Peter Gehrke’s editorial ‘Rive Gauche’ for L’Officiel Hommes Germany strikes a deep chord with me, one I will address in a separate essay. The images of models Nikola Jovanovic and Andreea Diaconu seep with sensual innuendos but also intimacy. Marcus Zietz delivers superb styling, pushing the gender envelope without throwing male/female out the window.

Woman is not replaced, as is the editorial trend, but sexual boundaries are perhaps expanded.’Masculinity’ is redefined. I am becoming known as ‘la femme provocateur’ among my European friends, so I will share a private Facebook comment from last night.

There’s a mixed gender discussion going on around the play ‘Lysistrata’, in which Lysistrata planned a meeting between all of the women of Greece to discuss a plan to end the Peloponnesian War. Her idea was to withhold sex until a peace treaty was signed.

Last night Harsha posted the comment: “No farks fer the farkin warmongers! Let them fark camels!!!” I was astonished at first, but having written about the Republican War on Women most of the day and watched chilling new ABC footage of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church’s views on man as master of his domain and paddling two-week old babies, her comment really struck a chord. I believe Harsha lives in the Arab world.

It’s nice to see a fashion editorial in which woman is not replaced by the new wo(man) like Andrej Pejic, but continues to be part of the picture in a hetereosexual relationship that is clearly expansive in nature, when the subject is gender roles and intimacy. This may be the first or surely a rare gem. More please. Anne