Why do runway models walk the way they do? They don't allow each foot to fall in its own line, as most people do when they're walking, nor do they put one foot directly in front of the other, which might make some sense to avoid galumphing down the runway, but they actually cross the foot over so that it falls farther outside the line of the previous foot. It's silly looking, and doesn't, as far as I can tell, make them look sexier, because they take the walk to extremes. (They also tend to hold their arms down at unnatural angles and arch their backs too much -- my expertise comes from watching too many hours of Full Frontal Fashion runway shows on the Metro channel. For the fashions, of course, not the scantily dressed young women doing the modeling.)
This could be one of the those situations were a behavior that made some sense (walking with one foot in front of the other to avoid looking clumsy and awkward) gradually goes farther and farther until it becomes something else entirely, almost a parody of its original self. (I think this is not unusual in fashion or other cultural byways, when the lesson seems to always be that more is more: if broad shoulders are an indication of stength and virility, put in massive shoulder pads so that every man looks like a linebacker; if large round breasts are an indicator that a woman will be able to adequately feed a baby, then make breasts appear -- and be bigger by any means necessary; if small feet are desireable -- I'm not sure what the evolutionary rationale for it might be -- bind women's feet and cut away bones to make them as small as possible.)
Someone ought to mount a fashion revolution and stop their models from walking that walk. Isn't it time for the pendulum to swing back? (But not, I hope, for fashions to become less scanty again.)
(Oh, and can we also stop making gymnasts overarch their backs when they dismount from their events? What's that supposed to show?)
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J.R.R. Tolkien
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
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Yes
Bullshit, trolling, unthinking knee-jerk dogmatism and the drivel of idiots will be ruthlessly deleted and the posters banned.
Entertaining, interesting, intelligent, informed and informative comments will always be welcome, even when I disagree with them.
I am the sole judge of which of these qualities pertains.
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the story so far
unfutz: toiling in almost complete obscurity for almost 1500 days
If you read unfutz at least once a week, without fail, your teeth will be whiter and your love life more satisfying.
If you read it daily, I will come to your house, kiss you on the forehead, bathe your feet, and cook pancakes for you, with yummy syrup and everything.
(You might want to keep a watch on me, though, just to avoid the syrup ending up on your feet and the pancakes on your forehead.)
Finally, on a more mundane level, since I don't believe that anyone actually reads this stuff, I make this offer: I'll give five bucks to the first person who contacts me and asks for it -- and, believe me, right now five bucks might as well be five hundred, so this is no trivial offer.
