Old Babes

[purejuice]

Is that a leather top you’re wearing in this photograph?
Yes. I wore it when I went to speak at the first meeting of our University of Chicago lesbian and gay alumni association, and I thought it was so sweet for them to invite somebody who wasn’t gay to be their keynote speaker. But I wore this outfit, and they said, “We want to thank you for wearing leather.”

-- Martha Nussbaum, who goes on to scrupulize about marrying again or eating in restaurants when others cannot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/magazine/13FOB-Q4-t.html

I know that people I worship around here worship Martha but I think the booties in this pic, or maybe its the ninja jacket, not to mention that it is leather, or maybe the sum of the parts, is too much.

I can't gank the pic as is the usual practice of the fashion police. I have accused Martha of dressing like a transsexual, not that there's anything wrong with that, but there is something both cluelessly butch and over-fastidious in the way the goddess dresses. Is she channeling Judith Butler or cruising her? One could begin with the too-tan decolletee and the ca. 1988 anchorbitch necklace, going for the Andree Putman PIB look. I think Putman pulls it off. I think. Jury still out on Putman, though Putman definitely has the Old Babe hair problem licked. I think there is a not so very fine line, of which Nussbaum and Putman may be beyond the pale, between Old Babe and what we call in Spanish, a vieja verde. Which is nasty, and the antidote for which is watching the shipboard scene -- the midget doppelganger with the makeup -- in Death in Venice annually. Compare and contrast with the Italian Old Babes of a previous post. Or the adorable Princess Lilian.


Andree Putman

What I'm saying is Martha is not following the Old Babe accessories rule. If you wear the red lipstick, you have to eliminate almost everything else you're wearing, the ca. 1995 Vamp nail polish at the top of the list. If you wear the ninja leather jacket, you do not wear the red lipstick, the Happy Rockefeller Hair Done, the low cut wifebeater, the necklace, the mini skirt, the opaque black stockings and the booties.


Happy Rockefeller

If you wear the jacket, you wear it, I think, with pants. Actually, the mini is good. If you wear the booties, you wear them with pants and not that jacket. Oh Jeez, the wifebeater again. She's got a thing about her bicepses. As I do not. Please. Martha. Dude. Put your shirt on.


Nussbaum in what I have called her Jan Morris outfit, with the wifebeater, anchorbitch necklace, Happy Rockefeller hair and biceps, but without the ninja leather jacket she sports in today's NYT.

And I have to say, viewing the most recent Tina Turner concert, while she certainly is old and certainly is a babe, Tina, grrrl, it's time to pack it up when you can hardly walk across the stage and the backup dancers (BUDs) have to do the heavy lifting. Yikes. Love the Lurex pedal pushers tho. And I'm, uh, relieved you didn't wear the booty short version your BUDs rock. Oh jeezus. I'm not sure that's enough of a credential to award you Old Babe status. Like Putman, however, you do have what is possibly the very best Old Babe hair.

Comments

[panjianlien.livejournal.com]

I will simply note that Cherubino has two arias in Figaro. Depending on which one she's singing, either she doesn't know what she's doing due to extreme horniness, or she's suffering the slings and arrows of serious infatuation. Those are the options.

[atthesametime.livejournal.com]

Martha could wear a garbage and I would think she looked amazing. As everyone around here knows, I have a massive crush on her. I love the biceps, not only because I think women with strong arms are sexy, but also because of what they represent, that an intellectual can make time for both the library and the gym; that it isn't too much to ask of ones self to be both brilliant and fit.

I will concede that the hair in the photo with the book is a bit much.

[oneroom.livejournal.com]

In most photos of her, my first impression is that MN could use to relax. But then I remember that in person, she is so alive that she appears to vibrate. Nothing about her says "relaxed."

So I like the photos. They're true. Plus she's just goddamn hot.

That doesn't mean I like the booties though. On anybody.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I don't like the boots. I am so behind the bare arms, and the assertion of her sexual presence. Plus, I kind of love the pictures just because it's her. There she sure enough is.

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

LOVE the Saturday Evening Post cover with Happy Rockefeller (and, I presume, Nelson). Real-deal WASPs are endlessly fascinating.

[filmstills.livejournal.com]

i usually avoid nit-picky fashion commentary, but i'll roll with ya here because i think this topic is fascinating...even if the outfit were on a Young Babe, it's un peu too much. to my eye (which is a very fashion-inundated eye, i grant you) she's working that Paris Vogue thing that's fashionable right now -- whether that's her intention or not, that's what it's invoking right now. the hosiery and the bootie are not working together with everything else. i think you're right, the jacket is distinctive enough without everything else distracting from it. the boots are just wrong, wrong, wrong.

it's an outfit that is similar to something Carine Roitfeld might do, but Carine would never do the necklace, hosiery and shoe. it's worth looking at the fact that Carine Roitfeld and Martha Nussbaum are not that far apart in age (they're certainly within a generation of one another) and both are hot stuff in their own particular way. but this type of outfit (i.e., slightly dom-y) would feel at home on Carine but just a tiny bit uneasy on Martha, and it's fascinating to surmise upon the discrepancy.