There’s a rip-roaring dialog happening in the fields (Field Negro), and other blogs, over the latest photographic escapades (here) of supermodel Gisele and Norwegian photographer Solve Sundsbo. Of course, people are debating a cornucopia of welled-up black-white emotions and meaning to the photos of the arguably most beautiful woman juxtaposed with a quartet of handsome black male hard bodies.True to my desire not to be redundant, the pictures sent me cogitating in another direction. For the record, I understand Gisele to be looking for eye-catching manifestations of her beauty and nothing is more so than black and white tension, be it sexy, or King-Kong-ish (ala LeBron James). I’m not offended by this purposeful manipulation, and the shots certainly hit the artistic nail on the head, in my eye. My thoughts, however, went to lions and tigers – the big cats – because they too are beautiful, sexy, dangerous, and cross-cavort (mate) upon exception.
When a male lion mates with a tigress, they produce what’s called a liger – a super-sized big cat, 12-15% bigger, and presumably more dominant, than a lion, the alleged king of the jungle. Now unlike Gisele and her pumped-up photo-suitor, lions and tigers are of the same genus, but different species, taxonomically, but nonetheless can and do mate successfully. My point, however, is that the hint and attraction of crossing the lead of the species, or near species (however that is defined), is a natural curiosity that has analogs throughout history, with and without man’s help.Pictured: Male liger "Hercules", 3 years old, 10ft. 500lbs. At maturity, 1,250lbs. 12ft.
Nearly every species (of the same genus) that ever existed has cross-bred (or attempted), including Neanderthals and Homo-Sapiens, back in the day, be it in Africa, Eurasia and other far flung locales. In some cases, the cross-breeding stuck. Just because we see tigers and lions predominantly with each other today does not mean either is not a more competitive off-spring variant of cat-versions that preceded them.
So as everybody gets their knickers all knotted up over these pictures of Gisele draped in black, and the naughty thoughts of some version of a hook-up that they suggest, just remember that there is not much under the sun and/or moon that is new, and the more we attempt to mandate our ideals, the more evolution laughs in our faces, only to proceed on its own amazing course.
James C. Collier
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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Super Model Gisele Goes Super Taboo, Solve Sundsbo, Miscegenation, Bundchen, Interracial, Acting White
More importantly, recognize the media-created image on display here. A white, but ostensibly "Latin" woman, with a black-as-charcoal African man. Nevermind that Gisele married a handsome if not gargantuan American man - the image the media wants to represent is the ideal: shapely non-American white woman with muscular African man. You think this is taboo!?!? No, this is absolutely mainstream.
ReplyDeleteThe rate of marriage among Black men/white women versus Black women/white men is one hundredfold. Extrapolating that ratio to unmarried sexuality probably yields an even greater disparity. Pop culture glorifies black men, and denigrates white men. Is it any surprise that white women gravitate towards the latter?
Let's face it. Gisele and Tom Brady as a couple do not fit our modern cultural paradigm. Gisele and a larger-than-life Black Kong is more "realistic". So I find it laughable that anyone would describe this pairing as "taboo".
Yeah, really sucks doesn't it, how the media don't encourage us to stick to our own kind. All that black/white miscegnation is a sign of the End Times coming soon. This accelerated race-mixing dilutes a superior race and helps an inferior, violent one gain power it shouldn't have. How IS the white man going to keep a grip on the handle of the whip?
ReplyDeleteAnon 6:03, There are those who deny your existence in this day and age. Your words are living proof that they are wrong. You seem to have quite a grip of your own on that which shall not be named.
ReplyDeleteJCC... did you miss Anon II's obvious sarcasm?
ReplyDeleteThe media is heavily influenced by Jews the same group that pushes the West into the notion of one brown mess with them in charge.
ReplyDeleteOf course white liberals are in the kitchen helping as much as possible no doubt compensating for feelings of white guilt.
Anon 12:15, Perhaps you are correct, but it's kind of hard to tell the sarcasm from the real thing, considering Anon 5:42 (and the other stuff I catch before the ink dries). This is the same stuff people say, in all seriousness, on 'angry white guy' sites I peruse.
ReplyDeleteLebron James has also been paired with the tennis player Maria Sharapova in ads (for some charity, if memory serves), although Sharapova doesn't have his earlobe in her teeth.
ReplyDeleteMaybe because the black-white thing is so old-hat at this point, it doesn't elicit much reaction from me. It's been for decades since Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Maybe that's why the photographer went for the ear-nibbling thing, to try to push the envelope. That is mildly surprising to me, but less so because the man is black than because Gisele just got married and this bit of gratuitously staged intimacy is with someone other than her husband.
Something tells me, though, that this sort of ad might get more of a reaction in Gisele's home state of Rio Grande do Sul, which is a lot whiter and less diverse than the parts of Brazil most Americans are familiar with (e.g., Rio de Janeiro).
Much ado about nothing: Madonna and Mapplethorpe did the jet-black Mandingo (and Sapphire) shtick over a decade ago.
ReplyDeleteAll that's missing from the photos are Zebras....
The problem with the pictures is the same thing that is the problem with this quote of yours:
ReplyDelete"My point, however, is that the hint and attraction of crossing the lead of the species, or near species (however that is defined), is a natural curiosity that has analogs throughout history,"
That is namely the deeply ahistorical and context-lessness of both quote and pictures!
