Bandage

Bandage (pronounced ban-dij)

(1) A strip of soft cloth or other material used to bind up a wound, sore, sprain etc, or as a protective compression device to prevent or limit injury.

(2) Anything used as a band or ligature.

(3) To bind or cover with a bandage; to put a bandage on a wound, sprain etc, or as a protective compression device to prevent or limit injury.

(4) In fashion, a type of dress, distinguished from similar styles by the use of knitted fabrics.

(5) Figuratively, by extension, a provisional or makeshift solution that provides insufficient coverage or relief (also as band-aid solution).

1590-1600: From the Middle English bandage (strip of soft cloth or other material used in binding wounds, stopping bleeding etc), from the sixteenth century French bandage, from the Old French bander (to bind), from bande (a strip).  The verb bandage (to dress a wound etc, with a bandage) dates from 1734 (and was implied in bandaging).  Bandage is the spelling in Danish, Dutch, German, English & Swedish but other languages localized the French including Norwegian Bokmål (bandasje) Polish (bandaż) & Turkish (bandaj).  The spelling in the constructed Esperanto is bandaĝo.  Bandage is a noun, verb & adjective, bandaged & bandaging are verbs (used with & without an object) and the noun bandager does exist although use seems restricted to first-aid manuals.  Other words used in similar vein include dressing, gauze, plaster, swathe, truss, compress, bind & wrap.  The noun plural is bandages.

The noun compress, (in the surgical sense of "soft mass of linen or other cloth to press against some part of the body (with the aid of a bandage)”), as an adaptation from the earlier verb, evolved in the 1590s in parallel with bandage.  In earlier use, the noun ligament (band of tough tissue binding bones) was a late fourteenth century creation from the Latin ligamentum (a band, bandage, tie, ligature), from ligare (to bind, tie), from the primitive Indo-European root leig- (to tie, bind) and in the medical literature, ligamental, ligamentous & ligamentary still occasionally appear.  One technical term from medicine which seems extinct is the verb deligate (to bind up, bandage), noted since 1840 (and implied in deligated), from the Latin deligatus (bound fast), from deligare (to bind fast), the construct being de- (from the Latin dē-, from the preposition dē (of, from); the Old English æf- was a similar prefix) + ligare (to bind).  Under the Raj, the noun puttee (long strip of cloth wound round the lower leg as protection by soldiers) enjoyed a evolution in spelling typical of many words in British India, patawa in 1875, puttie by 1886 and the modern puttee finally (more or less) standardized by 1900).  The source was the Hindi patti (band, bandage) from the Sanskrit pattah (strip of cloth).  The noun fascia did have a brief career in medicine, being from the Latin fascia (a band, bandage, swathe, ribbon), derivative of fascis (bundle (which as fasces became a familiar form in the twentieth century)).  In English, the original use was in architecture, the anatomical application not noted until 1788 and it’s now also a familiar form in botany, music, astronomy and interior design, most obviously in cars.  The noun bandeau (headband), now much associated with revolutionaries (and in fashion the emulation) dates from 1706, from the French bandeau, from the twelfth century Old French bandel & bendel (bandage, binding), a diminutive of bande (a band, a strip).  As a style of women's top or bra, it was first described in 1968 and is distinguished from similar styles in being of a rectangular cut, the hems forming two horizontal lines above and below the breasts.

The bandage dress

Although the motif of what is called the bandage dress is clearly identifiable in depictions of women which pre-date antiquity, the creation of the modern commercial product is credited to the 1980s work of Tunisian couturier Azzedine Alaïa (1935-2017) but it is with French designer Hervé Peugnet’s (1957–2017) fashion house Hervé Léger that the style is now most associated.

Charlotte McKinney (b 1993), 2018.

The bandage dress is a specific interpretation of the earlier, figure-hugging bodycon dress, the name originally a contraction of "body conscious" which the industry would later morph into "body confidence" in reaction to criticism and in Japan, they were marketed as ボディコン (bodikon), a spelling better suited to traditional pronunciation in Japanese.  What distinguished bandage from bodycon was the fabric, the former made not with anything woven, engineered instead to compress with machine-knitted material, the completed panels left uncut and assembled to created the finished item.  Bandage dresses thus, although truly suitable for only one body type, because of the compression effect of the knitted fabric, do (slightly) extend the parameters of the silhouette which can be accommodated while still being aesthetically successful whereas bodycon dresses made from fabrics which merely cling rather than smooth out imperfections rely on an ideally formed frame.  For that reason, the jocular slang “body compression” was sometimes used to describe this sub-set of the bodycon, the bandage dress working like externally worn shapewear, corset-like in effect if not quite an actual exoskeleton.

Lindsay Lohan (b 1986), 2008.

Hervé Léger in 1992 first displayed the bandage dresses which would come to be the style’s definitive look; instantly popular, they were a red-carpet staple well into the twenty-first century.  Still a big seller, the bandage dress in 2015 migrated, via the twittersphere, from the fashion section to the front page when the comments of Patrick Couderc (b 1961, then managing director of Hervé Léger's British distributor, MJH Fashion), were published.  In an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday, Mr Couderc made it clear he’d prefer it if some women would avoid buying Hervé Léger’s most famous creation, those on the proscribed list including lesbians, those beyond a certain age and anyone with a less than ideal silhouette.

