Tarts on Parade |
by Anne Morse |
I didn't watch the Emmy Awards last night, but when I was online, I did flash through a photo album showing all the stars' gowns. And I wondered the same thing I've wondered in previous years. How is it that good-looking women with unlimited resources cannot manage to make themselves look more attractive? I saw perhaps three actresses who actually looked glamorously beautiful in their gowns.
I think the answer is that there is a limit to how far glamour will go in accomodating tawdriness. It doesn't matter how great a woman's figure (real or enhanced) is, if she's revealing too much (or too much for her age) she just looks kind of tarty--no matter how much money she's spent on her frock. For a glamorous look, women must employ a certain amount of modesty.
Today's tarts...er, actresses, ought to take a page out of Old Hollywood. In the thirties, forties, and fifties, stars knew how to look glamorous. They did not look like tarts, even if they acted like tarts in real life. I'm convinced this is why coffee table books and magazines featuring little besides pictures of long-dead stars still sell briskly. We are fascinated by their timeless glamour.
The Queens, all tarts
Revealed their parts
One September day.
The Knave of Tarts,
He stole the Arts
And took them clean away.
The King of Kings,
He saw these things
And warned us all to fear.
The Knave of Tarts,
Loved darkened hearts
And vowed more skin next year.
Posted by: Lee | September 17, 2007 at 09:13 PM
Last night my wife and I watched "Captain Horation Hornblower" a 1951 movie starring Gregory Peck, my wife's heartthrob, and Virginia Mayo.
Mayo's character was always dressed modestly even tho she was on a warship.
My wife commented those were the days where women were dressed for glamour but still looked sexy.
Today actresses look more like they work in the red light district.
As an aside in the movie all of the sailors treated the Mayo character and her maid quite respectfully.
We have come a long way indeed.
Posted by: Dennis Babish | September 18, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Wow, Lee, nice job! :-)
Posted by: Gina Dalfonzo | September 18, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Looking at a previous topic, I would ad another facet: "What Churches Need by Kim Moreland
Sadly, survey after survey and study after study confirm that Christians live like everyone else. We lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, and so on (which includes Christians' [including me] facination with Hollywood.
I think we (individually and corparately) need to put an end to our fascination. Trying to find descent movies I have looked at some of the oldies. The sexual inuendo and immorality goes way back.
Posted by: Michael Snow | September 18, 2007 at 01:41 PM
As I recall, Jesus hung out with "tarts", but he never called them that.
Posted by: Andy | September 18, 2007 at 01:55 PM
And to Muslims, all the women reading this are 'tarts'.
No defense to Hollywood, but who gets to decide what clothing styles mean?
Shall we focus our energy on the minors, the way we did in the teens and twenties, gaining prohibition but losing the culture?
Posted by: labrialumn | September 18, 2007 at 02:58 PM
Andy:
That's because there was no word for "tart" in Aramaic. As I recall, one of His favorite slurs was "You brood of vipers!"
Posted by: anne morse | September 18, 2007 at 04:13 PM
Get over our "fascination" with films? Films are part of our culture. Our job at BreakPoint is to evaluate and comment on cultural trends. (Hey, somebody has to take a hit for the team!)
Posted by: anne morse | September 18, 2007 at 04:16 PM
Anne,
Christ reserved the "brood of vipers" phrase for hypocrites within the religious community, not common sinners. Actresses fit more within the latter category.
Also, "tart" doesn't fit with the 'criticize with grace' philosophy that Gina blogged about yesterday:
http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/2007/09/blog-a-book-cri.html
Just something to consider.
Posted by: Farley | September 18, 2007 at 08:08 PM
Farley, I would have called them something far stronger. I'd hate to see us get so nicey-nicey that we lose our salt. Remember, Anne didn't single out individual "tart."
Furthermore, as we've recently seen, one steward had the courage to pull aside a scantily clad women and council her only to have people around America wondering why he did it--Christians included.
Posted by: Kim Moreland | September 19, 2007 at 09:13 AM
Last night my wife and I watched "Captain Horation Hornblower" a 1951 movie starring Gregory Peck, my wife's heartthrob, and Virginia Mayo.
Mayo's character was always dressed modestly even tho she was on a warship.
My wife commented those were the days where women were dressed for glamour but still looked sexy.
Today actresses look more like they work in the red light district.
As an aside in the movie all of the sailors treated the Mayo character and her maid quite respectfully.
We have come a long way indeed.
Well actually it doesn't take much delicacy to convince a women to dress modestly when in the view of four-hundred bored drunkards who hadn't seen a woman in six months.
And of course the sailors would treat her respectfully. No one wants to be flogged to death.
Posted by: jason taylor | September 25, 2007 at 08:57 AM