Quattroporte

Quattroporte (pronounced Quat-rah-port-eh)

(1) An Italian term (literally “four door”) for a berlina (a four-door sedan) (not with initial capital).

(2) A model name for a Maserati berlina, produced over six generations since 1963 (with initial capital).

1963: An Italian compound, the construct being quattro (four) + porte (door).  Quattro was from the Latin quattuor, from the Proto-Italic kettwōr, from the primitive Indo-European ketwṓr, neuter plural of ketwóres (cognates of which include the Sanskrit चतुर् (catur), the Old Armenian չորք (čʿorkʿ), the Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares) and the Old English fēower (source of the Modern English four)).  Etymologists note the change of e to a is unexplained and under the usual conventions which evolved, the expected form would be “quettuor”.  Porte was from the Old French porte, from the Latin porta, from the primitive Indo-European root per- (to pass through), ultimate source also of the Modern English portal.

Everything said in Italian tends to sound better than anything said in English, regardless of the content Italian seems always to sound poetic and occasionally the Italians even improve upon themselves.  A (conventional three-box) four door car is in English a saloon or sedan which sounds OK but in Italian it’s the even more pleasing berlina.  Berlina was from the late nineteenth century French berline (an automobile with the front and rear compartments separated by a glass partition, as some limousines), from the seventeenth century German Berlin & Berline (a four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage with a separate, enclosed compartment for two, noted for its lightness and durability and named after the city where it was designed).  However, pleasing to the ear though Berlina was, when in the early 1960s Maserati decided to enter the then quite novel (and barely contested) market segment that was the high-performance four-door sedan, they decided on a new name which, while etymologically merely descriptive, was the most pleasing “Quattroporte”.  To Italian ears it may have been nothing special but in the English-speaking world, one needed only to her the word to know it was attached to something exotic.

Six generations of the Maserati Quattroporte

First generation, Series 1, 1963-1966: 

Although it later gained the reputation, the early Maserati Quattroporte may not have been the world’s fastest four-door sedan but the 210 km/h (130 mph) of which it was capable was a match for the rare Lagonda Rapide and it could outrun the fastest of the Jaguar saloons.  Styled by Pietro Frua (1913-1983) who aimed to make a four-door version of the very expensive 5000GT which had been produced in a run of thirty-two bespoke creations after the interest generated by the original made for the Shah of Iran, the coachwork was actually built by Carrozzeria Vignale with a modern sheet metal structure atop box-section rails instead of Maserati’s traditional tubular frame.  Maserati were at the time in the throes of their final fling in Formula One and weren't out to create a Rolls-Royce.  The 4.2 litre (252 cubic inch) V8 engine, although derived from the unit used in the 5000GT, was detuned in the quest for a more refined experience although purposefully, its origins on the race track were never entirely disguised.  In the way things were done in the 1960s, seven of the first series cars were built with 4.7 litre (288 cubic inches) engines which yielded a top speed of 230 km/h (143 mph) and that did set the mark as the fastest four-door of the decade.

First generation, Series 2, 1966-1969:  

Although visually little changed on the outside, the second series cars underwent significant change.  The four round headlamps, previously reserved only for the US market in deference to their protectionist regulations, were now fitted as standard across the range and the interior was transformed into something more luxurious, a fully integrated climate control system included as standard equipment.  That attracted much favorable comment but one downgrade was the replacement of the very capable de Dion rear axle with a more agricultural rigid layout with semi-elliptic springs, a system Maserati used on other models.  Still the downgrade probably pleased most customers, the leaf-sprung rear much quieter that the chattering de Dion, the advantages of which few drivers of a car like the Quattroporte were likely to explore and it suited Maserati too, lowering the cost of production.  Most of the series 2 Quattroportes were fitted with the 4.2 litre engine but seven received the 4.7 and two, supplied to special order, received the 4.9 litre (301 cubic inch) unit from the Ghibli (1967-1973) sports car.

A four door Maserati coach-built by Carrozzeria Frua on commission from the Aga Khan, 1971.

There was a coda to the first generation.  In 1971, receiving a commission from the Aga Khan, Carrozzeria Frua had built a four-door sedan based on Maserati’s 2+2 coupé, the Indy (1969-1975).  Elegant and in the vein of the contemporary Iso Fidia, Maserati had Fura construct a production-ready prototype for what was intended to be the Quattroporte II but Citroën, after assuming ownership of Maserati instead insisted the new car be based on their top-of-the-range SM.  That didn’t end well but, given the events which were to unfold in the 1970s, there’s no guarantee that had the prototype reached production it would have long been successful, such indulgences rapidly rendered unfashionable by the first oil shock (1973).  However, built on the solid platform of the Indy, even if a commercial failure, it would have been a less costly one than the SM-based debacle proved.

Second generation, 1974-1978:

Beset by political, industrial and economic turmoil, the second generation aptly reflects the state of Italy in the mid-1970s.  Styled by Marcello Gandini (b 1938) at Carrozzeria Bertone, the Quattroporte II was developed while Maserati was owned by Citroën and was technically almost identical to the French machine which meant it was a 3.0 litre (181 cubic inch) 90° V6 with front wheel drive and hydro-pneumatic suspension.  It’s not entirely accurate to think of it as a four-door SM (eight of which were actually built by coachbuilder Henri Chapron including two which served for a time in the mews of the Élysée Palace as the presidential limousine) but the Italian variation certainly encapsulated all the virtues and vices of the original.  It was opulent and the hydro-pneumatic suspension guaranteed a superb ride but it was slower than its illustrious V8 predecessors, the added weight and some sacrifice in aerodynamic efficiency meaning performance was blunted compared even to the SM.  There had been plans to use a V8 but the old Maserati engine, its roots in 1950 sports car racing, was both too big to fit and in its last days, the modifications required to conform with upcoming legislation prohibitively difficult and expensive.  There had been plans to develop a V8 from the V6 and the prototypes built and tested in an SM proved satisfactory but the future of the company was uncertain and, after being sold in 1975, the project was cancelled.  On paper though, the V6 Quattroporte II survived the corporate re-structure, largely because so much of the tooling required for production had been built but such was the financial chaos in the era that funds were never allocated for the certification programmes required for it to be sold in major markets like the US, the UK and Europe so it languished until 1976 when it was made available, on special order, for markets where regulations were scant and, if affecting the rich, rarely enforced.  In the three years it was sold between 1976-1978, it attracted a dozen buyers, mostly in the Middle-East although two were reputedly shipped to Spain which, post-Franco but pre-EU, also had few regulations.  Tellingly, most models from Ferrari or Maserati with a run of only twelve are rare, collectable and expensive but the Quattroporte II is mostly unremembered, unlamented and, when offered for sale, sometimes unsold.

