Teaching That No Means Yes, 1900

I’m sure that this was intended to be cute. Indeed, I believe I remember a time when a self of mine would have found it cute. But that time is not now, and that self is not me. In 2017 this “cute” poem and drawing presents as nothing but the the purest spine-chilling rape-culture programming. It’s from The Carolyn Wells Year Book of Old Favorites and New Fancies for 1909, which was a sort of weekly planner with interspersed “light” verse and almanac-type information. The poem at the bottom reads:

The Spelling Lesson

When Venus said: “Spell no for me,”
“N-O,” Dan Cupid wrote with glee,
And smiled at his success;
“Ah, child” said Venus, laughing low,
“We women do not spell it so.
We spell it Y-E-S.”

Art is by Oliver Herford. A footnote (visible on the large version) attributes art and verse both to a 1900 publication Idle Idyls from publisher Dodd Mead and Company.

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Suburban Venus

If you can’t rise from the waves, this is the next best thing:

The photographer and model Rosaleen Ryan calls this “The Birth Of Suburbia”.

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It’s Not The Beach…

…that matters, it’s the company:

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Three Graces On Antidepressants

This image of the Three Graces is from a 1500s-era bridal chest, and is a detail from a painting found here:

Supposedly the nudes represent beauty, mirth, and creativity; if so, all I can figure is that Mirth is the one with her back to us. That, or the painter in question couldn’t paint an ounce of affect or expression with a gallon of paint, because nobody in the painting has anything resembling an upbeat facial expression. I find this odd in a painting that’s supposed to be in celebration of marriage, as per the caption:

Anonymous painter called Pseudo Granacci, Triumph of Venus, c. 1500, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Venus, the goddess of love, here champions good marital conduct. She has captured naughty Cupid and restrains him with her belt. Venus also prepares the way for the Three Graces–representing beauty, mirth, and creativity–shown nude at right. The frequent depiction of restraint, mature guidance, and good feminine behavior was a response to the age disparity common in Renaissance marriages. Thirty-year-old grooms entered into quasi-parental relationships with teen brides whose capacity for virtue was considered dubious.

I’ll betcha those teen brides could smile better than that, though.

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