Re: MisK.

[MTARR@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU]

Greetings...

God, I'm really on a roll this week, aren't I?

> IED doesn't appreciate
> being dismissed as one among some huge anonymous group which you
> refer to as "men who want their meat lean and tender". It's an
> insulting generalization. Not only are there a very large number
> of _women_ who share "men"'s aesthetics of female pulchritude,
> but there are certainly a great many men who do _not_ share them.

I wasn't trying to single you out as One Among All Men, IED- I was just trying
to say, admittedly quite badly, that I think the reason KaTe is so anal about
her appearance is that she thinks she positively has to be, or she'll lose some
of her following. 

>    Also, IED would like to point out that Kate herself is not
> entirely guiltless in this matter. For at least the last seven years,
> and arguably since 1978, she has had great, and possibly total, control
> over the official EMI-UK imagery which is used to promote the sale of her
> records. Yet even in the most recent promotional posters and cover
> designs she has seen to it that great pains were taken to touch up the
> photos of her face and body such that she would look "her best". Special
> care has always been taken by Kate, her brother John, and whoever he
> gets to do the touch-up work after he takes his photographs, to
> soften Kate's jawline, the flesh beneath her chin, and the lines
> beneath her eyes. This is a fact which IED, at least, cannot conveniently
> blame on "men who want their meat lean and tender". It is Kate's
> doing, and although IED is sure there is some pressure from her
> record company about the promotional images used to sell her
> records, he is equally sure that Kate has sufficient influence
> to see that they release only those images which she herself approves.
> She is therefore at least partly responsible for the continued
> promotion of an illusory image of Kate Bush the Celebrity,

This just proves my point: throughout the history of Western society people have
been forced to internalize the notion that outward appearance is everything-
men as well as women.  We do it totally unconsciously; hell, I don't like going
to the beach and seeing elephantile women waddling around in bikinis either. 
My point is this: people _do_ care about KaTe's looks, and obviously she does
herself- she has a vested interest in it, for the simple reason that a large
part of her fame has hinged on her beauty.  I think this is sad: people should
like her for her music first, because if she herself wanted to be famous only
for her appearance, she could've become a model.  And wouldn't the world be a
sadder, quieter place for it?

> and as
> such IED doesn't think it's completely unreasonable of him to take
> that aspect of her work into account--at least in some small
> measure--when he enjoys or analyzes it.

It's not unreasonable for you to take that into account at all- I'm just saying
it's rather a shame that we do have to do so.

Now that I've *completely* painted myself into a corner...

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Meredith Tarr			"Looking for a moment that'll never happen
mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu	 Living in the gap between past and future"
Wesleyan University						-KaTe Bush
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