Third generation, 1979-1990:

Alejandro De Tomaso (1928-2003) who purchased Maserati from Citroën was an Argentine-born former race-car driver of Italian descent who had married well, enabling him to commence production of a number of flawed but compellingly attractive cars which combined performance with a low TCO (total cost of ownership) made possible by dipping into the mainstream parts bin.  He disapproved of front wheel drive, regarded hydraulic suspension as a good idea for a truck or bus and thought no good had ever come from the French being involved in the design of Italian cars.  The Quattroporte III was therefore based on De Tomaso’s 2+2 coupé, the Longchamp (1972-1989) which would also begat the Maserati Kyalami (1976-1983), all three cars on a platform which began life as the De Tomaso Deauville (1971-1985), something of an Italian take on the original Jaguar XJ6 (1968) though rendered with lines which anticipated Pininfarina's work on the Series 3 XJ (1979-1992).  The important point was that the Quattroporte was again configured with a V8 engine and rear wheel drive.  The body, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro (b 1938), hasn’t aged as well as the early Quattroportes but that’s something which can be said of much which emerged from the 1970s and in the context of the time, it was an expression of current thinking and the marked responded, the car successful immediately from its debut in 1979.  In production until 1990, it was little changed over its run, only the Royale version with some minor restyling, upgraded interior appointments and a slight increase in the power from the 4.9 litre V8 was offered as a limited-edition variation to mark the marque’s sixtieth anniversary.

Fourth generation, 1994-2001:

Presented at the Turin Motor Show in April 1994, the Quattroporte IV was the first Maserati released since Fiat assumed ownership.  The new car was smaller than either its predecessors or successors and reflected Fiat’s interest in the lucrative premium end of the compact-executive market now defined by the BMW 3-series but in which neither the Fiat nor the corporate companion Lancia brand-name was likely to attract buyers.  Gandini’s design, recalling aspects of his earlier, spectacular, Maserati Shamal (1990-1996) was much admired and the lavish interiors, all wood and leather though in an Italian rather than an English manner, seduced many.  Offered variously with V6 and V8 engines between 2.0 (122 cubic inch) and 3.2 litres (196 cubic inch), performance was class-leading, 270 km/h (168 mph) the top speed of the most powerful.  It was certainly a different sort of sedan than was offered by Mercedes-Benz, a six-speed manual gearbox always standard equipment although in most markets, the optional automatic attracted most buyers.  The Quattroporte IV is notable too as the car which best reflects the improvements rendered when Fiat in 1997 passed control to Ferrari, the objective being to raise build quality and enhance reliability, then the greatest impediment to greater success.  The Quattroporte IV had from the start been praised for its dynamic qualities but the patchy reputation gained early hadn’t improved and it was this Ferrari sought to address and, there being little wrong with the basic design, focused on the production process and the quality control imposed on component supply.  The result was the much-improved Evoluzione model presented in 1998.

Fifth generation, 2003-2012:

Bigger than its predecessor, the Quattroporte V focused less on outright performance and returned Maserati to the upper premium segment, very much in the spirit of the first generation cars of 1963.  The Pininfarina-designed body was probably the most sensuously attractive four-door sedan since the Jaguar XJ6 in 1968 and, now underpinned by Ferrari’s engineering including 4.2 and 4.7 litre V8s and a robotized transaxle to optimize weight distribution, the dynamic qualities attracted praise, awards and commercial success soon following.  The popularity proved enduring, the fifth generation cars the biggest selling Quattroporte yet but feedback confirmed the only thing restricting appeal was the lack of a fully automatic gearbox, the Duoselect an ideal companion in a sports sedan but there were many who adored the slinky style but wanted something more effortless.  Accordingly, the automatic version was displayed at the 2007 Detroit Motor Show, the US clearly expected to be the biggest market which it proved to be.  More than 15,000 had been produced by 2008 when a re-styled version was released including variations on the Quattroporte S and Quattroporte Sport GT S although, in a sign of the times, the restyled models were available only with an automatic six-speed transmission only, the Duoselect option discontinued.

Sixth generation, 2013-:

In another sign of the time, the sixth generation Quattroporte was actually offered with a diesel engine, albeit one which could still allow the car to reach 250 km/h (155 mph) but for those who remembered the way things used to be done, the most powerful of the traditional petrol-powered models, the Quattroporte Trofeo, now with a twin-turbocharged 3.8 litre (232 cubic inch) V8 rated at 572 horsepower, could attain 326 km/h (203 mph), faster than any Maserati Grand Prix car had ever travelled.  The new body-shape was obviously an evolution of the fifth generation and was well-executed but, lacking the languid look and the originality of the earlier car, it attracted less comment and was thought essentially derivative.  Another innovation was the all-wheel-drive (AWD) system offered on some of the V6s but the most profitable was said to be the Zegna Limited Edition, one-hundred of which were made in 2015.  Based on the GTS, it was mechanically unchanged but, trimmed in collaboration with Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna in a manner which might be expressed as “the acceptable face of bling”, the exterior details including a platinum-metallic silk paint scheme with aluminum pigments, the twenty-inch wheels color-coordinated.  Inside, the seats, panels, roof lining and sun visors were covered variously in silk, leather in a shade exclusive to the model or a woolen herringbone.

