Manifestations of Venus

[Joe Varo]

On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, davemarc wrote:

> Jules writes:
> 
> "The Heroro women
> were not beautiful by our standards. They had huge buttocks --
> grotesque, really, to the modern Anglo-European eye -- and were probably
> the inspiration for the fabled Callipygians, which meant the people with
> beautiful buttocks. This is a problem that many modern black women have
> just had to live with. Their inherited physical beauty is of another
> time and another culture. Ashanti women (and men) had bodies like Roman
> statues -- think of Muhammad Eli, only black as coal. The Masai were
> tall and thin, our basketball stars. I think it is difficult for us to
> realize how physically different the various African peoples were from
> each other."
> 
> On an international list such as this one, it's often unclear what is meant
> when a participant uses words like "our" and "us."  I, for one, do not wish
> to be passively associated as agreeing with the remarks Jules makes in the
> material quoted above.

I most definitely do not want to fan the above two embers into a flame
war, but I think that a comment is called for here.

First of all, I think that Mr. Siegel does rather explicitly say who are
the "our" and "us" to which he refers, i.e. "the modern Anglo-European
eye".

It seems pretty clear to me whom he's referring to and it also seems
pretty clear to me that he is expressing his own opinion.  I don't see
why anyone would fear being "passively associated" with his opinion.

If the need to publicly disavow oneself from Mr. Siegel's comment is so
strong, then perhaps one ought to publicly disavow oneself from Pynchon
for his comments regarding "Negroes" in GR, such as the toilet scene
wherein it is suggested that they're sodomites.

I don't know if this is a case of someone being miffed about Mr. Siegel
posting his comments about the list's "raison d'etre" or a case of
political correctness gone beserk.

Joe