There's an old Sufi saying: "The Devil is a pretty shoe." ...and yes, I'd say we are in Hell.
On the other hand, poor teenager. When girls come into their womanhood, they are all thumbs about expressing their new-found sexual selves/feelings etc. They tend to exaggerate everything: the sexy walk, the make up, the sexy moves, the short skirts etc. But all they're doing, really, is nervously testing the equipment. They don't mean any harm. They have no idea how wonderfully delicious and beautiful they are even without the trappings. Eventually, they learn. Of course, in the meantime, capital can make a buck, so they pander to this.
Joanna
Jurriaan Bendien wrote:
Reflecting on Robbie Williams, Dutch journalist Jan Kuitenbrouwer has some interesting backchat comments on the critique of the political economy of consumption, in a recent issue of the middleclass "Hague Post/Time" magazine (12 March 2004 issue, p. 90), of which I have translated this excerpt:
"I was at the Shoe Giant this week, with my daughter. Shoe Giant is a chainstore in Holland for discount shoes. You can quickly buy a knockoff there of any shoe fashion trend, for a tenth of the price that you would pay for the designer brand that started it a few months' earlier.
My poor daughter was pining for a special type of shoes that is now terribly fashionable (a sort of haha-over-the-top whorepumps model - once upon a time introduced as a kinky statement on a Parisian catwalk, but nowadays readily available for All Ages in every shoe store). But since we refuse to buy them for her, she wanted to buy them from her own pocket money, and that is how we got there.
...... For a short moment, just fleetingly, I had the feeling that I was in hell - where there is no more dignity, no decorum, not even any skin. Just flesh and bones."
