Through searching Google for a front view of an Asian female model, I found a surprising amount of articles and studies on race vs. femininity and race vs. beauty. The comments were the usual, "This is the most racist thing I have ever seen!" but I thought it was quite interesting.

There is this "beauty mask" that some people came up with that supposedly matches most "beautiful people". The closer the features are to this outline, the more beautiful. Of course, this caused a shitstorm because, of course, the mask was Caucasian.

They fit the mask to a Caucasian, an east Asian and an African woman. They all fit it. However, the Asian and the African women had distinctive European traits: thin bridge, smaller top lip, and the Asian woman was not monolided.
I'm not offended by this mask (although the idea that there is a staple "beautiful person" is absurd), rather intrigued. It is very true that most of our country's (and most countries with a larger white population, and even countries like Japan or China) idea of beauty is a white woman with Euro traits. Rarely does a white person imagine a model and think of someone who isn't white. (There are various exceptions, I'm sure. But I'm just using my own experience with people of my area.)

Of course, I'm not speaking for everyone. I personally think that West Asian women and South African women are the most beautiful. While South African women are distinctly more "Euro" than other parts of Africa, West Asian is very different from the usual features you see.

The only thing I thought was wrong about the articles I read was that they were comparing white models to average, middle aged Igbo women (pardon if I spelt that wrong, which I think I did) as their claim that Caucasians are typically more "feminine". This shows the incredible bias that the authors may have. I could be over anaylizing, or being critical. Whether or not they are biased, I thought it was peculiar.

But the biggest problem I see is trying to define beauty as some sort of mathematical or scientific idea. I understand that they are probably using the typical views of beauty in America and Europe (there are definite trends), but not everyone will agree with said generalization. I, for example, disagree strongly with the current standards for beauty. I personally like the women and men of the Greek and Roman eras, and very much from the Georgian and Victorian eras. You typically see shorter, thinner lips and bustier bodies (for the women) in these time periods, with the exception of the Victorian era where a corsetted waist became the ideal. Regardless, it still was a very hourglass shape. This was the opposite in the 20s, where a large bust and curves became somewhat unattractive for most young women. Of course I am not counting women like Mae West or Theda Bara, but they were the sexy, sultry women of the time, rather than the beautiful, striking women.

Another article I read dealt more with femininity vs. race. They compared the faces of a Caucasian woman with typical Euro traits and an African woman with typical African traits, then asked which one is more feminine. (The author had written a very in depth article on the typical view on femininity, which I agreed with.) Typically the obvious choice was the Caucasian.

Then they compared the same Caucasian woman with the African woman in terms of their bodies. Typically the black woman had more curves, a larger bust and backside, which is very much the more feminine shape. The Caucasian women usually were masculinized.

This was interesting because once you saw the full body shots next to each other, it was very obvious that the African women were more feminine. The body has much more of an impact that the face. I think this may be because there are clear ideas of what makes a body masculine or feminine. With a face, it may be more subjective, but a body has very clear distinctions between man and woman.

I'm hoping this doesn't come off as biased or supposedly "racist", but I just found the articles to be interesting, especially because of how in depth they were.

Labels: art, beauty, science

And I just realized that wank may only refer to guys. Hell, I'm not British. My sloppy American brain cannot comprehend slang of any sort. Apparently. Jeez, my last two after school wanks have been so lame. Honest to God, it's driving me crazy. :( I can't do it.

Labels: life, sex

Christ almighty, am I pissed.
I've decided: no more being civil. That's just not my thing, at least not for this long.

Although she has not approached me (God knows I've tried, though), I am just going to take matters in my own hands.

Frankly, I never got to say what I've been wanting to say for the past five years. I've never actually said anything that I've been thinking these past five years and now I just have to, despite there not being an actual "reason" for me to blow up at her. Well, there's plenty of reason, but I'm just going to appear like a lunatic when I just randomly send her a message spouting off.

A risk I'm willing to take. In order to regain complete sanity (for the most part), I feel this is somewhat of an obligation. I've been put through hell because of her and I feel like I have to get truly angry and "discuss" this.

I've just been thinking that... Well, who cares if it lowers me. As long as I make an impression, I don't really care how low I'll seem.

Ah. Well, I'm in class (as usual, I don't use this blog outside of school, it seems). I just need to wait 14 minutes or so. How drab.

I think I'm slowly turning British. I swear to God. I need to stop saying "bloody" and "mum" before I drive myself insane. I damn myself for listening to only English music for the past few months.
No Japanese for me these days. In fact, I've kind of developed a bias towards it. How ironic.
I'm completely humiliated at my tastes from that time. My tastes in many things, now that I think about it. Even my tastes in emoticons.

Oh hell, it's November 10th. I need to get that portrait of Fred done before the 24th. Damn me, I had almost forgotten.
Oh Christ! In my head, I read with a damn British accent! I should probably do something about this, I can imagine it isn't healthy. Strangely, it's almost in the voice of Mr. Bowie. This should probably concern me, but it really doesn't.

Labels: life

I need some new inspiration for my art. Lately, although I've been more imaginitive than I was a few months ago, I feel like my work is cliche or lacks composition. Hell, it just lacks skill, but that's something that will improve other time.
Originality, composition and the subjects of my art can improve right now, though. So, I will work on that.

But, before I do that, I need some subjects to think about. Something that might make for an interesting piece.

So, que thoughts:
Cheese graters
Animal-human hybrids (not furries, for Christ's sake)
Masquerade masks
Human with ... head
-bird
-pig
-sheep
-frog
-elephant
-insects
-ram
-fawn
Nursery Rhymes
-humpty dumpty
Internal organs
"Quirky"
Gears
Strings
Puppetry
Tunnel of Love
Ferris Wheel
Carnival
Vaudeville
Stripes
Moss
Gender
Q-Tip
Music staff

Labels: art

Buh-dum-cssh!