Hofit Golan and Lindsay Lohan attending  Summer Tour Maserati in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, July 2016.  The Quattroporte is a 1964 Series I.

The fastest four-door sedan of the 1960s

1958 Chrysler New Yorker with 392 Hemi.

The straight-eight Dusenbergs had in the 1930s set the standard but by the late 1950s, powerful engines in four-door sedans had again become a thing and in 1958, Chrysler’s 392 cubic inch (6.4 litre) Hemi V8, used in the two-door 300s, could be fitted to the four-door New Yorker and was standard on the Imperial line.  Rated at 345 horsepower (chronic unreliability meant the fuel-injected Electrojector option which promised 390 hp proved abortive) and contemporary reports suggest 130 mph was possible.  The Hemi however was discontinued after 1958, its 413 cubic inch (6.8 litre) wedge-headed successor proving displacement was a cheaper path to power.  However, seeking success on the track, Chrysler resumed production of a hemi-headed V8 in 1964.  Now 426 cubic inches (7.0 litres), it was intended only for the track and not the general public, an attitude which displeased the sanctioning body for the competition in which it was used; deciding to ban the thing, NASCAR claimed the use of a custom race engine in what was called a “stock car” series was hardly in the spirit of the rules.  Actually, the cars hadn’t for many years been close to “stock” but NASCAR ignored that argument and banned the Hemi anyway.

1966 Dodge Coronet Sedan with 426 Street Hemi.  Dodge’s butterfly-shaped tail-lamps are also a footnote in legal history, being a matter of dispute in the legal proceedings pursuant to the infamous 1966 triple-murder in which the defendants were the boxers Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1937–2014) & John Artis (1946-2021).

 Chrysler’s reaction was to detune the Hemi (a little), quieten it (a lot) and, as the “426 Street Hemi” offer it in 1966 as an option in the road cars.  That way, as long as enough were sold, it would become a “stock” engine and eligible for competition and to ensure enough were sold, the Street Hemi was made available in a wide range of vehicles and while Chrysler didn’t sell as many (of what was a very expensive option) as expected, they moved enough to satisfy the rules.  In 1966, most went into big two-door coupes (and a few convertibles) but five buyers ordered them in four-door sedans and these, Chrysler duly built, two reputedly special orders for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) although some doubt has been cast on that.  All were fitted with the robust 727 Torqueflite automatic transmissions, a final-drive ratio of 3.23 and a front anti-roll bar, the build otherwise distinguished mostly by heavy-duty components, many from the station-wagon which was rated for towing heavy loads.

Powerful in the spirit of the Maserati Quattroporte but with few concessions to luxury, like all the Street Hemi-powered cars there was no air-conditioning but the five 1966 sedans were more basic still, lacking power-steering, power brakes and power windows and Chrysler also sold Hemi-powered cars to the public with four-wheel drum brakes which, given the weight of the things and the performance on tap, was about as bad an idea as it sounds.  Chrysler never published any performance claims for the Hemi-powered sedans but automobile-catalog.com’s ProfessCars™ estimation of the top speed of a two door with a manual transmission was 147 mph (236 km/h), impressive in 1966 especially given that on the same gearing the ET for the standing ¼ mile was 13.5 seconds which does demonstrate the advantages of using a genuine racing engine as the base.  Contemporary reports confirm the efficient TorqueFlite barely affected things, the two and four door Coronets were of similar weight, the frontal area the same and although experience suggests the upright rear window of the sedan may have induced more performance-sapping drag than the flatter line on the coupe, it seems likely the 1966 Hemi sedans were capable of more than 140 mph (225 km/h) and may have matched the 4.7 litre Quattroportes sold that year.  With only five of the former and seven of the latter being produced, they can barely be considered production cars but technically, both qualify.  Interestingly, Chrysler that year did offer a 2.73 final drive ratio which, if fitted, would have pushed the (theoretical) top speed towards 160 mph (257 km/h), a velocity which might have required enough concentration from the driver to divert thought from those drum brakes.

1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 (SWB).

Mercedes-Benz had high hopes for the 600 (W100) Grosser (1963-1981), introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963.  The true successor to the 770K Grosser (W07: 1930-1938 & W150: 1939-1943), the projections were at least a thousand would find buyers annually but by 1966, it seemed clear this was too optimistic, the 345 sold in 1965 apparently the high point rather than the encouraging start hoped.  It was clear the trend was downward and worse, an unexpected on-rush of legislation would soon banish the 600 from sale in the United States, always by far the biggest potential market.  That rarity in automotive production, the almost all-new vehicle (only the automatic transmission and a few suspension components were modifications of earlier designs), the 600’s development programme had been long and expensive and all indications were the W100 ledger would continue to be written in red ink.  What was needed was a way to amortize the investment and the most obvious way, increasing sales of the 600, was clearly impossible.

Thus the 300SEL 6.3.  The legend has always been that famous engineer Erich Waxenberger (1931-2017), requisitioned one of the 6.3 litre V8s (M100) developed for and then exclusive to the 600 and fitted it to a 300 SE (W112) coupé which had failed quality control checks and was scheduled for destruction.  According to Herr Waxenberger, he dreamed up the combination because he was annoyed by the press suggesting the model range had become staid after the retirement of the 300 SL (W198) roadster.  Doubling the size of the engine in a 300 SE certainly made for something more exciting and the board, apparently impressed, authorized production on the proviso the long-wheelbase four-door 300 SEL (W109) be used instead of the rather lovely coupé, a 6.3 litre sedan thought to have the greater sales appeal.  So it proved, 6523 6.3s were sold between 1968-1972 and all at a very high price, a lucrative operation which, when combined with the 7380 M100 powered (W116) 450 SEL 6.9s shifted between 1975-1981, may well have covered any losses sustained in the 18-odd years (1963-1981) it took to sell 2677 600s (all reputedly at a loss).

