Friday, June 4, 2010

Whatever your opinion on bullfighting, this man is elegant



Matador Julio Aparicio leaves hospital after being near-fatally gored. Whatever your opinion on the sport of bullfighting (problematically, I grew up with it and actually really love it) this man is elegant. A few days after being on the verge of death after being gruesomely gored by a bull, he walks out of hospital in full on Sevillian pijo attire. The blue blazer, the crisp button down, and the ASCOT! Such nods to British fashion are common in the garb of Andalusian gentlemen who aspire to look like aristocrats, I noticed while traveling how the all seemed to look like they were at a country estate, about to go on horseback, or were extras in "Brideshead Revisited." Even in 100-degree weather, they were rocking English cut blazers and ties, or better yet, Ascots. They do have an Italian Eurotrash aspect which consists of the slicked back hair referred to as engominado (greased or glued back, I guess in English).

Too Curvy for Shittybank?



This elegant woman claims that she was fired from Shittybank for dressing too provocatively and thus distracting the clients.

Note the fabulous Puerto Rican Neutral pumps - snakeskin.



Note that they pose her in profile, Venus of Hottentot style, the better to racialize her derriere, or, as our National Icon Iris Chacon would refer to it, her "coolan'"



As soon as I saw the pictures, and her creative composite name, Debralee (if you read this blog you know that I am obsessed with Latino and Latin American naming practices), I suspected that this beautiful woman might be Puerto Rican. And I was right, like me, she is the product of a mixed Puerto Rican/European background, in her case, Italian. Her experience at work does not surprise me. I have trouble figuring out what to wear sometimes fearing that my voluptuous figure might make me look provocative. Instead, I might ask myself why do we blame ourselves? I remember a case of a curvy woman who worked at a major museum whose boss (the Director) never once looked at her face in the years she worked there. Literally. At a party, he even brazenly complimented her on her pin (chosen in a vain attempt to close the Diane Von Fursternberg silk wrap dress in the hopes that there would not be too much cleavage showing) as he leered at her chest. Short of dressing in a burka, there's no way to disguise this type of figure fully.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-06-01/news/is-this-woman-too-hot-to-work-in-a-bank?src=newsletter