Monthly Archives: June 2022

Luncheon on Grass

16 Thursday Jun 2022

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I never liked this painting of Edouard Manet.

Because the women are naked or half naked while the men are fully clothed (with dark and quite heavy clothing, no less). And the foreground man seems to be pontificating. He’s wearing the hat of some students of the time.

As a woman, I felt it to be offensive. And I didn’t like, and still don’t, the display of patronizing way to, once more, assert a supposed superiority of male over female humans. So, pen being mightier than sword, here’s my countermeasure to this ongoing sexism.

It seems to me that the stark contrast shows how shocking it is, because it’s a seldom seen reverse of the “roles”. And it reveals how groomed we have been into thinking it’s ok to see a naked woman sitting between those two clothed men, with her female friend, half naked (or half dressed), knee deep in the pond behind them. Curious.(Original painting below).

This type of fantasist painting also reinforced in the collective consciousness the idea that it’s acceptable for women to be gallivanting in rivers in their undies or have luncheon naked.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it shocked people at the time, just as I was unimpressed when I first saw it. It brought fame to the painter as well as controversy, as Manet knew perfectly well how to use it ( look no further than his “Olympia”).

Art historians deemed this painting his most famous, because Manet brought nature into his painting to a perfect rendition. Ok, maybe. Probably here, fame (because of scandal) morphs into remarkable execution. Yet, I’m not convinced. I’d rather they were ALL naked…

And the fact that the woman breaks the “4th wall”, while unclothed could be read as an invitation for later… intimate games.

It also indicates a rule being broken by Manet.

It’s not a portrait, it’s a group painting. Looking at us, this young lady is showing she’s unashamed of her naked body (a good thing in my book), but in 1863, it could be read differently. And it sure sparked notoriety and controversy. The former because of the latter.

But still….

What kind of idea is that, if not another desire to portray women in a less than respectful way?

This is part of the so called “celebration of femininity” and beauty of the female body.

It’s just another lie to objectify women, evacuating their soul and personnality (and their consent maybe too?) of the equation and letting them know that they have nothing to say about it.

It’s also a trickster way to brainwash visitors into thinking that it’s the way things are and must be perpetuated.

This painting maybe a feat in terms of….. impressionist craft…. but it’s rubbish as to what message it aims at delivering and it’s time society stops celebrating art that devaluates this half of humankind.

Curiously, painting naked female body it ok. But painting or drawing naked male body and you’re bound to receive a warning, even be flagged as offensive and rated R. (hence the little club I had to put on the private parts of this gent for viewer sensitivity and to avoid to shock wordpress) .

As long as its not showing signs of … action… why should it be?

Why naked female body is ok and not male naked body? Why AGAIN a difference of treatment?

This society model is sickening.

But it’s changing, thank God(dess).

The Johnny Depp trial and why it matters

01 Wednesday Jun 2022

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Just my thoughts here, a bit more grave pondering than usual. Bc as Mr Chew said, it’s out showing that the truth is worth fighting for.

Truth hath prevailed. Copyright Florence Vitel


The verdict has been given, and Johnny Depp wins. And with this, it’s all the silenced victims of arrogant abusers that, in a way, win. The gain here is the awareness being brought to unseen abuse, that happens between two ordinary sentences, actions, smiles, even. Behind closed doors, when there’s no witness. The other beneficial thing is that maybe now abused men will be taken seriously and get the strength to speak up.
Behaviors like his abuser inflicted on him are seldom understood by those who have the luck not to have been exposed to it for years. Too often, the abusers are deemed “difficult” to cope with, by not intimate or close family members that do not experience it first hand.
They are not difficult, they’re cruel, they choose to behave that way, they never take responsibility for what they do and they complain about everything regarding their victims.

This trial matters because the abuse that occurs behind closed doors is doubly damaging because people unaware of such behaviours can simply not fathom what it’s like to b on eth receiving end.

This trial matters, because narcissism has been too long discarded as a particular “irritability” of the perpetrators, and such actions, the verbal abuse have gone unchallenged, unpunished, and uncalled, for too long. The Meetoo wave has brought awareness to unwritten rules rampant within the movie industry, the beneficial result being that narcissism was brought to daylight, The personality of 45th president, being the narc he is, with many of his outrageous remarks, has been analyzed by experts and psychologists, and as his gross disrespect and despise for disabled, veterans, women, scouts, religions, etc… has been named for what they are : traits of a narc PD. Thus bringing into the common language and to ordinary people tools and words to understand what they might have been exposed to for so long, but for which they had no way to comprehend aside from a one-fits-all category: difficult.

BPDs and narc personality disorder are better understood, as they are detailed, and documented like never before. Body language experts help us understand the subtleties and signs, psychologists put names on all the manipulation and conniving techniques and tools they use to ensnare their victims. By explaining and giving access to a vocabulary and linking them with patterns of behaviors, they give the abused a path to having their pain and suffering, the very fabric of their painful reality, a possibility first to be precisely mapped out, understood, and recognized. And a path to healing. A key to self-restoration and closure. It gives them space and provides strategies to protect themselves, t finally being able to respond without being invalidated by the abuser. It allows victims to shake off the guilt because society demands we act a certain way. If the abuser is an aging parent, the abused child must nonetheless “honor” and sometimes provide for the said abuser. Well, it begs to consider if an abuser, because he/she is aging, must therefore be forgiven and get away with the cruelty and abuse he/she chose to inflict because it’s easier for a society to close its eyes a little longer to things that prove all is not rosy in modern western civilization.

This trial also draws attention to the fact that men can also and are abused. And shall not be mocked. Johnny Depp had et courage to set his life under the microscope, to get to the truth and have it recognized for what it is. He’s given a voice to silenced abused men, and he’s helped silenced victims of quiet and devastating abuse share their pain and have it recognized and validated. In a good way.


On a personal level, this trial has brought me so much closure, bc my mother is the same type of abuser.
This verdict, the awareness it allows, feels like a breath of fresh air.

Thank you, Mister Depp.