1971 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3.

The tale of a nostalgic engineer secretly building a hotrod which the board liked so much they went on to build thousands is a good one but what Herr Waxenberger never mentioned were the prior discussions within the corporation about the disappointing sales of the 600 and the desirably of finding some way to amortize the cost of the programme.  The obvious solution was to find a way profitability to share some of the unique components used on the 600 with other, better selling vehicles and obviously, the 600’s V8 was a major component so putting it in a car which would, at a high price, sell in much greater numbers was obviously a good idea.  The factory has a bit of previous in myth-making, for years circulating the story of how mechanics were in 1934 forced to work overnight scraping the traditional white paint from the W25 Grand Prix car because scrutineers had found it a solitary kilogram over the newly introduced 750 KG limit.  It wasn’t until decades later that researchers checked the rules for that race (the 1934 Eifelrennen) and discovered the 750 KG formula didn’t that day apply to the “unlimited” class in which the W25 had been entered.  Their appetite whetted, digging deeper they found photographs of the cars arriving at the circuit in the bare aluminum skins in which they raced and of the many photographs of the event which survive, never does a W25 appear in anything but bare metal.  Still, it’s a good story and the factory’s website now tacitly acknowledges the dubious relationship with the truth by referring to it as a “legend”.  That seems a reasonable view and it is such a good story it deserves to endure.  The story of the birth of 6.3 may too be a little murky.  Everything Herr Waxenberger said was true and things surely happened just as he recounted but the truth was perhaps incomplete, his motives perhaps a little more practical than the lust to build a gentleman’s hot rod.

It certainly was a hotrod though, an air-suspended, 6.3 litre howler from a time when BMWs were not yet three litres, Jaguar’s XJ12 was half a decade away and it was for years an autobahn favorite which could outrun the 4.2 litre Quattroportes but couldn’t quite match the 4.7 litre cars in top speed, rated by the factory at 220 km/h (137 mph), a figure confirmed by some contemporary tests.  Aerodynamics rather than available power seemed to be the issue, the later, heavier (and actually slightly less powerful) 450SEL 6.9, although the factory claimed that only 225 km/h (140 mph) possible, achieving 240 Km/h (149 mph) when tested by those with enough road to let it wind out.

1963 Lagonda Rapide.

It’s thus a contested space but, all things considered, the 4.7 Quattroportes probably do deserve to be thought the fastest four door sedans of the 1960s, even if they never managed some of the extraordinary speeds claimed in some corners of the internet.  The other contenders from the era either couldn’t touch 225 km/h (140 mph) or came too late.  The Lagonda Rapide (1961-1964) and Iso Fidia (1967-1975) both could exceed 210 km/h (130 mph) but not by much and the Jaguar Mark X & 420G (1961-1970) not even that, the earlier 3.8 Mark II (1959-1968) managing 202 km/h (126 mph).  The Australian Ford Falcon GTHO (1969-1972) did top 225 km/h (140 mph) but not until 1971, the 1969 edition about 10 mph slower.  The De Tomaso Deauville (1971-1985) and Monteverdi’s High Speed 375/4 (1971-1976) came later, the early versions Swiss 375/4 (with the most powerful (and toxic) of the 440 cubic inch (7.2 litre) Chrysler V8s it would use) truly impressive and able to reach 232 km/h (144 mph) attentive drivers reputedly able at that velocity to be amused by the discernible leftward movement of the fuel gauge.

Before, during & after.  A 2009 (fifth generation) Quattroporte leased by Lindsay Lohan's father was damaged in minor traffic accident while her assistant was at the wheel, Los Angeles, 2009.

Autogynephilia & Autogynepoliteia

Autogynephilia (pronounced aw-toh-gi-ni-fil-ee-uh)

The paraphilic tendency of someone anatomically male to be sexually aroused by the thought of instead being female.  The shortened form in psychiatry is AGP.

1989: The construct is auto + gyne + phila.  Auto is from the Ancient αὐτός (autos) (self).  Gyne is from the Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ) (woman); doublet of queen.  Philia is from the Ancient Greek φιλία (philía) (fraternal) (love).

Gender Identity Disorder and the DSM

The word autogynephilia was coined by US psychologist Dr Ray Blanchard (b 1945) as a component of his research into transsexualism typology.  Autogynephiliacs he categorized as those men who are sexually aroused at the idea of having a female body, a subset of those erotically aroused by cross-gender behaviors and fantasies within the general condition of gender dysphoria.  Blanchard listed four types of autogynephilic, noting (shifting degrees of) co-occurrence in studied cases was common.

(1) Transvestic autogynephilia: arousal to the act or fantasy of wearing typically feminine clothing.

(2) Behavioral autogynephilia: arousal to the act or fantasy of doing something regarded as feminine.

(3) Physiologic autogynephilia: arousal to fantasies of body functions specific to people regarded as female

(4) Anatomic autogynephilia: arousal to the fantasy of having a normative woman's body, or parts of one.

He noted that for historic reasons related both to visibility and traditional categories of psychatric illness, transvestic-fetishistism has long tended to be the most publically identified type but that the more inherently private anatomic autogynephilia type is actually is more associated with gender dysphoria and may be more prevalent.  Not only that but within that group, there were those exhibiting partial autogynephilia, being sexually aroused by the image or idea of having some but not all normative female anatomy while simultaneously retaining all their male physiology.

Just about any publishing of research in this field means walking an academic minefield but autogynephilia attracted more interest than most papers.  One theme was the reaction to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) including autogynephilia in the supporting text of Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis in the revised fourth edition (2000) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). 

