Lots of Real People are Corset Lovers

It’s hard to knock out Shakira (today Shakira: Brainiac Activist with Curves) and Ellen Von Unwerth (today New York’s Ellen Von Unwerth Moment), always in our Top 15 Reads for one story or another, but I’ve done so this morning.

I took the top spot for the first time in my life with Anne Is Mistaken for a Corset Terrorist, leaving our patron saint Shakira in the dust. I have 4x her page reads — perhaps 6-8x before the day is over.

I’m not sure if I owe my gratitude to a man or a woman. Probably a man; it makes sense as I’ve connected the dots and followed the links. I sent an email to the corsetry website, saying ‘thanks’, but it was returned.

In a world where everyone has a hand out, waiting to take credit, this person isn’t so obvious.  S(he) is anonymous, and I must study further, to understand the sources of my growing popularity — or wait to be contacted.

I’ve been a digital secret agent for international trouser girls. Now perhaps I’m the respectable voice of corset lovers like myself.

Yes, I used myself as bait in Anne Is Mistaken for a Corset Terrorist, but I’m a good marketer in search of her public. The tale reflects the photo and headline, with absolutely no airbrushing. How often does that happen in advertising?

Anne of Carversville is not a warm & cozy website about America’s favorite recipes or “top 10 ways to make him happy in bed” — although that’s a high priority of mine. I leave that kind of writing to the Cosmo girls.

Personally, I like the serious-reading, brainiac woman stuff.

As a 10-year Victoria’s Secret executive and lingerie industry consultant, I’m always focused on sensuality and gender-relations. Because I’ve always seen the female body as political and religous patriarchal battleground, it was easy for me to become involved in the burqa debate this summer.

The idea that the “personal is political” is not some hack feminist phrase from the 70s. It’s true. For most of human history, culture and civilization has underestimated women’s value and in many cases, tried to eradicate our identity.

America and the World

A comment left last night on a popular article Media Needs to Help America “Get Real” helped me to connect some dots this morning.  Men, corsets, politics, my writing about female-centric principles … a note from a Muslim woman in India commending me for my honest, truthful writing. Facebook kisses from a woman in Saudi Arabia.

So many dots to think about.

Rereading Media Needs to Help America “Get Real” , I’m reminded that even though I do wear rose-colored, hopeful glasses, I struggle deeply with people who resort to slogans and not clear-headed thinking, when looking at reality.

Commenter David Baer reminds us that: In order to influence people, you first need to discover what is already influencing them. What makes them tick? What do they care about? We need some leverage to work with when we’re trying to change how people think and behave.

David has me thinking.

Not me, because if not now — when, then will I speak my mind? How many years will I dance around on the head of this hairpin?

Like Shakira, I believe that “libido is the engine of the universe”.

From the Steampunk fashion pool at FlickrWhile this view made me an excellent Fashion Director for Victoria’s Secret, it’s put me squarely in a state of identity-ambivalence in a politically-correct America, that refuses to discuss gender politics or the challenges of fundamentalism, whether Islamic, Christian or Jewish.

I repeat: politics is personal and the body is political.The fight is politics and the patriarchy.

This is my mantra, and I’m not turning back, wherever the journey takes us. Fasten your seat belt. It will be a fascinating ride. Anne