Etiquette.

[jacktellslies]

Last night I went out in a suit and a mask. I've spent the morning lamenting, repenting, rending garments, moaning, wearing ashes, gnashing teeth, and so forth. I'd considered giving up bad art for Lent, but this led me to the obvious conclusion that perhaps I should give up bad manners, instead. My patron saints in dignity, grace, and beauty shall be Emily Post and this distinguished young lady:

Comments

[johnnywar.livejournal.com]

Wow, when I look at that photo, I see someone being mocked. Like when American soldiers make Iraqis do something stupid or silly or "American-like" and take a photo.

Don't mean to bring the room down, or anything, but I just was amazed to have such different reactions. Am I overthinking this?

[earlofgrey.livejournal.com]

No, not at all. Most of the photography of this sort is staged in similar ways. Colonizers got really excited about taking pictures in which they could make the natives look more like the savages that they wanted them to be, making them wear costumes such as grass skirts, spears, bones, or nothing at all. There was also a pornography law in Victorian Britain stating that images on postcards could not show the breasts of white women, which led to a bit of an explosion in sociology as pornography.