Twenty years earlier, in DSM-III (1980), the APA had, after a bit of tinkering in 1973, (almost) removed the diagnostic category of homosexuality because the “…crucial issue in determining whether or not homosexuality per se should be regarded as a mental disorder is not the etiology of the condition, but its consequences and the definition of mental disorder.”  That had been an extraordinary shift, not only in the DSM’s thirty-odd year practice but also in the traditions of western psychiatry, essentially a change in diagnostic policy toward the consequence of a condition rather than speculation of its cause.  That within a generation the APA would appear to discard this principle disappointed many.

In DSM-5 (2013), autogynephilia was included as one of the propensities of those with transvestic disorder (listed as a paraphilic disorder), characterized by the sexual excitement individuals experience when they cross-dress or think about cross-dressing, noting fantasies which accompany autogynephilia can focus on (1) the idea of having female physiological functions (2), engaging in stereotypical feminine behavior or (3), having, in whole or in part, female anatomy.  Reflecting changes in other conditions, in DSM-5, changes were made also to the diagnostic criteria.

Autogynepoliteia (pronounced aw-toh-gi-ni-poh-light-e-uh)

The adoption by a man of female identity for purposes of political advantage.

2021: The construct is auto + gyne + politeia.  Auto is from the Ancient αὐτός (autos) (self).  Gyne is from the Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ) (woman); doublet of queen.  Politeia (πολιτεία) is from Ancient Greek, a word used in Greek political thought, especially that of Plato and Aristotle.  It's from polis (city-state) and has a variety of meanings including "rights of citizens" to a "form of government".  The construct autogynepoliteia was created to mean “man who adopts a female identity for political advantage”.  The more fastidious Hellenic scholars might be appalled but it rolls off the tongue.

Australian Senator Eric Abetz (b 1958; senator for Tasmania (Liberal) since 1994) since first gaining pre-selection in 1993, always enjoyed the number one position on the Liberal Party ticket, the slot guaranteeing election to the upper house for a six-year term.  Unfortunately, he no longer has the numbers and on 8 May 2021 it was announced that for up-coming election, had been dropped to third place, re-election still possible but with prospects substantially diminished.  The senator soon sniffed out the skullduggery behind his demotion and it included sexism.  Noting that one of those who had usurped the desirable first and second spots was a woman, the senator declared “I can’t do anything about my sex”.  There may be also some resentment felt by the senator because he has (through the rumor-mongering of his enemies) gained a reputation as a conservative and even a reactionary.  He says that's unfair, pointing out that in the 1980s when he established his legal practice, it was the first in the city of Hobart to feature color as part of the letterhead.       

Depiction of a possible Senator Erica Betts in knee-length dress (part-number 4003105) @ US$68.88 and stiletto pumps with clutch purse (digitally altered image).

He shouldn’t have been so pessimistic, there being no reason why he couldn't have re-invented himself as Senator Erica Betts and re-contested the pre-selection through the party’s appeal processes and, after thirty odd years in the Tasmanian Liberal Party machine, surely he must have had dirt files on many of those with a vote.  While it’s (probably) still accepted orthodox science that sex can’t be changed in the biological sense, sex changes for legal and administrative purposes are hardly novel.  These things are called legal fictions and mean documents like passports, licenses and Liberal Party pre-selection papers can reflect something changed in law irrespective of biological reality.  If that seems too onerous, gender shifting is now possible and need not even be permanent, Senator Erica Betts having to exist only for pre-selection and election campaign purposes although, because that might have been thought cynical, the identity would probably have to have been maintained for the whole term.  For additional electoral advantage, he/she/they could have campaigned as a trans-rights activist because, as he pointed out when dissecting the scandal of being dumped, there was no criticism of his “…work ethic, energy, capacity, advocacy skills…” and the trans-community would have responded: “Give us leadership, Erica!” they would have cried out, “Give us some leadership!”.

Autogynepoliteia thus describes the condition sought (rather than suffered) by someone anatomically male to be instead thought female, for purposes of political advantage.  It adds to the politics of gender what is already noted in race politics.  The political right now uses the labels race-shifters (US), pretendarians (Canada) and box tickers (Australia) to describe the practice of people self-identifying as being of Indigenous or First Nations descent for one purpose or another.  Linguistically, what would make it unusually effective is the phonetic assimilation between Eric Abetz and Erica Betts.  Phonetic assimilation describes a sound-change where some phonemes (more typically consonants) shift to become more similar to other nearby sounds.  A common phonological process across languages, assimilation can occur within a word or between words.  Although often heard in normal speech, the frequency increases as delivery becomes more rapid.  Interestingly, assimilation can cause the spoken sound to differ from the accepted correct pronunciation or, to become the accepted form, the latter often making the list of canonical or received speech.

Pamphlet from Senator Abetz's "below the line" voting campaign for the 2022 Australian general election.  Senator Abetz seems now to feel "below the line" is no longer "below the belt".

It's not known if Senator Abetz seriously considered the trans option but a recent mail-drop campaign confirms he's instead running a "vote below the line" campaign, despite having previously denounced such tactics as "destabilising" (ie when used by someone else).  When Aged Care Services Minister, the hapless Richard Colbeck (b 1958; Senator (Liberal) for Tasmania 2002-2016 & since 2018) dropped to fifth on 2016 party ticket, resulting in him losing his seat, Senator Abetz was critical of a grassroots campaign supporting a “below the line” vote.  "The destabilising, below-the-line campaign (run by Senator Colbeck’s supporters) undermined the team message of stability", he said in a letter to Senate pre-selectors after the election.  His views have clearly changed and he does have the advantage of below the line campaigns being unusually effective in Tasmania because (1) the Hare Clark electoral system used in state elections, where it's possible to pick and choose candidates for the same party, means voters are well versed in the concept and (2) the small population size which means he'll need to attract comparatively few first below the line votes to secure election.  Tasmanians actually like to vote below the line and do so at about four times the frequency of voters in other states, even when there’s no concerted campaign to attract their pencil and in the 2016 poll Labor's Lisa Singh (b 1972; Senator (ALP) for Tasmania 2011 to 2019) actually gained re-election from sixth place on the basis of such votes.  That was a double-dissolution election and the quota for a seat was thus lower but she nevertheless became the first candidate elected on below-the-line votes since the system was introduced in 1984.  Because of the math however, it's going to be harder for Senator Abetz and it does appear he also holds the (doubtlessly unwanted) record as the Tasmanian senator who has in the past attracted the greatest number of last places from those who vote below the line.  His "Put Eric First" campaign may also be up against a not formerly organized but at least percolating "Put Eric Last" movement.  

