Diary of a Wrinkle

Recently, I traveled to Paris and discovered what all the fuss is about; why people fall in love with this place, and why it’s depicted as the city of romance.  It hit me the moment I arrived, as soon as I left Gare-du-Nord train station and immediately noticed the cobblestone streets and magnificent architecture of the buildings surrounding me.  But that was only the beginning, thankfully there was so much traffic that our taxi could only proceed at a snail’s pace, giving us ample opportunity to absorb everything outside.  The cafes and bakeries along the way were enough to send my head spinning, never had I seen such a vast collection of eateries anywhere else that I’ve visited, or seen so many stores all nestled in such scenic surroundings.  As soon as we arrived at our hotel, near the Eiffel Tower, I could not wait to go out to a local patisserie and eat a baguette and experience a Parisian pastry.  My husband’s pleas to sit in a proper restaurant where he would have space to rest his tired feet went unnoticed by me; all I cared about was satisfying my craving for French baked goods.   The moment I noticed the display of food through the window of the first patisserie that we passed, I could finally relax.  No one spoke English but the language of bread and cake is universal, so there was no problem there.  From that point on Paris, for me, became a city filled with temptation because everywhere I went and saw the signs for a patisserie I knew what treasures stood only one bite away. 

Before you rush to judgment, raise an eyebrow, or wrongly presume that this is a rather taboo or even pornographic essay, relax.  I have promised to summarize for you parts of the book titled The Naked Woman by Dennis Morris, because I think it is truly enlightening information about our bodies, giving us the ability to better understand its functions.  I feel particularly passionate about this information because I have made it my business to encourage women to better appreciate their looks, and view themselves in a more positive light when so many have felt discouraged and unattractive at times.  It’s no surprise that they have felt this way when modern society has had a successful campaign against aging, ultimately rewriting the definition of beauty.  They continuously promote the looks of youth or the perpetual chase after one’s youthful appearance, as the preferred, more acceptable look.  A fact that has rendered so many women disappointed with their looks. My mission is to educate and encourage women to accept and love themselves at any age and any stage of their lives!  Previous blogs have discussed other body parts so obviously the pubic region is no different and deserves a closer look as well.

So why do you have pubic hair in the first place?

Who hasn’t made comments about another woman’s buttocks, either stating that it’s huge, droopy, full of cellulite, or too skinny, or flat . . . we’ve all done it.

Most women that I know are unhappy with their bodies but especially with their buttocks. I promised you that in time, once I have brought to light all that I have learned from a book titled The Naked Woman by Desmond Morris, that you will have a different understanding and appreciation for your body. Truthfully, when I reached the buttocks chapter I thought that in no way will I change my mind about how I feel about my own bottom, but I was wrong.

Once again I have decided to present my readers with more information about the body, based on everything that I have recently learned from a book by Andrew Morris titled The Naked Woman.
I love the way that Morris explains the biology of a certain body part and then goes on to expand on cosmetic trends that it has undergone throughout the centuries.  Alright, so, in our mouths we have a tongue without which one cannot really talk, and if women ever lost their tongues, they would be “robbed of one of their supreme qualities,” says Morris.  It’s not a sexist quip either, but rather an evolutionary fact that women are better able to communicate verbally than their male counterparts!

I promised that I would write about the rest of the female body parts as so beautifully analyzed by Desmond Morris in his book, The Naked Woman, A Study of the Female Body.  This time I am happy to introduce one of my favorite topics, the female lips.  If you’ve read either one of my books, you know how I feel about the subject matter.  But for the purpose of this blog I will write about the author’s enlightening research, and indulge you with some very surprising facts!

Humans are the only ones to have inverted lips in the animal kingdom.  Primates for examples have the fleshy, shiny surface turned toward the outside, while ours is hidden from view.  To answer the question of why our lips look different we must revert back to our evolutionary path.  Morris explains that females have retained childlike features, known as neoteny, also a quality that enhances their appeal to males.  For this reason their lips are more conspicuous, baby-like, thus drawing more attention to themselves.  With the chimp embryo, the fetus at sixteen weeks old has a human-like mouth, sporting the big lips etc., but at twenty six weeks old those lips disappear and become dramatically thinner.  However with humans, that initial fetal design of bigger, swollen lips is carried on.  From an evolutionary perspective, the big lips serve us well when having to cling onto our mother’s breast to feed on milk.

