The Modern Day Baroque Attitude

In this post I have 3 sections that I want to address that all relate to the Baroque "attitude": Keira Knightly and airbrushing, a YouTube video posted by comedian JennaMarbels, as well as a question I had today in lecture.

First off, Keira Knightly was a principle role in the movie King Arthur. However, Keira also faced troubles with airbrushing. Keira's body lacks the voluptuousness in her breasts, which is why the editors of the movie poster decided to use their Photoshop techniques on her. This was also not the only occasion Knightly had to face this, but also with a Coco Chanel ad.

When Keira Knightly was interview in a People article, I found her comment about beauty very compelling,

"OK, I'm on the cover of a magazine but somebody else does the hair, and the makeup, and airbrushes the f--- out of me – it's not me, it's something other people have created."

I thought she captured the Baroque attitude of saying that visual enhancement is just a lie and not her true self. Similar to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, both women were trying to falsify the portraits of themselves in telling the public that it is not the true image of them.

Moreover, a comedian JennaMarbels posted a YouTube video that is very satirical on female body image. Although Jenna is mocking girls that wear a lot of makeup, she indirectly raises the issue that women are very consumed with how they look. I also thought that Jenna took on this Baroque attitude by implying that makeup is just another way to cover up true beauty and is superficial. When watching the video, I couldn't help but think about the "deception of color" that we talked today about in class as it relates to makeup. The "foolishness" in Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's sonnet about trying to hide ugliness is connected to Jenna's rant about the insanity of women's fixation of needing to deceive people that they are in pretty. After all, Jenna's video title is "How to trick people into thinking you're good looking."

Finally, I wanted to repost my question from today's class:

"Although the Baroque attitude has a negative perspective on superficial appearance change, what do you think the Baroque attitude would be towards transgendered people?"

In my opinion, I think that the Baroque attitude focuses on more on what is "true" and not hiding from reality. Therefore, I would think that if I lived in the Baroque era, my opinion would be this: There is no point in hiding behind deception because we are all going to die, so if someone is transgendered they should get a sex change to remain true at heart. Don't try to avoid fate, but rather embrace it, because hiding who you really are is the same as hiding behind an appearance.

Obviously this is just my opinion and I would love to hear your thoughts!

Link to People Article: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20052654,00.html

Link to JennaMarbels YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYpwAtnywTk