Our society is losing the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. That misunderstands The Natural Order of Things and endangers free expression. It also contradicts the ongoing acceptance by society of images produced by famous photographers, film makers and visual artists.
I was watching a reaction video on YouTube by a young woman viewing Billy Wilder’s 1955 movie Some Like it Hot.
Tom Ewell plays middle age and married Richard Sherman who has a rich and vivid imagination.
Sherman is shown lost in thought when in fact he is daydreaming about women. These Walter Mitty like fantasies fade in and out of the screen but the YouTube reactor doesn’t recognize what they are until some time.
When she does realize these are fantasies she says things like, “That is so stupid,” and “Do men think that is appealing to women?” And, “That’s completely unrealistic.”
Of course they are stupid and unrealistic. They are fantasies. They are by definition unrealistic. They can be light or dark or anything in between and all men have them. This woman has led a very sheltered life. Or our politically correct times have made her think that such things don’t exist.
Richard Sherman’s fantasy life goes out of control when Marilyn Monroe appears as his upstairs neighbor with his wife and kids out of town. Hilarity ensues.
The Seven Year Itch is best remembered for the scene in which Marilyn’s white skirt is blown upwards from the rushing air of a passing subway.
The photo stills from that movie scene made Marilyn Monroe an icon. You can rest assured that many men had fantasies about Marilyn Monroe. And that they still do.
Nude photographs weren’t well tolerated in America’s 1950’s. There was an industry morals committee of some sort that controlled what movies could show. Foreign films brought into America could show more because they were considered artistic. Uh, huh. Bardot got famous that way.
Marilyn’s character at one point plays with this double standard. You have to know that years before, pictures of a young Norma Jean were bought by Hugh Hefner and published in the first issue of Playboy.
Sherman: Why did they ask you to leave?
The Girl: It was so silly. I posed for a picture in U.S. Camera and they got all upset.
Sherman: What was wrong with the picture?
The Girl: It was — it was one of these artistic pictures. On the beach, with driftwood. It got honorable mention.
Sherman: In U.S. Camera?
The Girl: It was called “Textures.”You’d see three different kinds. The driftwood, the sand and me. I got $15 an hour. It took hours and hours.
Sherman: Very interesting line of work.
Artistic, indeed.
That’s the cover story for all the artistic nude photographers who delight in getting young women in their studios to take off their clothes and then sell those images to well paying clients. And auction houses. And art museums. I’ve written on that here (internal link) but everyone knows what is going on.
All of those photos are just expressions of stupid male fantasies. I have some of my fantasies expressed in my own art gallery here (internal link). They’re pretty dark but that’s OK because we are all supposed to be ourselves. Right? And I am an artist. Right?
You think not? Probably not to most in that I am not rich or famous. Money validates everything in this society but we should not value freedom of expression on an individual’s pocketbook. Van Gogh may have sold only one painting in his life and he constantly begged his brother for paint money.
That’s enough for today.
Here’s just 10 out of 90 selections that Barnes & Noble has for sale right now. Amazon has a lot more. As probably WalMart. Everything is excused if it makes corporate America money.