Then why do our lips still remain the same when we are no longer in need of our mother’s breast?

Recently I read a book entitled “The Naked Woman,” A Study of the Female Body, by Desmond Morris.  The information in this book was unbelievably enlightening and entertaining.  I have chosen to write a few highlights from this book in order to peak your interest on a subject that you may otherwise think you know well, but, really, if you are anything like me, then there is so much more that you will discover that you do not know, and you will want to read on.  Things like why did we develop certain physical features throughout our evolution?  What’s their purpose?  Are they really necessary in this time and age?  It’s the type of information that will enable you to look at your body differently and understand your own features.  I cannot explore every body part in this article because I realize that readers respond better to shorter blogs, so I will write about one thing only, and in future blogs I will discuss other body parts. ( Warning, I still wrote a lot, but it’s so interesting!)

I have never enjoyed reading movie reviews, and for this reason I seldom do so.  I have always felt somewhat disturbed by the critics’ ability to decide for everyone else what’s worth watching and what should be avoided at all costs.  Can other people really decide what I am going to enjoy watching, and what I might find boring, offensive, or even stupid?  Definitely not!  When it comes to Woody Allen the reviewers, here in America, have never been kind from the little that I’ve read, and neither have I read the reviews for his latest film for that matter.  But nevertheless, I went on a limb as I usually do, and I saw it for myself, and I fell in love.  This by no means is a review of Woody’s film, I think that if the title intrigues you, and you know something about it, not an opinion but something about the storyline, then you should go and judge it for yourself.

I have chosen to mention his film not only because I was truly entertained and mesmerized by the story, and the setting, but I got the chance to see characters that I have only read about and whose works I have read over the years.  What’s not to like about the 1920s?  In America it was a decade that embodied so much elegance and creativity despite prohibition and violence.

Okay, for those of you wondering what kind of a twisted caption I have chosen for this entry, what can I say, it’s a fact that Israel still deals with the sporadic bombing of its civilians—a tragic reality.  But there is another reality in Israel that is seldom the focus when discussing this region.  I have already expounded on the culinary attributes of Israeli food, and the laizess faire attitude toward aging, but recently I have also discovered that the very country which others might describe as the hotbed for war and political unrest, is one which has slowly taken center stage as a world leader in the revival of ancient beauty and healing practices.  It’s a contradictory notion if you ask me, but also one which stems from an inexorable necessity.  Where there is so much tragedy, it is necessary to develop and thrive, and prove that politics and tragedy do not define the region or its people.

Have you ever wondered what King David’s Skin looked like?  After reading about the growing popularity of new age beauty and health solutions based on ancient Hebrew remedies, I believe that David, although a red head, might have had really good skin nonetheless.

There is so much to read about when it comes to skincare, so many experts, so much advice that it becomes overwhelming.  In the same way that I feel bombarded by the plethora of products for our skin, unsure of what’s good, what’s bad; I feel just as confused and unsure about skincare information.  Never quite sure what I should be reading, what’s reliable and what’s really worth my while.  However, I decided to rely on a proven institution when I read The new Harvard guide to women’s health.  This book was published in 1996 and I’m sure there have been many advances in medicine and knowledge since then, but some of the information which I read I found enlightening all the same, and now I’m going to share it with you.

I have girlfriends from many different backgrounds, all special in their own way, but my girlfriend Solange stands out from all the rest with her unique sense of style and fashion.  She would probably cringe if she read this because she would probably want to be known for her other more profound qualities.  But I continue to write about her in this light because there is nothing wrong with the things I’m about to say. Solange after all is the epitome of a French woman who knows how to keep up her good looks regardless of her age.