Jesus Christ, I haven't updated the old review blog since the beginning of October. God knows I have no readers anyhow.
So, as usual, I am on the school computer. Because virtually every good site on the Internet is blocked at school, the only thing I can do is spout off random crap for the hour that I have to stay in this class.
Sigh.
Even Cracked is blocked. Nothing inappropriate comes from that site! Why ever would they block it?
So, what to talk about for 40 minutes...

Lately, I've been drawing portraits. Well, maybe making that plural is a little generous. I've only completed one portrait of Klaus Nomi and have began one of Fred. I'm not one to usually be impressed by portraits (no originality can be put into a portrait, for the most part), but I feel the need to begin "honing my skills". Or whatever.
Doing portraits is one of the best ways to learn the structure and proportions of the face, I think. And God knows I have a long way to go in that territory. Even more to improve on in the human anatomy...
Not to mention, you really learn everything about the face you are drawing. Drawing Klaus was really interesting. He was a very beautiful man, no doubt, and I have a greater appreciation for that now. Same goes for Fred (I should probably stop calling him that).

Not to mention you learn more shading techniques through portraits, but I won't go on and on about that.

But I have to say... that Klaus Nomi portrait... Both very quick (in comparison), and very painstaking. It barely took 8 hours, but it was very difficult to get it nearly perfect.
I would scan the portrait, then overlap it over the original image. Then I would set the transparency on the portrait down so I could compare it to the original. Then I would be able to see if I needed to set his eyes differently, recede his hairline or plump his lips. Once I made the changes, I would rescan it and do the same thing. I did this about six times.

It was to my benefit, though. Dare I say, it is as close to perfect as I am capable of. I am still working on the shading, but otherwise it's near completion.

As for my Freddie Mercury portrait...
I feel like it will take a bit longer.
For one thing, I had the perspective completely off in the original draft of the picture. Well, everything was off in the original.
It's very difficult, though. The more symmetrical a person's features are, the easier it is to do a portrait of them. That's why Marilyn Monroe is good for beginners: her features were pretty much as in line as possible.
However.
A particular Mr. Mercury is very, very unsymmetrical. That is giving me pure hell.

I guess we'll just see how it goes. I should stop being so pessimistic.

What else, what else?
Well, I cannot seem to get the laptop to work. Damn spyware. I had my whole essay on the perception of beauty on there, too. I worked pretty damn hard on that, you know. Other than that, I don't think I have anything particularly interesting that I haven't sent to LACIE via email.
I promised Carol to show the essay to her, too. God, just great.
She also asked to see some of my art some time... Hah! Hah! Ohhhh, nooo. I don't think I have a single piece of work that wouldn't disturb or frighten someone.

Speaking of disturbing and frightening people...
Chris and I showed mom some Klaus Nomi last night.
Chris just makes things so tense, though. I would have much preferred to show mom myself, but he seemed to want to share her reactions with me.
I'm planning on showing mom some more this weekend, however. So it's all alright.
As for her thoughts?
God, I don't know. She thinks he looks like Pee-Wee Herman or something. Which makes me sad. Hopefully I can convince her that Klaus was a perfectly... nonthreatening member of society.
Well, regardless of what she thinks of his appearance, I will show her his voice. Without a doubt.

God... Still have 15 minutes or so left. What to talk about for 15 minutes, what to talk about...

Ah!
Voltaire!
The man's music is finally what I've been looking for: it's interesting, dark, humorous and pretty damn good. Darius Greene is going to grow on me, too. But, I can appreciate any man dressed as a mouse. I told him I would convince my friends not to hate mice just so I could show them his music. Have to see what he says when I get home, since Myspace is blocked.

Maybe I'll try to get Chris's head out of his ass sometime soon, too. God, that man is so picky (I almost laughed when I typed "man") about his music. I may be a bit too lenient, I guess, but my God! Chris needs to loosen up! No wonder he only has 19 bands on his Last.fm!
Haha! Pretention! It's a wonderful thing!

Oh hey, 5 minutes left.
Wow, that either shows that I'm a slow typer or have been thinking about what to say for a long time. Barely two paragraphs in 10 minutes... That's so pitiful.

Okay, okay. Done.

Labels: art, Chris, Klaus Nomi, mom, school

Augh, I left my iPod somewhere in the school. I might have left it in my mom's class, and God I hope I did. Honestly, I don't have the money for another, especially one with 80GB+ capacity.

Anyway, on to more important(?) things...

Lately because I'm so damn pretentious, I have been writing papers on beauty. My perception of beautiful, society's perception of beauty and what beauty means as a whole.
I may post the finished product here. Partly because not a soul reads this blog.
I've already posted less formal versions on both my Livejournal and MySpace, but have only gotten one reply (the last time I checked this morning, that is).

So, I won't write much now.
God, I wish I had music to listen to. Stupid iPod.

Anyway, anyway, on to even more important(larger ?) things.
For the first time in God knows how long, I'm actually happy. I'd like to say that the majority of this new-found happiness is from finally breaking ties with that parasite Serenity. Thank God I did.
I get people actually congratulate me now and up front tell me "Good Job".

I really wish I had more interesting things to talk about, but alas, I don't. So is the fate of someone without their iPod.
Luckily for me, I get checked out after this period (yes, no meaningless sixth hour). Hell if I know why, my mom probably just made up a fake doctor's appointment. Again.

Yeah. So, I'll probably draw. Or practice my Japanese. Something like that. God, I miss my iPod.

Labels: beauty, life, school