George Clooney first called out ‘ball ironing’ in this Esquire column, writes Salon’s EJ Dickson.

Officially known as the ‘Male Laser Lift’, the procedure puts female grooming on a par with female grooming. According to Beauty Park Medical Spa, the $575 procedure uses the Pixel laser to even out skin tone, remove discoloration from ingrown hair, removes skin tags and provides overall tightening to the external skin. There’s no mession of scrotum rejuvenation, but founder Nurse Jamie says “Down there the skin ages, it’s a thinner skin like that around the eyes.”

Results only last for a month, and Nurse Jamie recommends at least six treatments.

According to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), nine percent of all cosmetic procedures done in 2011 were done on male patients, marking a 121 percent increase from 1997.’DC Butt Doctor’ Dr. Shlomo Widder says that he’s seeing more male patients than ever:

In line with the hottest plastic surgery trends for men, males are generally looking to be more defined all over. This year conventional boyish looks that grace the pages of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog are out and manly, rugged features like those seen on the likes of Jon Hamm are in. As a result men are opting for chin implants, tummy tucks, breast reductions, and modified nose jobs, where the nose is trimmed back leaving small imperfection for a more natural look.

New York City-based plastic surgeon Dr. Stafford R. Broumad offers neck liposuction, for a more masculine facial definition.

“There’s less of a desire now for a conventionally beautiful white-bread face,” says Dr. Steven Teitelbaum, an associate professor of plastic surgery at UCLA School of Medicine. “People are embracing strong features like ethnic, non-traditional noses.” 

Dr. Michael Yaremchuk, a plastic surgeon and chief of craniofacial surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, says he has more men clients than ever. Yaremchuk notes that about 30 percent of the people he sees for regenerative procedures like eye lifts and face lifts are men. In the category of structural alteratons like chin implants to complement a big nose a whopping 40 percent of clients are male.

The topic of the ‘female gaze’ is a subject of growing interest as scientific research confirms that women aren’t innately half as disinterested in sexual eroticism as culture or religion suggest. In fact, women are often consumed with raging sexual desire, which may be at the core of the male obsession with regulating female bodies.

Whether female eroticism translates to a preference for men with ‘tackle lifts’ is unproven.

Models Cilou Annys and Sebastian Schluter are blatently sexual in Daniel Roche’s editorial ‘Tropical Heat for Schön! #21. Stylist Sascha Gaugel chooses the bare minimum for an editorial focused on body and sensuality, rather than style.

Cindy Crawford on Body Acceptance

Just now I posted Cindy Crawford’s latest editorial for Muse Magazine, along with her comments to The Edit that this gorgeous supermodel continues to feel ambivalence about her body. Crawford has been very articulate not only about her own issues with self-acceptance but that she is considered fat and a plus size model in today’s fashion world.

I call this decade-long fashion trend towards stripping away all sensuality from the body ‘fashion monasticism’. Its chief spokesperson is Karl Lagerfeld, who has stated publicly that men should have mistresses and see prostitutes to service their sexual needs, while women cultivate their skills as mothers. (Read Like Aristotle, Karl Lagerfeld Sees Women As Predators.) Lagerfeld has replaced sexuality with shopping, and a dollars and cents philosophy that fuels big business and big brands.

Satan, Yoga and Fashion Monasticism

In this respect, Lagerfeld — who prides himself with being so in the groove for an older man — isn’t so out of step with Virginia’s GOP candidate for lieutenant governor E.W. Jackson, who believes that yoga can open individuals to Satan. Neither man sees the body as a sacred vessel with a sacred connection to sensuality and nature. Both view sensuality as a corrupting force.

In his 2008 book “Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life”, Jackson wrote:

“When one hears the word meditation, it conjures an image of Maharishi Yoga talking about finding a mantra and striving for nirvana. … The purpose of such meditation is to empty oneself. … [Satan] is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it. That is why people serve Satan without ever knowing it or deciding to, but no one can be a child of God without making a decision to surrender to him. Beware of systems of spirituality which tell you to empty yourself. You will end up filled with something you probably do not want.”

I was rather shocked to read that yoga is considered the work of the devil. Sure enough, former Vatican exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says that yoga — along with Harry Potter — are the tools of the devil. And retired Pope Benedict has warned that yoga “can degenerate into a cult of the body.”

Bottom line, in the case of Christianity, ambivalence about having a healthy relationship with one’s body and sexuality are a daily struggle. Although not a religious scholar by any stretch of the imagination, my own experience with sexuality and religion is that they are almost incompatible in the view of the church hierarchy.

Sexuality exists for the purpose of reproduction. Beyond that, having a positive relationship with one’s body and sensuality generally is a corrupting force, one that defiles — rather than inspires — our spirits and behavior patterns. This fundamental human conflict is activated more so in women than men, because religion regards women as fundamentally corrupting forces, when we stray from our predestined path of being focused on family.

