Out With The Corset!

Rich, clever, educated and trendy, the very young Mary Phelps was being dressed for a high society coming out party. She was horrified to see that they had her firmly encased in a corset with countless whale bones, thin straps and metal hooks. " I am not putting this on" she screamed, " Out with the corset!".

With the help of her maid, they sewed 2 silk scarves together and attached that to her body with some ribbons. It was the very first brassiere, although there had been many similar concoctions. Mary Phelps patented it in 1914 and sold the right to Warners who made it into a proper garment.

That first bra didn't really support, but flatten the chest of the woman (What an idea!)! Quite appropriate at the time thought with the emancipated and madcap flappers of the 20's. It was the Russian immigrant Ida Kaganovich, better known as Ida Rosenthal, who gave the definite rounded shape to the bra, molding it to the female form of breasts by different sized cups. For that Ida Rosenthal created in 1928 the Maidenform company. Following the same route, Warner adopted in 1935 a classification of cups of different sizes with the letters: A,B,C,D.

Mary Phelps didn't dedicate herself to lingerie but to literature, under the name of Caresse Crosby (the surname of her 1st husband). She wrote poetry, cultivated friendship with intellects of her time, and became editor of renowned novelists like Hemingway, Faulkner, D.H. Lawrence, Dorothy Parker, etc. In the 60's she founded the Association of Women Against War and she died in 1970.

During her long life, she had witnessed the unstoppable revolution of the bra which, after the 2nd World War, had become the indispensable garment. She had time to see the strapless bras, which would have been perfect in her youth under the flimsy evening gowns for those endless parties. She had time to also see again that latest revolutionary corset, which had caused her to yell "Out with the corset". Even the more recent outcry: "Out with the bra!"

Tags:Bra,Corset,FashionHistory

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The Call-Girl & The Goat

A Spanish TV channel, Antena 3, is emitting a series called '70€ - Secret diary of a call girl'. It's a strange mixture of sociology, prostitution and dramatic story telling. Perhaps more realistic than dramatic in the way the stories are presented, imitating the style of a documentary without it being one.

I said strange, because within the pattern of usual development of story lines, it's done to resemble reality show, with actors definitely trying not to act, but say and perform their action in a matter of fact way, at times integrating (as if) with the audiences. Out of a blue a character on the screen would suddenly look squarely at the camera, or at the audience, inviting you to participate or reflect your opinion. Or they would talk to you, at you, instead of talking to each other.

At the end of each episode a voice off-screen launches some monologue of morality, perhaps to tone down a bit such a lot of goings on in a fairly high class cat house (thus the 700 € in the title) This part is apparently done by the Women's Institution) about the strength of women, and the weakness of men.

Taking away such pretentiousness and artificiality, the series are well made, but some characters are not quite believable. Like the handsome, charming, sensitive and very lovable primp, who seemed to truly love all his 'girls' and takes great care of them. Or the client who had just had a bitter experience with his wife's infidelity, ending in divorce and hating all women, went to drown his frustration and sorrow in the cat house, but almost immediately fell in love with one of them, (opportunity to show some near violent sexual scenes). All characters had a past, to explain and justify why and how they got to where they are and what they do.

The one last night showed one of the girls, the most unstable one, who went out with her boyfriend. He, with good criterion, says: " You are like a 'puta cabra'." (Puta - prostitute, Cabra - goat) In Spanish a goat is often used to describe someone quite crazy, mad, like 'March hare' in English.

The girl answered: "And which part of me you like more, the prostitute or the goat?"

Tags:CallGirl,Goat,TV

• Current Mood: calm

When Is A Job Not A Job?

An acquaintance and I were chatting over our cups of coffee this morning, but that casual conversation somehow turned into an argument. Maybe not exactly an argument, more a heated discussion in which neither of us wished to buck down.

No idea now how it started; I think it's when he asked me what's my job and I said that I didn't have one. No job? ... Normally a friend who is not exactly a friend would just leave it at that, or perhaps with a non-committal remark like I had heard before: "How nice. A lady of leisure!". Instead he pushed on. The conversation went something like this:

He: "What do you live on then?" (I won't have asked that of someone I don't know pretty well, would you?)

Me: "I do occasional work as a translator for a construction firm, with contracts and correspondence with their English speaking clients. Spanish to English and vice versa."

He: "Then you do have a job. You translate." He retorted

Me: "Well, I work but I don't consider it a job, as it's not a fixed employment."

He: "You get paid, don't you?"

Me: "Yes. On piece work, or on time spent I guess"

He: "That's a job my dear. You work for some company or someone, and you get paid."

Me: "If what I do is considered a job, then I ought to be paid regularly even on certain days when I am not given much to do, I should still get paid, right? But I don't. If I am sick, or not available when called, I don't get paid. Nor do I have any right to claim compensation or redundancy benefit should they suddenly decide they don't need my service any more. Similarly, if I don't feel like it, I can just say no any given day without having to worry about giving notice or wait till they find a replacement."

He: "Anybody who work for or render service to someone or a company for payment is doing a job."

Me: "Yes I work. Some days work very hard too for many hours. But it's not my job. I do it without any contract or specified conditions, and the people I work for are happy to pay me. But they haven't given me a job. I don't have to log in and stay in the office for certain number of hours whether I got anything to do or not. I don't have a job."

It went on and on like that for a while, both sticking to our own guns. I was more than glad when another acquaintance passed by and stopped over to chat for a bit too, thus closed up the argument.

Now I am not as sure as I was whether I have a job or not.

Tags:Job,Work,Employment

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