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The naked woman of Tours

February 21st 2011 23:13
: Vyoos news
nude woman
An artist's impression of the proposed nude woman statue.

VYOOS EDITORIAL
The French are artistic and when the municipal authorities in Tours, in central France, announced plans for a sensational new statue on a hill overlooking the city, most people approved.


It is true that some dissented. There were those opposed to its size - at 120 feet long and 50 feet high (about 35 by 15 metres), it would be a giant. Others were opposed to the fact that statue would be of an unclothed woman.

Still, those in favour considerably outnumbered those opposed to big art and those with Victorian scruples on nudity.

That changed, however, when it was revealed that the statuesque woman would be reclining, that her legs would be slightly open, and that anatomically precise genitalia would be visible to all.

Especially the students at the Catholic boys school immediately opposite the proposed statue.

Suddenly, about half the residents of Tours are opposed to the statue, creating a dilemma for the authorities.

Should art be forced down the throats, or into the eyeballs, of a community not entirely ready to embrace it?

Of course not. Artists should not have to put up with prudes and obstructionists. If the municipal boffins and school authorities insist on preventing the schoolboys from seeing what they no doubt already have seen a thousand times on the internet, there is an obvious solution - move the school.

montrealgazette.com; image: Postmedia News
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Why Stephen Fry wasn't born to be Wilde

November 1st 2010 10:21
: Vyoos news
Oscar Wilde
The main man: Oscar Wilde

VYOOS EDITORIAL
Stephen Fry annoys me.

I don't find him funny, making him the first British comedian in several generations who hasn't had me in stitches.

I don't find him gay enough. If he's going to trade on his homosexuality, which he does, I want him to register a little higher on the public gaydar.

I don't like his acting. Gosford Park was perfect for me in every way except for the bumbling policeman role which Fry over-acted and under-finessed his way through.

And I don't like his writing.

It is this which is closest to my heart, and leads me to write these mean and foolishly small-minded words (as are all subjective criticisms of art and artists).

It is close to my heart because Stephen Fry draws obvious comparisons with Oscar Wilde and, for a while, before time and repetition disappointed me, I so wanted Fry to be another Wilde.

I think many people did. I suspect there was a popular and populist longing for this to happen. For me, as I suppose it was for most people, it was partly because of a great love for the writing of Oscar, and partly because of a sense of shame of the way Wilde was treated in his day. We deeply wished that he might have lived in more enlightened times so that he could have been openly admired as himself, a gay creative genius, rather than just a creative genius.

I know many people think Stephen Fry has succeeded in recreating the aura, magnetism and success of Oscar Wilde and I, recognising the subjectivity of my reservations, have never made a song, dance or sonnet about them.

Until today.

Today came the news that Stephen Fry, gay oracle wannabe, has given an interview full of opinions about female sexuality.

In an interview published in the November issued of gay magazine Attitude, Fry says women "don't really like sex", just use it to manipulate men into having a relationship, and have to endure sex to snare a man.

Men, said Fry, secretly feel that "they disgust women" because men "find it difficult to believe that females are as interested in sex as they are''.

The proof, when he finally got to it, for Fry's point of view that women are unequal in matters sexual is that women don't hang around public places gasping for it. His point, in case you don't immediately grasp it, is that gay men do.

Stephen Fry has a big mouth and an even bigger head. He annoys me, and if Oscar Wilde were alive today, I'm sure he would agree.

Stephen Fry
The also-ran: Stephen Fry





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British school bans short skirts

June 23rd 2010 13:13
school mini-skirt, st aidans

VYOOS EDITORIAL

A British school has banned teenage girls from wearing skirts.

St Aidan's Church of England High School in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, has decreed that all girls aged 15 and younger must from now on wear trousers.

The reason given by the school is that it wishes to save the girls from attracting unwanted attention. “Very young children, and even more disturbingly, special needs children are clearly wholly unaware of the signals they are giving out,'' it said in a statement

We wish to inform St Aidan’s School that the attention is not unwanted. It is entirely wanted. We would also like to notify St Aidans that becoming aware of the signals sent out by our actions is a crucial part of growing up.

Short skirts were shocking in the early 1960s. They have been part of the fashionscape ever since. That one group of teachers in a small town in Yorkshire should decide to impose a minority, blinkered view and say short skirts are unacceptable is to fly in the face of 50 years of conventional western acceptance.

More important, however, is finding the balance between tolerance and guidance in dealing with teenagers.

The school is saying it doesn’t like the decisions its teenagers are making. It is missing the point that all decisions have repercussions, and we all learn from those repercussions. It’s a fundamental of life in a community. That process is more important for teenagers than any other age group. They stand on the threshold of adulthood, and it is crucial that they be given the freedom, within the relative safety of their home and school environments, to interact with the world and, thereby, learn what works and what doesn’t.

Schools are for learning. If teenagers can not learn there how to think for themselves, they will have to learn later in a less-forgiving environment.
news.com.au
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Doctor, doctor on the wall

March 30th 2010 10:13
future

VYOOS EDITORIAL
In 10 years, according to a British forecast, some important functions of your family doctor will be taken over by your bathroom mirror


[ Click here to read more ]
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