Jun 27 2009
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5oh7:
kate. when the greats were great+ via nick
Here a model smokes a cigarette with her feet, evoking the pose of an Armless Wonder. The female Armless Wonder offered a sexual draw; women were meant to be kept clothed from chin to toe, but Armless Wonders couldn’t hide their feet. They offered a tantalizing glimpse of the female body and an experience of seeing the forbidden to spectators.
What’s odd about this photograph is that it evokes the freak show or the circus in her outfit, the stool she’s sitting on, the pose, but she has both arms, and her legs and arms are bare. It seems to comment on the freakery and sexualization of women, but I’m not sure that was the photograph’s intent.