His campaign is anyway different than those he's run before.  His signage, of which there seems to be much, includes only his name and the now expected 3WS (three word slogan): That he “puts Tasmania first”.  There's no mention of him being a candidate for the Liberal Party but whether an attempt to declare quasi-independent status can succeed for someone who has represented the Liberal Party for twenty-eight years and, sometimes as a cabinet minister and leader of the government in the Senate, sat through the Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison eras seems improbable.  Still, it's a strategy, even if one less likely to succeed than running as trans activist Senator Erica Betts but anyone familiar with the senator's long history will not underestimate his tenacity and understand there'll be no bowing out gracefully.

Manikin & Mannequin

Manikin (pronounced man-i-kin)

(1) A man short in stature; (sometimes as a term of endearment but now archaic).

(2) In folklore, a dwarf; pygmy.

(3) An anatomically correct model of the human body (or a part of the body), used for teaching or demonstrating surgical and other clinical techniques; a specialized form is the phantom, an anatomical model of a fully developed fetus, for use in teaching midwifery or obstetrics.

(4) A three-dimensional figure, dummy or effigy representing a man or person (now replaced by mannequin), manikin now correctly used only in the medical context.

1560s: From the Dutch manneken (literally “little man”), a diminutive of the Middle Dutch mannekijn, from the Proto-Germanic manwaz, from the primitive Indo-European root man- (man).  The original meaning was "a jointed model of the human figure used by artists" and the sense and spelling is often blended with mannequin.  The early synonyms (in the context of small humans) included homunculus, midget, peewee, shorty, titman, & doll and (in the sense of the artificial creations) dummy, figure, mannequin & marionette.  The noun plural is manikins; the (rare) alternative spelling is mannikin.

Mannequin (pronounced man-i-kin)

(1) A styled and three-dimensional representation of the human form used in window displays, as of clothing; dummy.

(2) A figure or model of the human figure used by tailors, dress designers etc, for fitting or making clothes; historically made from timber but now constructed from many combinations of materials.

(3) A person employed to wear clothing to be photographed or to be displayed before customers, buyers etc; a clothes model (dated).

(4) In the visual arts, another name for a lay figure

1902: From the fifteenth century French mannequin (model to display clothes) from the Dutch manneken (model of the human figure used by artists).  Mannequin was the French form of the same word that yielded manikin and in English, was sometimes used in the sense "artificial man" (especially in translations, the trend apparently triggered by the frequency of use in early twentieth century translations of the works of Victor Hugo (1802–1885)).  Originally, it was applied to humans in the modern sense of “a model” and not until 1931 did it assume the meaning of “artificial human model figure to display clothing”.  A sideway variation was the later “clotheshorse” (a person whose chief interest and pleasure is dressing fashionably).  The noun plural is mannequins.

The difference between a Manikin and a Mannequin

Lindsay Lohan with several mannequins, New York Fashion Week, 2009.

Mannequin was a word once used where model would now be preferred, a person employed to wear clothes and carry accessories but since the 1930s a mannequin is a usually plastic or fibreglass emulation of the human form (in shape but not fine detail), typically found scattered throughout clothing and department stores, most famously as part of displays in shop-front windows.  Most mannequins represent a body shape within a fairly narrow range of dimensions but the industry recognizes eighteen different types including the obvious like “sexy” and “sporty” but there are also the niches such as pregnant people.  However, despite the industry's vocal embrace of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), impressionistically, it would seem the female mannequins on display still tend to the slender.

Manikins are also human shaped models but rather than being a fashion platform, they are used to help simulate medical, surgical, or clinical scenarios to assist in training and the honing of technique.  There are a variety of manikins and in the jargon of the medical devices industry, they range from low to high fidelity, the rating an indication of the degree of anatomical realism included, a high-fidelity manikin sometimes even including movement, speech, muscular reaction and facial expressions.  A high-fidelity manikin might include a complete set of internal organs and have many interchangeable parts whereas a low-fidelity model might be just a hollow shell used to teach students how to insert an IV or perfect the techniques of bandaging.

Manikins exist so those working in a clinical environment, from students to surgeons, can enjoy a safe environment in which to practice their skills, without the obvious risk of using live patients.  Although doctors continue, as they have for centuries, to murder their patients, rarely suffering any consequences due to the cozy legal apparatus known as “medical misadventure”, the use of manikins presumably lessens the slaughter of the innocent.  Like mannequins, manikins are designed for purpose and there are birthing simulators, newborn simulators, simulators that go into cardiac arrest, and even dental simulators.

L'Inconnue’s death mask.

Although anatomical models were used in medical training as early as the sixteenth century, the first manikin (in the modern understanding) was released in 1960 as a device for teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).  The design parameters were written by two physicians, Austrian Peter Safar (1924-2003) and American James Elam (1918–1995), the engineering and fabrication handled by Norwegan Åsmund Lærdal (1914-1981), head of a company with expertise in plastic molding from their experience as a manufacturer of children’s toys.  Famously, the face on the manikin is that of L'Inconnue (L'Inconnue de la Seine (The unknown woman of the Seine)).

Crowd at the public viewing portal of the Paris Morgue, circa 1890.