Let us remember the Vatican’s harsh criticism of Mercy Sister Margaret Farley’s book “Just Love”, which sought to help create ‘norms’ to guide our sexual actions in the form of responsible pleasure. A past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the scholar who taught Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School attempted to present a theological rationale for same-sex relationships, masturbation and remarriage after divorce.

Besides my unyielding concerns about the damage done to women’s psyches and bodies worldwide in the name of religious fervor (Read Jimmy Carter on Religion As Agent of Women’s Oppression), I believe that this negation of human sexuality actually feeds America’s porn industry. When social conservatives buy more porn than progressives — and Sunday is the biggest day of the porn-buying week — there is a fundamental tension between what social conservatives say, and what they do.

Smart Sensuality Bodies

Perhaps the most Satanic cults of all are the holier-than-thou types. The Smart Sensuality person does believe the body is a sacred vessel to be nurtured. We believe that when one honors the sensuality of nature in a positive way, one feels the pain and suffering of others.

There is no incompatibility between having a healthy attitude about sexuality and accepting responsibility for one’s actions and the need to do good in the world. What one sees is a life in balance and positive action, rather than one obsessed with guilt, self-doubt and self-loathing.

The church may argue that the concept of ‘self’ is anathema to God’s law. But science has demonstrated that even pigs learn quickly how mirrors work, and may rank with apes, dolphins and other species who have passed the “mirror self-recognition test’, considered to be a marker of self-awareness and advanced intelligence.

There is so much to love about Lena C. Emery’s editorial of Céline Derrien, styled by Lilia Toncheva O’Rourke for Grit Magazine’s ‘Negative Space’ issue. It’s a highly-personal, intimate, honest, broad-stroke look at a beautiful young model. Her smile and vitality shine through and — forgive me Angelina — she’s got your Smart Sensuality aura in the blue glasses photo. We see Céline front and back, and from multiple angles, protecting herself against the intense glare of too hot something — perhaps the male gaze?

Her clothes are smart, too — very intellectual and modern for a young woman with skin we want to touch and know, because she has been lensed in the full spectrum of her being present with us in these images. Her nudity is but one image, a single statement in 11 smart photos from Emery.

I’ve received a lot of communication lately from readers and creatives about my writing and my mission at AOC. One of my most touching emails was from a long-time reader who wrote me upon receiving her divorce decree.

She talked a lot about sexuality, intimacy and feeling objectified by her husband and with his friends. Her husband left her feeling that no detail of her physicality was left unshared with his buddies at the bar. She thanked me for helping her see her own true beauty and Smart Sensuality values, for finding the strength to stand up for herself and her identity as a complex woman and not a mere physical body, existing to serve her husband’s intensely sexual needs. Her views on sexuality are like mine, in that we prefer intimacy in the process.

I had this conversation with photographer #4 a couple weeks ago, trying to explain that his images of raw sexuality — and I mean body parts — needed more balance and identity than a single face shot of the model at the end. His response was the typical short male response. “Whatever, Anne. I just shoot nude body parts — every age and type of body.”

So much for dialogue. Then be honest, I say, that you want your images published here, and don’t engage me with the pretense of wanting intellectual discussion.

One shouldn’t make generalizations about the male gaze versus the female gaze, when it’s true that women look first at a man’s crotch in sexy images and men look into her eyes. But as creatives we are part of the molding of women’s imagery and identity, whether we like it or not. This entire topic came to mind as I observed Céline Derrien’s editorial from the male gaze and the female one.

It makes me think further about that slab of slate protecting this young, intelligent, sensual woman model.

People tell me that objectification is stream of consciousness, innate and not intentional. What did that stupid senator say yesterday about rape in the military — these young guys have hormones and can’t help themselves?

I argue that how we creatives present women has to do with power and typically a presumption of male power. At least today, I believe we have a small example of gender differences in action among bloggers. Just a universe of two — well, three, if we count me. Perhaps I’ll follow this chord further as the editorial spins through our digital lives.

Thanks Lena C. Emery for such splendid images; and good luck, Céline Derrien. I’ll be rooting for you. Gorgeous smile, btw. ~ Anne

Time For An Anne Check

How fitting that as I sit down to grab time to talk to readers — asking myself what visuals will I use — that I discover these luscious images of Victoria’s Secret Angels Candice Swanepoel and Doutzen Kroes in the new Flawless campaign.

The golden hues of the images remind me of a G5 flight to Paris years ago with three other VS executives — all women. I sat sipping scotch on the rocks, looking down into the Atlantic asking myself how the girl from Minnesota, who used to call the NYPD when she found drunks lying on the streets of New York found herself flying in this gorgeous jet across the Atlantic, listening to a conversation about gold water faucets.

