Sunday, February 2, 2020

Sitting Pretty, Please --- Day 8/300

Walk: Cinema Club (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)
Distance: 3 Miles, Yoga

Adele Haenel and Noemie Merlant in Portrait of a Lady on Fire

So, Ciwt was educated at all girl schools from second grade through college.  Every once in a while at these schools there would be an over the top (to Ciwt) Feminine event.  For instance, at her boarding school on May Day every one of her classmates were made to go outside, take hold of a long streaming ribbon and weave in and out from each other as we circled a Maypole.  She doesn't remember whether they had to wear special flowy gowns to do this but she does remember a wreath of flowers in everyone's hair.

It was awful.  Ciwt got and still gets upset encountering this level of, she guesses, Feminity or Womanhood, or something.  She remembers several of her classmates and teachers actually loving the Maypole dance, and this was even more upsetting and confusing to Ciwt.  How in the world could they - or anybody! - resonate to this stylized, contrived, 'girly' embarassment?  They did, and people do, and it all makes Ciwt feel strange about herself that she is completely, utterly removed from any feeling - except maybe aversion - from this type of behavior.   If this is Femininity, Ciwt will take Vanilla and always has.

So, when it came time to fill out her evaluation form for Portrait of a Lady on Fire at her Cinema Club preview today Ciwt had to write that the movie was so far from her sensibilities she couldn't evaluate it.  She did check the 'Excellent' box though because actually the movie is- if you are on its 2+ hours wavelength.  Like most Pre-Raphaelite paintings, it is very artfully executed but utterly foreign to whatever makes Ciwt tick.
John William Waterhouse, Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus, 1900, o/c

  

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