeenth-century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens painted voluptuous women so often that the word "Rubenesque" was coined to describe them -- flatteringly. Even as recently as the 1950s and early 1960s, Marilyn Monroe’s rounded hourglass figure was considered a standard of female beauty.
There are likely evolutionary reasons behind the preference for fleshier women; females with higher percentage of body fat would be better able to bear and nurse offspring (who would themselves then be more likely to survive) even during times of food privation.
The problem isn’t a full-figured model. Ms. Nu is lovely. But the swimsuit she wears on the cover is ugly and unflattering. A well-designed swimsuit would capitalize on her beauty and her build. But a suit that is both too small and flattens a woman’s breasts flatters no one.
Why does this matter? Because it reflects an accelerating cultural trend toward the ugly and vulgar.
The best designers (Charles Worth, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Oscar de la Renta) had a history of creating clothing that was beautiful and flattering to the female form (and male, for that matter), whether the wearer was tall or short, thinner or heavier. But many of today’s celebrated designers are talentless hacks competing in an attention-getting circus of sadism and starvation, appalling ugliness and absurdity. (And if the women’s clothing designers are bad, the men’s designers are worse. If that’s possible.) Yet the elites in the media and entertainment industries rave about their “genius” and “art.” The result is a race to the bottom -- literally.
Even given an ill-fitted suit, the SI cover is modest compared with some of the vulgar extremes indulged in by our entertainers. Take Lizzo, for example, a very pretty but morbidly obese singer who likes to appear in public wearing little more than see-through mesh dresses or fabric floss between the halves of her impressively large posterior. (Including while doing such pedestrian things as attending a gala event or mounting the stairs to her private jet. Don't we all sport thongs -- and nothing else -- while getting into our Lears, Gulfstreams and Bombardiers to attend (ahem) climate change events?)
Inevitably, any criticism prompts loud accusations of “fat shaming.” Nonsense. Objection to that behavior isn't grounded in "lack of body positivity;" it's a rejection of needless vulgarity. Yet again, there is ample evidence that the public can and does value the talent and contributions of female performers, for example, without regard to their body size or shape: Consider “First Lady of Radio” Kate Smith, opera divas Montserrat Caballe and Deborah Voigt, soul legends Aretha Franklin and Jill Scott, hip-hop stars like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott and pop crooner Adele.
Some of these artists made decisions to lose weight. Others remained “comfortable in their own skin,” as it were. The point is that they are (or were) able to appear in public sporting their individual style, but properly clothed.
It's not differently shaped bodies that the cultural elites want us to "celebrate." That, within reason, would be of social value. (Ignoring the serious health consequences of obesity, which the COVID-19 pandemic amplified, is irresponsible.) Rather, it's the complete breakdown of standards of decency in public behavior. And it is just as gross, artless and inappropriate when it's done by the perfectly toned Madonna as it is when Lizzo does it.
Peterson says he has “quit Twitter” following the outrage over his latest tweet. We’ll see. Peterson's personal taste may run to trimmer females, and that is his right, but if he weighs in again, his ire should be focused on the fashion, publishing and entertainment industries, not a woman with -- yes -- a perfectly normal figure.
Voluptuous women are not fat slobs. The woman on the cover of that magazine looked like a fat slob.
They can put obese chicks on magazine covers, but biological is a very tough science to fight with propaganda.
A grossly overweight blubbery woman in a tiny bathing suit is not “voluptuous.”
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Raquel Welch and Sophia Loren are voluptuous. These women are just overweight and out of shape.
“His protests notwithstanding, there is plenty of evidence that historical “notions of beauty” included plumper, more rounded women, and that men have found such women very attractive indeed. “
~~~
There is a problem with this debate, and that’s the attack on masculinity, not just from feminists, but from the woke coalition, with various agendas.
Many men (the kind with circulating testosterone) do find “voluptuous” women attractive, or sexy. But it all depends on how you use that word. To a hetrosexual biological male, that simply means more curves, and in the right places. IE: An hourglass shape, or a pear shaped woman. Those are feminine shapes.
However, the word “voluptuous” is used by various women, groups, and even ad/marketing agencies, as a cover for overweight or obese women. This would be “apple shaped” women, who are not found attractive by most people, including hetero men.
I do not apologize for my non-politically correct analysis of this topic.
“Consider “First Lady of Radio” Kate Smith, opera divas Montserrat Caballe and Deborah Voigt, soul legends Aretha Franklin and Jill Scott, hip-hop stars like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott and pop crooner Adele.”
These women are known for their singing talent. They were never pushed on the public as the beauty ideal for women.
Wow, not a thing about her cellulite or the amount of stuff blocking her arteries and the possibility of diabetes. But hey, fat is the new “black”.
Yumi Nu should write Peterson a giant sized thank you note for making her more famous than she ever would have been.
She’s a pretty woman, with gorgeous hair, but she’s fat
Don't forget dating site profiles. The term, "Voluptuous," really gets stretched to its limits (pun intended) there.
For an athlete, making the cover of SI was an indication that person had reached the highest echelon of sports; there you’d expect to find a Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods, not the 11th man on the bench for an NBA team that failed to make the playoffs (even though that guy was better than 99.99% of kids who ever played college ball),
Similarly, when the SI swimsuit issue comes out, I’m looking for a Kathy Ireland or Elle McPherson, not some random woman with a reasonably pretty face and body that could use some work.
SI is welcome to use its cover to push whatever ideology it’s currently hung up on, but I could see this crap coming decades ago, which is why I cancelled my subscription way back in the 1980’s.
Yumi Nu is a disgusting fat-body!
He would call her fat to her face, but his car only has a half a tank of gas.
A lot of this fat nonsense is because a lot of black women (and men) are fat, and they must be cherished for their size! I have lot many some people in my life, family mostly. Their weight did not make them healthier, far from it. I think of the overweight celebrities who died too young. John Candy, Cass Elliott, Chris Farley... I know it is hard to lose weight, but obesity is deadly.
So, what Sport, exactly, is she good at ?
A girl that size should not be wearing the same clothes as a girl more than half her size. The woman would look fine if she dressed appropriately. Let’s not pretend they are the same.
Wide load warning sings are required.
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