L'Inconnue, was probably about sixteen when she died in the late 1880s and although it’s not certain, most then concluded she took her own life.  As was done at the time, after her lifeless form was pulled from the River Seine at the Quai du Louvre, the corpse was put on public display at the Paris mortuary, a popular attraction and one justified by the purpose of hoping some of the dead might be identified.  Despite the daily crowd, none came forward to name L'Inconnue.  The dead waif however was far from unnoticed, many remarking on her unusually serene appearance and one much taken by her was the pathologist who performed the autopsy.  He had a plaster-cast taken of her face (a not uncommon practice) and within years, reproductions of L'Inconnue's alluring, deathly likeness were being sold throughout Europe, the mesmerizing mask, later describe by philosopher Albert Camus (1913-1960) as a "drowned Mona Lisa", fixed to the walls of drawing rooms, fashionable salons and the studios of (presumably already troubled) artists.  The silent beauty also attracted writers and early in the twentieth century there was a rash of imaginative fiction speculating about the short life of L'Inconnue, many melodramatic, most constructing a short, tragic life battered by ill fortune and finally taken by the waters of the Seine.  For writers, it was the lure of the tragic, death, water and a waif irresistibly romantic and in death she became the one of the great influencers of her age, described as “the aesthetic template for a whole generation of German girls who modeled their looks on her", adored in death as many authors liked to imagine she never was when alive.

L'Inconnue’s death mask would over the years attract artists and it’s been rendered in many materials including ceramics, copper, bronze, granite and even chocolate, seen as an icon and on canvas with a variety paints.

Decades later, L'Inconnue’s image would again be revived.  Åsmund Lærdal in the 1940s had been a manufacturer of small wooden toys but in the post-war years, attracted by the possibilities of the then novel plastic, he experimented with the soft, malleable substance and, finding it ideal for his purposes, embarked on mass-production, one of his products the acclaimed toy “Anne”, a baby with “sleeping eyes and natural hair".  Anne enjoyed international success and when told the two anesthesiologists, impressed by the life-like behavior of the doll’s plastic material, had asked if he could fabricate and mass-produce a life-sized adult manikin on which could be demonstrated their newly developed resuscitation technique, they found an attentive listener; some years earlier, Lærdal's two year old son had nearly drowned and had his father not forced the water from his airways, he too may well have died.  For a toymaker with expertise in the molding of plastic to form hollow toys, it was a formidable engineering challenge not only to create a realistic, functional maikin that reliably could be used to demonstrate the physical complexities of CPR but to design a mass-produced product which would be financially viable.

Resusci Anne in carry-case.

The technical specifications provided by the doctors had included a collapsible chest for practicing compressions and open lips to simulate mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but Lærdal, after discussions with his engineers, concluded it was also important the manikin should be recognizably female, suspecting men might be reluctant to practice CPR on a male doll's lips.  It was during the design process Lærdal recalled the enigmatic half-smile on a mask he'd seen on a wall while visiting relatives and it was this memory which inspired him to choose L'Inconnue.  Resusci Anne (Rescue Anne or CPR Anne in the US) was released in 1960 and was the first device of its type, so successful the Lærdal Toy Company soon transformed to become Lærdal Medical and it’s estimated over 300 million people around the world have been trained in CPR, most of them using Resusci Anne.  If L'Inconnue really did, as so many authors would have, take her own life in the depths of a despair only unrequited love can induce, fate would have her in death inspire Resusci Anne, called “the most kissed girl in the world”.

Perhaps surprisingly, Andy Warhol never took L'Inconnue as his subject.  This one is a fake.

Despite the sad charm of that, it couldn’t happen now, the ethics of making reproductions of a dead person's face and selling them without consent, un-discussed in the late nineteenth century, troubling today.  Were such a product now to be created and a life-like face was necessary, the visage would have to be either licensed or anonymized.  However, psychologists have conducted trials using a genuine Resusci Anne and one with no discernible facial characteristics and reported the more anthropomorphic appeared to enhance the realism of resuscitation training.  The researchers noted the face made CPR training more intense and stressful for both clinicians and lay-people but their follow-up questionnaires some months later revealed those who “kissed L'Inconnue” displayed a much higher recall of the techniques learned on the day.  She may have died forgotten, but in her immortal after-life, L'Inconnue is clearly memorable.

The romance of L'Inconnue is compelling but there have long been doubts about the original masks, sceptics suggesting it’s unlikely the flawless features could have come from a corpse fished from a river, the suspicion being a pretty young model might have been the source for the cast taken to take commercial advantage of the great public interest in the story of the young girl.  There are other theories too and the truth will never be known but L'Inconnue’s mystery is the essence of the strange tale.

Some assembly required: The Apprentice Doctor’s Full-Body Adult, Nursing and Trauma Manikin.

Supplied as a kit complete with burns, lacerations, and broken bones, it’s said to offer a realistic experience in the identification, assessment, treatment, and transport of trauma patients and disaster victims and can be used in forensic medicine and CSI training, working well as a manikin for crime scene simulation projects.  Prices start at US$1,199.00.

To ensure durability and ease of maintenance, the manikin contains no latex and the manufacturer cautions the kit (1) is intended exclusively for classroom instructional (educational) use and training purposes, (2) requires adult supervision and guidance for students under the age of 17 years and is not suitable for those under the age of 15 and (3) contains items that may pose a choking hazard to toddlers and babies (keep out of reach of these age groups).

Intended as a low-maintenance product, the post training cleaning routine consists of (1) after nasal feeding, gastric lavage, enema, male and female urethral catheterization procedures, empty all the residual liquid, used from the stomach, intestines and bladder, (2) Rinse all used tubes & catheters with water and dry for re-use and (3) if in disuse for an extended period of time, the manikin should be wiped clean, covered and placed in a cool, dry place; this will extend service life.

Art deco (though with some debt to mannerism) lady Mannequin bust in plaster for hat or jewelry display.  Just as there are flesh & blood models who specialize is one body part (hand models, foot models etc), there are also mannequins produced for the purpose of featuring just one or several body parts.

