Shakira, Vanity Fair's "She-Wolf" Inspires Sensual Respectability

Shakira in Armani Privé jacket.. VanityFair.com, Michael Roberts photographer.

Believe it or not, I wake up every morning to Shakira and Howard Buffett. Like a Smart Sensuality beacon, Shakira shines as the top story at A of C, sometimes droppping in page views, as she has with my late posting of her Vanity Fair October 2009 photo spread.

Shakira is our muse, here at Anne of Carversville. I formally crowned her Saint Shakira last week and linked her to Lubna Hussein and my own life mission yesterday: Shakira & Lubna Inspire Smart Sensuality, Smarty Pants Types Saving Mother Earth, Vanilla Version.

Having lived with Shakira’s spirit for months now, the combination of her talent, sensual message and people-centric activism are my best daily vitamin B pill.

When multi-vitamins are my preference, the Anne of Carversville trio of Shakira, Madonna and Angelina Jolie give me such an inspiration jolt that nothing stops me from trying to move mountains for women around the world.

These three Smart Sensuality, Smarty Pants women —  named in honor of Lubna Ahmed Hussein’s arrest for wearing “indecent trousers” in Sudan — never let us forget that sensuality rests comfortably with their activism.  “Forcing” the topic of female sexuality into the arena of what it means to be a “respectable woman” is part of their activist mission, as it is mine.

If you hate Shakira or consider her “immoral”, you won’t be happy with Anne of Carversville.

Like Shakira, we believe that women are empowered in embracing their sensuality, not reduced.

As American and European culture grows more sexually confrontational by the minute — see my Sexy Futures website — women are increasingly subjected to harsh and repressive measures around the world.

We rejoice in Lubna Ahmed Hussein’s quick release from prison in Khartoum, but the real question is what will happen next for women in Sudan. Lubna is one woman; 43,000 women in Khartoum were flogged last year for “indecency”.

Just last night, I featured again Zambian journalist Chansa Kabwela, who faces five years in prison for turning over photos of a woman’s baby dying in childbirth, on the steps of a striking Zambian hospital. Zambian president Rupiah Banda charges that the photos of the dying baby being born with no medical help are pornographic.

Shakira wears Valentino Haute Couture headpiece. VanityFair.com, photography MIchael RobertsIt’s great that after the sexy She-Wolf photos of Shakira, Vanity Fair brings us a spectacularly sensual, sophisticated series of Shakira photos. As a Lebanese-Colombian “mutt”,  the real beauty of these photos underscores the marriage of sexuality and respectability.

Vanity Fair writer Bruce Handy doesn’t “get it”, but we forgive him. Let’s face reality, female sexuality is enormously complex — almost as complicated as the patriarchal forces committed to repressing it around the world.

As Shakira, Madonna and Angelina Jolie — to name three but of course we have more — change the evolving dialogue around female sexuality, by marrying sexuality to activism and spirituality, the fear grows that women will “carry the day” somehow.

If we women break out of our cages, throw off our veils (unless we choose to wear one, as an act of politically free choice), and lead people forward into a world governed by female principles (a Smart Sensuality strategy embraced by many men around the world), then perhaps our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will see the 22nd century.

When Bruce Handy calls Shakira’s She-Wolf video “charmingly corny”, he seriously misses the point. He’s stuck in Modern male talk, and it’s not the first time I’ve called him on his lack of understanding of what’s going on in the world of feminine principles.

Describing Shakira in She-Wolf, Handy writes:

She shakes and undulates, writhes around in a cage, lets loose with some endearing, halfhearted “awooooo”s, while singing, “There’s a she-wolf in the closet / Let it out so it can breathe.” Is that a metaphor for repressed sexuality or a cautionary tale about outré fashion choices?

Bruce, but that was a really stupid thing to say! Nevertheless, we forgive him and hope that he gets with the Smart Sensuality program one of these days.

Writing  Shakira & Lubna Inspire Smart Sensuality, smarty Pants Types Saving Mother Earth, Vanilla Version yesterday morning, I labelled it “vanilla version”, meaning that I would deliberately create a version of the essay, suitable for translating and reading in the Middle East.

I was surprised and emotionally-moved to learn Monday night — communicating with a group of feminists in Egypt — that my writing is not only being read but translated and reposted. As I apologized for being so provocative at times, they told me “don’t change a thing.”

Several international groups have asked me to “step up” my level of communications on women, veils, sensuality, identity and morality. I take this mission very seriously and will in some cases, create two versions of my thoughts, not wanting to create unnecessary problems for women trying to unchain themselves around the world.

My skills have always involved translating and interpreting events, sensing changes and advising businesses of how to respond. I truly can’t “keep up” with the dramatic evolution of female principles around the world. On every level from micro-lending to educaton, women are our priority.

Women birth the world in an act that is NOT pornographic, no matter what Zambian president Rupiah Banda believes. And women will save the world, the patriarchal mess that exists around the globe, of only men will get out of women’s way.

As I wrote yesterday, patriarchal male principles will blow up the world, once and for all. It’s time to give the “prostitutes” — the writhing, she-wolves a chance to rechart the course of civilization before it’s too late. Anne

Update on Sun, September 13, 2009 by Anne

Fashion Gone Rogue delivers photos of Vogue Italia’s advertorial for Valentino Haute Couture, a collection filled with “romance, mystique and elaborate detail”.

Valentino Couture via Fashion Gone Rogue