When the jet landed at Paris Le Bourget Airport, our flight met by my regular driver who took us to our regular luxury hotel, I knew that I was leaving my job as fashion director of Victoria’s Secret to return to subjects that matter deeply to me.

After all, ‘flawless’ is not a word in my vocabulary, and I consider it to be one of the most debilitating words to women’s psyches used in the fashion and beauty industries.

A Passion for Ideas That Matter

I began writing Anne of Carversville in 2007, inspired by Angelina Jolie’s excellent interview with Esquire Magazine. I called the piece Smart Sensuality Angelina Jolie: Virtue Considered in Carversville’s Country Air.

It marked a gradual return of my passion for women’s rights, as I was swept into my still active fight to stop the flogging of 40,000 women a year in Sudan for inappropriate dress and also the Republican War on Women in America.

The start of AOC marked my rise as a known activist in the Arab world, with my passionate essays on the impact of ultra conservative, religious values on women’s lives translated into Arabic by women in Egypt. I found myself increasingly banned in countries in the region, although the intellectual community has a system of underground, constantly moving proxy servers that continue to make my voice available to activists and educated readers. 

Creating the term Smart Sensuality woman made for a coherent concept understood and embraced by many AOC readers, often more conservative women with values similar to mine — even if I inspire them with my rebellious spirit and progressive stance on gender issues.

We are smart, sensual — instinctively preferring peonies to daisies — and have great heart for people in need.

What we share is a questioning unease with not only the most conservatives values that control women’s lives but also the most liberal ones that eradicate any grounding of sensuality in the sacred. The fact that I gave voice to these concerns with passion and sincerity brought AOC a complex and diverse readership.

A Flirtation With Fashion Photographers

I know that more is not better. Big is not better. And yet in late 2010 I began posting fashion editorials daily. My closest friends know that I’m highly performance oriented, grading myself with far tougher expectations than my own readers do.

As Anne of Carversville gained significant traction and a sizeable audience, it was inevitable that certain photographers would reach out to me. We’re not talking Mario Testino, Greg Kadel, Giampolo Sgura, or a host of top photographers I reference daily. Believe it or not, I’ve heard from some of these photographers, who showered praise on me and AOC. They are not my problem.

The sources of internal conflict, wasted time, disrespect, and empty promises tend to be third-tier male, going nowhere photographers of a certain age. The age factor didn’t hit me until a close male friend pointed out that fact last week. How fascinating.

Honesty and Authenticity Matter

You know how a guy will often say anything just to get you to go to bed with him? That can be the case with bloggers and male fashion photographers wanting exposure of a nonsexual nature — and Catholic brothers, too, in my case. After telling me he would defend me against the onslaught of criticism certain to accompany our mutual blog, he asked that I remember him in my will. It was just another form of seduction.

In the past year, one photographer — exhibit A for whom I’ve advocated aggressively — sent me an editorial created just for me as a thank you for those efforts. Minutes before an assistant released the draft, he sent an emergency email explaining that in reality the editorial was submitted to Fashionising.com months prior and guess what, they had published the editorial that morning.

In my world, his words are called lying.

Photographer exhibit B also enjoyed a personal relationship with me, although I always made it clear to him and everyone else that I was curating our content and felt no obligation to publish every editorial. Last fall I received an email from him, asking me why I hadn’t published one of his editorials that I found to be very mediocre.

I answered in earnest, taking perhaps 20 minutes of my time to explain why I hadn’t published the editorial. In a madcap sequence of emails, it became obvious that the photographer never even read my email because his assistant was writing me emails under his name.

Communicating under false pretenses is a big deal to me, and I wrote so.

“Be My Slave” is a blatent attempt to create controversy, and Aqeel has succeeded. 

Rather than the hysterical, breast-beating going on over at Styleite, the original article in The Express Tribune, published in association with The Herald Tribune is far more thoughtful: Slavery Is Still Not An Acceptable Theme For Your Fashion Spread.

Salima Feerasta writes that fashion loves to be provocative, and we have come to expect the offensive. Yours truly believes that America is political correctness gone mad, but I’m right with Feerasta on condeming this shoot for one key reason.

Without a doubt, the model wearing the brand is very comfortable being in the dominant position, with the dark-skinned child subservient.  This is no Smart Sensuality woman brand campaign but one dedicated to the heartless women who employ child labor and have no problem with it. It wouldn’t surprise me to read they are friends of designer Aamna Aqeel — these cold-blooded, modern values fashionistas.

Can you imagine Angelina Jolie appearing in such images? Shakira? No way! They are women truly dedicated to helping change lives for children worldwide. “Be My Slave” is nauseating.  ~ Anne

Intimissimi 2013 from Apart Collective on Vimeo.

