Sunday, October 16, 2011

Looking Jaunty!!

Beauty and the aging female. What's a gal to do?  Yesterday at coffee I had a somewhat heated discussion with some of the guys and I couldn't help but noticing one friend's obvious propensity to describe a film or television show by stating that a female character is attractive.  On the face of it, not such a bad thing, but as the day wore on I got to thinking....why does this rattle me so?  First, there's the semantic difficulty of a grown man calling a grown woman a "girl" (need I say more?).  And then, the also obvious challenge of experiencing art and acting through a lens in which male characters are interesting or possibly complex and female characters are "really great looking" (I know, LF, we've been here, and how many years ago? The more we learn, the more we forget,  I suppose).  And then there's the habit of being the only woman in the room, and the uncomfortable truth that for some human occupants of this planet, there is a very narrow version of what might make another human being attractive....hmmmm......this was all in my head, my grey matter sort of squishing around yesterday while I walked to the library to meet a notary (papers to sign, alas!) and as I left, another middle aged woman said: "You look so jaunty!"  What a fabulous compliment! I laughed, and swished away, thinking to myself....yeah....I do look jaunty, in my crochet skirt and matching attire.  I LOVE the way I look, and I LOVE the way lots of people look.  So...here's to a lifelong 
pursuit of looking really great, or just plain good, in lots of different ways!!!!!


check out the matching skirts...must be fall!
Open house time....a fab Van Bergen near our home for sale.
Then today it was another great Sunday spent doing chores, needlework, and fiddling with the details of family life.  Ashby and I wandered over to an open house, she on her bike, me in my clogs.  Ashby was delighted with the design of the home ( I must say I was drooling) but alas, where would I stash all my crafts and fifties kitsch?  The next house, if there ever is one, has to be a ginormous mid-century ranch/or mid-century modern, that's just all there is to it.  

Adj.1.jaunty - marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners; "a dapper young man"; "a jaunty red hat"
fashionablestylish - being or in accordance with current social fashions; "fashionable clothing"; "the fashionable side of town"; "a fashionable cafe"
2.jaunty - having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air; "looking chipper, like a man...diverted by his own wit"- Frances G. Patton; "life that is gay, brisk, and debonair"- H.M.Reynolds; "walked with a jaunty step"; "a jaunty optimist"
cheerful - being full of or promoting cheer; having or showing good spirits; "her cheerful nature"; "a cheerful greeting"; "a cheerful room"; "as cheerful as anyone confined to a hospital bed could be"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

3 comments:

  1. You may not know this about yourself, but you pretty much always look jaunty. Poised and ready to rumble.

    As for why "attractiveness" looms so large in the male psyche, I offer this lame excuse.

    This American Life - Testosterone
    transcript

    Look for Act Two.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why offer an excuse if you know it's lame? Nothing wrong with attractiveness, just who gets to define it.

    ReplyDelete