jd Forte’s ‘The Up and Comers’ & A September 11 Women’s Rights Reflection AOC Salon

Models Wearing Fur Is Bad Compared To What?

There are those who will judge me for putting fresh face young models on the pages of AOC. Will I next layer in our first story of a woman lawyer flogged in Sudan for inappropriate dress? Or will I post two more ‘vanilla’ articles, so that when this AOC front page shows three articles, her story of being brutalized by the government of Sudan isn’t reduced in any way by the alleged vulgarity of Western morals and culture?

Managing AOC’s content placement is a constant source of concern for me.

Then again — speaking of vulgarity — I note in the morning headlines that an eight-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal bleeding on her wedding night. You see, child brides are rampant in Yemen where 40-year-old men regularly attempt sexual intercourse with young girls the age of a granddaughter.

So you will judge me and Western culture, my Islamic fundamentalist critics, for not being as pure as yours?

I note also the first survey of rape in six Asia-Pacific countries. The study by the Partners for Prevention, comprised of several U.N. agencies, asked 10,178 men about their lives. They gathered information — without using the word rape — from the following countries: Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka. We will report the findings in a separate article, but the results are chilling and represent a great sense of sexual entitlement among the men surveyed.

Will these same men judge me and Western culture through their lens of appropriate behavior of women? Should I care?

Anne of Carversville tells women’s stories “from fashion to flogging”. Indeed, I do see connections between the two,  through a patriarchal lens of recent human history.

Male-dominated cultures and religious dogma seek to condemn women’s sensuality and sexuality. When a series of exquisite, technically superb images like these by jd Forte celebrates female beauty, confrontation (or is it a vacuous stare?) and sensuality, I must feature them.