The pictures do not call anything into question, but they do reinstantiate the taboo of White Lady dominated/overwhelmed by Big Black Man that was first emblazoned on film in Birth of a Nation and is now called "Art". What the pics do is reinforce the idea that there is something freakish, Other, or uber-sexual about the Black Male Body that deserves to be used as an Object by this pretty (not the most beautiful) White Woman to pose against.
And make no mistake, they are the Objects against which She poses - the Background against which she performs. Just as Black bodies have always been the Background against which Whiteness performs. Context.
Your comment does the same thing if not worse by making white women and black men downright different species! As if hundreds of years of critical thinking has not happened at all.
And this all makes me very, very sad because Context Exists. Its called History.
There's nothing latin about Gisele, apart from , maybe, the language she speaks. She's a German from Brazil.
ReplyDeleteMaria sharapova didn't get sexual with the black guy maybe because she'd get in serious trouble back home in russia for doing that !
ReplyDeleteKai, where in the picture is anyone dominated or overwhelmed? I don't see it. The average un-scientific Joe can certainly comprehend the analog curiosity/attraction of matches that naturally result in ligers vs. placement of white super models on the arm/ear of studly black athletes. Contrast is not freakish, just illuminating for both. It is political correctness and thought policing (like yours) that fuels the taboo while driving discussion into the back room and away from mixed company. Alternately, it is the plight of millions of habitually disenfranchised blacks that calls their genetic/species status into question, not pictures. I'm just not so sensitive about this, and other manners, of invite to talk about what is substantive for consideration and what is not.
ReplyDelete"So as everybody gets their knickers all knotted up over these pictures of Gisele draped in black, and the naughty thoughts of some version of a hook-up that they suggest, just remember that there is not much under the sun and/or moon that is new, and the more we attempt to mandate our ideals, the more evolution laughs in our faces, only to proceed on its own amazing course."
ReplyDeleteJames,
I don't know how your brain worked to put this story together... but it's brilliant and I loved it!
Thanks man!
bbgcmac, thanks, but you might want to get a CAT scan just to be on the safe side./JC
ReplyDeleteOh who gives a flip. It's a modeling gig. It's about making money for someone that already has more than enough money.
ReplyDeleteAnd we already know hollywood loves the thug/gangsta role. It's purely acceptable for that type these days to kill, rape, impregnate, and do any number of things to women both white and black. Then if you speak out against it you are blasted like Cosby was.
Just more media bologney.
Apparently there's not much going on in the world of the race-obssessed, so its time to microanalyze modeling shots.
ReplyDeleteYawn.
When is Sharpton scheduled for his yearly dose of scheduled table pounding outrage? I'll tune back in then.
Gisele Bundchen looks very mannish...many men do not find her masculinized features very attractive at all.
ReplyDeleteNote to blog: the American fashion industry is run predominately by gay urban Jews.
Studies consistently show that white women are less willing than white men to date non-whites.
ReplyDelete"Several studies support the notion that interracial mate preferences are gendered. For example, white women are more likely than white men to state a white racial preference (Sakai and Johnson, 1997) and report more disapproval from family and friends than white males when they date nonwhites (Miller et al., 2004). White males are also more likely to date nonwhites than their female counterparts (Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan, 1995). In speed dating experiments, women have also been shown to place more emphasis on selecting a same-race partner than men (Fisman et al., 2006)."
For more info see: http://racehist.blogspot.com/2009/04/miscegenation.html
White peoples greed in a world of need.
ReplyDeleteJewish peoples greed in a world of need.
Which one is racist?
Human peoples greed in a world of nature.
ReplyDeletePave paradise, and put up a parking lot.
Greed equals survival. Most liberals I know do not think logically. They think that the problems of two billion poor people in the world can be solved by 310 million Americans and another 700 million people living in Europe. They the liberals have little grasp of reality. They the liberals sacrifice themselves on the guilt altar of political correction.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to the coming Dark Age. With the destruction of the West liberalism dies and maybe from the ashes a new West can emerge no longer burdened by Peter Pan illusions of equality.
I looked into the abyss and saw the Overman floating up to meet me. He wasn't smiling.
wow, look at the tiger in the pic, it's massive!
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs an IQ boost.
ReplyDeleteThe first comment is absolutely delusional. The sad thing is, many oddly insecure white males are seriously under this impression that everyone is against the white man and somehow everyone else has taken his place. The media does not glorify black men; not even close. More like the exact opposite. No one gets a worse image in the media than black males.
ReplyDeleteWhite actors are allowed to be paired up with some of the most beautiful women of color; and they don't have to look like Brad Pitt either (Billy Bob Thorton and James McAvoy immediately come to mind).
It doesn't matter if real life black male/white female couples exist; in media, they're non existent. Which only highlights the fact that it IS taboo. It is FAR from mainstream.
When was the last time you've seen a love scene between a black actor and a white actress? And I'm talking A-list actors and films. Even a kiss on the cheek between a black man and white woman is considered 'controversial' in the 21st century. On the other hand, how many times have you seen Black actresses paired with White actors (including love scenes, many times very graphic) over the years? A Black actress on TV/movies will be paired up with a White actor at one point during their career.