Fashion mannequins have been in use since the fifteenth century and were originally the head-forms with which milliners ensured a hat maintained the correct shape during construction.  Once a purely “back-of-house” or “workshop” device, as the price of glass was reduced by the adoption of techniques perfected by the late sixteenth century, glass-windows in shop-fronts became larger and more common so milliners essentially invented the “window display” in its modern form.  Although it had been the practice of many artisans and merchants to display their goods in this manner, it was the milliners who were first in fashion.  By the mid eighteenth century, full-scale, wickerwork mannequins were being used to display dresses, the more conveniently adjustable versions made with wire first manufactured in Paris in 1835.  However, the expansion of the trade created a demand for cheaper, lighter, non-adjustable forms which were purely a platform for display and the first (papier-mâché) female mannequins were sold in France in the mid-nineteenth century, the higher-end stores soon adopting mannequins made from wax which produced a more lifelike appearance but, expensive and apt to be fragile, the wax was in the 1920s supplanted by a more durable composite material, based on plaster.

Statuesque: Two mannequins in the window display of Chanel Shop, Prince's Building, Central Chater Road, Hong Kong.

Modern mannequins are almost always made from plastic or fiberglass although the, as marketing devices, the haute couture houses have used (sometimes stylized) one-off mannequins made from metal and even what was claimed to be carbon-fibre though experts quickly pronounced it fake (as opposed to faux).  Fiberglass mannequins are usually more expensive than plastic and tend to be more fragile but can be rendered in a more life-like form which can be done with plastics but not at a reasonable cost.  In fact, the trend in recent years has been for plastic mannequins to eschew any attempt to appear realistic, presumably to ensure the focus fixes on the clothes.  Artists have also used articulated mannequins (historically known as lay figures), as a tool to assist the rendition of draped figures, the advantage being that unlike a live model (on an hourly rate), a mannequin can be kept indefinitely immobile or adjusted as required.  Additionally, they don’t complain about the cold, demand lunch or take cigarette breaks.

Vintage Playtex Cross Your Heart wire-free bra in beige, displayed on fibreglass mannequin.  For specific purposes, mannequins are sometimes produced with certain aspects scaled beyond the usual size range.

While there are variations which tend to be product-deterministic (and the upper ranges of the alphabet in the bra business is an obvious niche), the size and shape of most mannequins exists in a predictably narrow range and one acknowledged to be smaller in most dimensions (except height) than either the majority of the adult female population or that aligned to the majority of the garments actually sold.  In this of course it follows the profile of the industry’s live models who are famously taller, lighter and thinner than all but a handful of their customers although, under pressure from activists, this pattern is now (slightly) less extreme than once it was, despite many wishing those days would return.  Before we called models models we called them mannequins and, flesh, plastic or fibreglass, little has changed as an extract from The Bystander’s (a British weekly magazine which in 1940 merged with Tatler to be published as The Tatler & Bystander until 1968) edition of 15 August 1906 suggests:

”A mannequin is a good-looking, admirably formed young lady, whose mission is to dress herself in her employer's latest "creations" and to impart to them the grace which only perfect forms can give.  Her grammar may be bad, and her temper worse, but she must have the chic the Parisienne possesses, no matter whether she hails from the aristocratic Faubourg St. Germain or from the Faubourg Montmartre.”

Pogrom

Pogrom (pronounced puh-gruhm, puh-grom, poh-gruhm or poh-grom)

An organized persecution or massacre of a defined (usually ethnic or religious) group, historically and originally applied especially to attacks on the Jews.

1882: From the Yiddish פּאָגראָם‎ (pogrom) (organized massacre in Russia against a particular class or people, especially the Jews), from the Russian погро́м (pogróm & pogromu (devastation, destruction) the construct being по (po) (by, through, behind, after) (cognate with the Latin post) +‎ громи́ть (gromu or gromít) (thunder, roar; to smash, to sack; to destroy, devastate) from the primitive Indo-European imitative root ghrem (which endures in Modern English as grim).  The Russian derivatives are погро́мщик (pogrómščik) and погро́мщица (pogrómščica).  The literal translation of the Russian pogróm is destruction, devastation (of a town, country, as might happen in a war) and it’s the noun derivative of pogromít; po is the perfective prefix and gromít (to destroy, devastate) is a derivative of grom (thunder).

For historic reasons, should perhaps be Jewish-specific

Although etymologists note the word pogrom has increasingly been used to refer to any persecution instigated by a government or dominant class against a minority group, its origin lies in organized attacks on the Jews and, for historic reasons, pogrom perhaps should be used only in this context.

Although mob attacks on Jews, organized and spontaneous, have been documented for thousands of years, pogrom is a Yiddish variation on a Russian word meaning "thunder" and entered the English language to describe nineteenth and twentieth century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire, similar attacks against Jews at other times and places retrospectively becoming known as pogroms.  An important technical distinction emerged in the discussions which produced the four articles of indictment ((1) planning aggressive war, (2) waging aggressive war (the two collective the core crime of aggression), (3) war crimes and (4) crimes against humanity) which became the basis of the Nuremberg trials in 1946-1947.  While it was clear an event such as 1938’s Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass), in which dozens of Jews were killed, was a pogrom in the historical sense, the holocaust which followed between 1941-1945 was so monstrous a crime and on such a scale that another word was required and thus was created genocide.

In the years since, the definitional aspects of these matters have become a macabre exercise for lawyers required to prosecute or defend those accused of mass-murder.  In the last quarter-century, deciding what to do about what was done in places like Rwanda, the Congo, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia and Burma (Myanmar) required courts to decide whether to treat the events as vigilantism, terrorism, massacres, genocide, war, pogroms or the more recent descriptor, ethnic cleansing.

Promotional poster by Josef Fenneker (1895-1956) for the German silent film Pogrom (1919), written and directed by Austrian Alfred Halm (1861-1951) and distributed by Berliner Film-Manufaktur GmbH.