LOOK at these!!!

tattooed face of the Ainu women in Japan were seen as a mark of maturity and repel evil spirits! 

Woman Alone by Daïdo Moriyama

Naufghty Nyomi by Holly Randall!

Photographer Juan Muñoz‎ took this woman's image with a Sony A900-85mm F2.2 ISO200 1/80+Flash.

Who A Woman is Valued By

The day after Mrs. Trump's speech at the Republican convention she is under fire in a way men are not subjugated to at this level of achievement and presence in the world-at-large. There is a clever adage circulating the internet one can easily not examine.

"One is our First Lady, she has College Degrees, the other posed semi-nude for money, and she wants to be the next First Lady." is this a too narrow assessment of womanhood? ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7.19.16
 

A light in New York is possible...

Angela Poliv smiling in a dull pink pants suit somewhere in New York.
April 7, 2013

Someone is probably wondering why Angela Poliv is featured several times in my blog; why I think of her as important to look at and write about? She exudes light and lives in New York. The combination intrigues me. How evolved, or grew fascinates me with the questions the process of growth in New York engineers! How light emerges from concrete cities is worthy of thought and study. I wonder what her thoughts, and conversations are like, and what her presence feels like to a New Yorker, or to someone from a more tranquil and reasonable lifestyle in another place in the world? Does she receive people as they are, or is she as tough and indifferent as can be on the streets as other New Yorkers, who say they have to be and appear tough and indifferent to other people's outcomes.

A light is possible in New York. I have relatives there. - Gregory E. Woods 10.18.13

Angela Poliv in a New York museum in white pants suit
April 10, 2013

PAMELA ANDERSON: marriage

I am enamored of Pamela Anderson and her flaws. I find them and enjoy the contrast between what is actually beautiful about her with what is attractive within her and what she wants to project as perfect against her flaws.  She is creative and full of her Self: the self that frees itself from constraints of opinion and dogma. Any of her shows I watch because she continues to grow and re-define herself.

Pamela Anderson's long tresses & beautiful face

She must be a lover of significant and immeasurable emotions and flow patterns. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

KELLY WEARSTLER, author & interior designer. . .

Kelly Wearstler on the eve her book launch in 2009 featuring her book HUE.

model Kelly Wearstler in Converse tennis shoes & black dress !!!!

sacred whore series: CULT of DOMESTICITY

 Sarah Josepha Hale in Godey's Lady book by W.G. Armstrong

According to Barbara Welter, author of the influential essay on this topic, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820–1860" (American Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2, Part i (Summer 1966), pp. 151–174), True Women were to hold the four cardinal virtues:

Piety – believed to be more religious and spiritual than men
Purity – pure in heart, mind, and body
Submission – held in "perpetual childhood" where men dictated all actions and decisions
Domesticity – a division between work and home, encouraged by the Industrial Revolution; men went out in the world to earn a living, home became the woman's domain where a wife created a "haven in a heartless world" for her husband and children...

These ideals and virtues were elaborated on and stressed on by ministers in sermons, and physicians in popular health books. Godey's Lady's Book, which by 1860 had 150,000 subscribers for three dollars a year, was the most widely circulated women's magazine in the United States. It was edited by Sarah Josepha Hale, who strove to spread her concerns for feminine values. The magazine encouraged motherhood as a religious obligation; mothers played a crucial role in preserving the memory of the American Revolution and in securing its legacy by raising the next generation of citizens. The magazine's paintings and pictures illustrated the four virtues, often showing women with children or behind husbands. Fashion was also stressed because a woman had to stay up to date in order to please her husband. Instructions for seamstresses were often included. Most importantly, Godey's Lady's Book proclaimed that, "The perfection of womanhood...is the wife and mother, the center of the family, that magnet that draws man to the domestic altar, that makes him a civilized being, a social Christian," and that, "The wife is truly the light of the home."

After the rise of feminism and the fight for women's rights, the cult of domesticity arose again in the 1950s when television began to present shows that depicted fictional families where the mother would stay at home with the children while the man went to work.

After the Jacksonian Period, 1812 to 1850, had granted universal white male suffrage, extending the right to vote to virtually all white males in America, women believed it was their opportunity for civil liberty. However, even after the Declaration of Sentiments was written at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, the right to vote was not extended to women until 1920. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Domesticity

Sandra Bullock, Giving Back

Sandra Bullock opening health clinic in New Orleans in 2010

"Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Sandra Bullock returned to New Orleans to open a $700,000 health clinic at a local high school on Sunday. "Sometimes tragedies bring out the very best in people and it's one of the reasons why we stand in this school of excellence today," said the Oscar winner at the ceremony..."

alone

FEAR

Many years ago I recall a discussion in a high school classroom with a friend about the controls that one is subjected to in society. To me the paramount factor was fear. The fear of loss is ingrained in one’s personality as one expects from birth such elements of life as warmth and comfort which includes food and being taken care of which later translates into love.

Later, the need for comfort is affected by the feeling of pain. A child learns early that discomfort and pain are not nice and will cry to have these taken care of by a protector or a guardian. The mother is the key person to provide those basic necessities to the infant. Later other humans assist and a feeling of trust is developed.

Fear of discipline comes early at home and later outside the home, and in particular within organizations within which the child participates. These external authorities to the home are increased and intensified through the school years.

There is the fear of being criticized before ones peers, the fear of being punished for improper activities which would include not doing whatever was expected by the school’s authorities. Then, the fear of the police which can be intensified through comic books, stories, film, TV and sometimes through actual contact.

Fear of failure has caused many individuals to avoid participating in activities for example, some students early in their schooling were unwilling to read in school before others as they were subjected to ridicule. Some were actually traumatized. A few teachers even frightened some students to the point of they would lose control of their feeling and understanding of what was going on. Some would actually faint. These early fears would cause blockages in the individual’s development. In fact, some Americans are illiterate as a result of these early schooling experiences.

After schooling came employment. For some individuals finding that first job and keeping that job was difficult. Then the fear of survival in the workplace developed. The need for money was there. The fear of not having enough money for survival became a controlling factor.

Then, the ever present state would dominate the person’s existence. The welfare system, the judicial system, the religious system and other systems all served to control the individual. To break any rules and regulations could result in punishment. Fear of potential punishment had a strong controlling influence on the individual.

My conclusion at that time was that we were all controlled by fear. We were all influenced by war and fighting the enemy. At home we had air raid practices and air raid shelters for there was a fear of an enemy attack using aircraft. Later missiles were included and national defense was strongly oriented towards protection from these potential intrusions.

Now, additional legislation for the protection of our way of living has been introduced; we have different measures of “security." North America needs to be protected not just from any external attack but from the internal. Now, not only is there the fear of some nation doing something to jeopardize our peace and security, we are faced with the possibility of some groups or individuals doing something that would cause physical harm to our society.

We can’t get away from these fears. What is most disturbing is the reduction of freedoms that we have. Big brother is ever watching. Incarceration now is possible if one is suspect, with the withholding of former legal entitlements for contact with the “outside." We do not even know what all of these are. Some organizations are questioning these new laws, their interpretation and their execution.

There is a lingering fear of the American military and other agencies of government that have unquestioned power and control. Homeland security covers so much that our older freedoms are in jeopardy.

We have lived in fear, and fears are increasing. How will American society adapt to these new fears?

BY LOU REEVES