Angelina Jolie by David LaChapelle

I spend a lot of time on Smart Sensuality woman Angelina Jolie’s philanthropic and social activism persona. Angelina always sizzles but a never-before-seen image of a topless 25-year-old Angelina Jolie posing topless with a horse is set to go under the hammer at Christie’s.

LaChapelle shot the image as an outtake from a 2001 Rolling Stone magazine feature and is part of a Christie’s exhibition entitled “The Wild Side of Photography.”  It’s expected to fetch between £25,000 and £35,0000, although Jolie’s partner Brad Pitt says he is prepared to pay a top amount to keep the image in his family.

Also being sold by Steven Klein is a staged scene of then couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt around a family dinner table entitled Case Study No. 13.

Angelina Jolie, the mother-of-six also serves as a special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and recently joined forces with Foreign Secretary William Hague in announcing £23m funding from G-8 nations to go towards a series of measures for preventing sexual violence and ensuring justice for its survivors.

Jolie welcomed the “long overdue stand” on sexual violence, saying that for too long international political will to prevent it has been “sorely lacking.” Track Angelina’s philanthropy and activist activities here.

CENTRE SPREAD, A film by Julia Kennedy and Lucy Spink from Julia Kennedy on Vimeo.

The Vimeo credits call ‘Centre Spread’ a KILLER FASHION FILM, written and directed by Julia Kennedy, with production designed by Lucy Spink. No lie!!

Starring Guy Combes as a rake as well as fashion photographer, ‘Centre Spread’ takes the shooting of models to another level. Hope Von Joel styles the young model groupies Beth Ogden, Anna Korzun, Cassandra Smith, Kajsa Mohammar and Gogo Leon in this fabulous fashion examination. Hair by Claire Rothstein and Peter Beckett; makeup by Annabel Callum.

More credits at Vimeo.

Don West wraps Pernilla Fransander in texture rich headwraps for the up-close and sensual shots of Michael David Adams. Pernilla radiates strength and beauty from behind the veil in this Qvest Magazine spread. We all know that veils are complex fabrications here at Anne of Carversville. They enhance and simultaneously hide. Veils are deeply associated for making women property, denoting status and purity.

At AOC we tell women’s stories “from fashion to flogging”. Veils are a key fashion element in how these stories have unfolded over the centuries.

Dæmon Concept 1 # by Sophie Rotas and Mark Viszlay presented by Nero Homme from Nero Homme Studio on Vimeo.

Alright! We have big news to announce shortly with Anne officially taking a walk on the wild side in a new ‘permanent’ marketing collaboration with a very upscale, delicious art magazine, my voice and our GlamTribale jewelry collection.

So this Daemon Concept 1 video by Sophia Rotas and Mark Viszlay presented by Nero Homme gets my attention this morning.

Staring Dorothy Bohner @ Icon Model Management/@ Why Not Milan, Rotas and Viszlay push beyond sizzling into an artful, in your face documentation of female sensuality and power.

Admittedly, the Strange VIP - When I Die music works to maximize the effect of one tantalizing video. But the pulsing pace of the imagery is perfect in capturing unbridled female desire on the verge of exploding into a fashion orgasm for Berlin’s ‘Don’t Shoot The Messengers’ bodywear with shoes by Eniko Toth.

SOMA Magazine writes

Jen Gilpin, DSTM’s 34-year-old Canadian founder, established the label when she arrived in Berlin five years ago. Now, with the opening of her new boutique (and adjacent open workshop) in Berlin’s increasingly “luxus” neighborhood of Mitte, Gilpin and DTSM are fast becoming ubiquitous among the city’s most decadent style tribes.

“The base of the line is silk and leather,” says Gilpin. “I like this contrast of soft and hard, we pull it through the collections with the materials and the attitude. There is a sort of tough elegance that we strive for and find beautiful in the women we dress.”

Something tells me Dorothy won’t be hooking up with 50 Shades Christian Grey any time soon. More please! Simply Splendid! ~ Anne

Full credits

nerohomme.com/about_us

film by
Sophia Rotas and Mark Viszlay presented by Nero Homme

bodywear
Dont Shoot The Messengers

shoes
Eniko Toth Kern commissioned by stylist

music
Strange VIP - When I Die
Courtesy of Trouble & Bass Recordings (2013)
troubleandbass.com

model
Dorothy Bohner @ Icon Model Management / @ Why Not Milan

hairstylist
Balazs Barsi using Kevin Murphy

make up artist
Natasa Kovalik

post production
Levente Hodi @ Umbrella Studios

production assistants:

Sofyia Urban
Jannis Birsner

assistants

Istvan Varfi
Lina Brigi Vince

special thanks:
Csaba Müllner
Emil Goodman
Horn Marton and Makay Lina @ Akvarium klub

Image courtesy of Nero Homme Studio LTD. all rights reserved