There was an element of classism too in his critique as he lamented the bandage dress as a victim of its own success, too many now seen on the wrong-shaped customers and worse still, they were often cheap knock-offs of the £1,300 (US$1603) originals and thus increasingly associated with reality TV stars and those working in hair salons.  Admitting dryly “you can be a victim of your success”, his comments seemed to echo those reported earlier in the century by the distributers of a high-end cognac and the Maybach, Daimler-Benz’s ill-fated mistake in thinking what was needed was a brand above Mercedes-Benz which for almost a century had been good enough for presidents, popes and potentates.  Then the complaint had been that drink and car were finding favor with hip-hop & rap stars and this most interpreted as an expression of concern the association with people of color might “cheapen the brand”.  Mr Couderc didn’t comment on skin color but told The Mail he refuses to give free dresses to celebrities if they are “judged to lack sufficient class”.

Clearly a student of the interplay of sociology and economics, he allowed his mind to wander wide, recalling that he’d “...never go out to dinner if she’s not wearing tights.  I think hosiery is something which is very magical in my world and I’m veering off into complete poetry now.  But it’s a social statement because in the 1980s, the difference between someone who was wearing tights and someone who was not was very significant.”  Clearly nostalgic for a time when the poor were less inclined to get ideas above their station, he added that then, “...whoever was wearing tights was working in a private office in a bank in St James’s and whoever was not wearing tights was coming to work as a shampooist in a High Street hairdresser, commuting from Croydon.  We were living in a time where the distinction between the two social strata was much more significant than today”.  How he must long for that vanished, pre-1945 world, when folk from Croydon were deferential to their betters.

Salma Hayek (b 1966), 1998.

The attitude was hardly unique in the industry, Abercrombie & Fitch early in the century re-built into a highly profitable company using a model former CEO Mike Jeffries (b circa 1944) described in a 2006 interview as “exclusionary” noting their clothes were a product in which “a lot of people don’t belong and they can’t belong.”  That really wasn’t an unusual business model but it was rare for a CEO so bluntly to state the obvious and, when the comments were published in 2013, Jeffries issued a apology saying "We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics".  Also controversial was a later comment, attributed in 2013 to (an unnamed) Abercrombie and Fitch district manager.  It’s said the person being interviewed requested anonymity so the statements have never been verified but it was reported that when asked how the company responds to non-profits asking for donations of discontinued clothing to be given to the poor and homeless, the reply was “Abercrombie and Fitch doesn’t want to create the image that just anybody, poor people, can wear their clothing. Only people of a certain stature are able to purchase and wear the company name”, to which he added they would rather “burn the clothes” than risk them being seen on the backs of the poor.  Again, while rarely discussed, the practice of destroying rather than discounting or giving away unsold or discontinued items is widespread in the industry.

Speaking at Hervé Léger’s boutique in Knightsbridge, Central London, the like-minded Mr Couderc wasn’t entirely lacking in empathy, noting “You women have a lot of problems. You will lose the plot.  You will come and you will put a dress on and you’ll be in front of the mirror, like, ‘Argh, I’m so fat’”.  “Yes, you have a 12th of an inch around your stomach, it’s not really a disaster, and what you’re not noticing is that your cleavage is about two inches too low because you are 55 and it’s time that you should not display everything like you’re 23.”  At this point he did concede the particular virtue of the bandage dress was it could in such cases “provide useful support” but that didn’t mean he approved.

How a Hervé Léger bandage dress should hang.

He’d clearly thought about things, his advice to lesbians (presumably young or old) that “if you’re a committed lesbian and you are wearing trousers all your life, you won’t want to buy a Léger dress.  Lesbians would want to be rather butch and leisurely.”  Warming to the topic, he went on to say “voluptuous” women (most drawing the inference he meant "not slender") and those with “very prominent hips and a very flat chest” should wear something else, adding the handy hint that women must not wear underwear that was too small, because “the knicker line cuts through the flesh and goes through the other side of the dress” thereby creating the dreaded “visible panty line” (VPL).

Hervé Léger’s Moscow store.

Quite what he thought the reaction to his comments would be isn’t recorded but while his views may not much have changed since the 1980s, much of the rest of the world now has the means to respond en masse and what should have been the foreseen twitterstorm quickly gathered, #boycottherveleger & #wecanwearwhateverthefuckwewant soon trending.  Doubtlessly fearing the wrath of blood-thirsty lesbians, those not slender, chav shampooists and women of a certain age, Max Azria’s BCBGMAXAZRIA Group (which in 1998 had acquired Hervé Léger), went immediately into crisis management mode, issuing a statement saying they were “...shocked and appalled by Patrick Couderc’s comments made in the Mail on Sunday.  BCBGMAXAZRIA Group is working in concert with MJH Fashion, the London-based licensee of the Herve Leger brand, to investigate and establish appropriate next steps. The statements made by Mr. Couderc are not a reflection of Herve Leger by Max Azria or MJH Fashion ideals or sentiments.”  The Herve Leger by Max Azria brand celebrates sensuality, glamour and femininity without discrimination.”

Less than twenty-four hours later, MJH Fashion confirmed Mr Couderc was no longer employed by the company.  Max Azria (1949–2019) in 2016 ended his connection with BCBGMAXAZRIA and its associated companies and in 2017 the group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the intellectual property rights and assets later acquired by the Marquee Brands division of the Global Brands Group.  Bandage dresses remain popular.

Chimera

Chimera (pronounced ki-meer-uh or kahy-meer-uh)

(1) In Greek mythology, monster of Lycia commonly represented with a lion's head, a goat's body, and the tail of a dragon or serpent (often with initial capital).  In some tales, the monster breathes fire; it was killed by killed by the hero Bellerophon.

(2) In mythology and art, any similarly grotesque monster having disparate parts.

(3) In architecture, a subset of the decorative grotesques (like a gargoyle, but without a spout for rainwater) distinguished from other grotesques by being a blending of two or more creatures.

(4) Figuratively, a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination and used as a synonym of bogeyman: any terrifying thing, especially as an unreal, imagined threat.

(5) Figuratively, a foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination; an idle fancy.

(6) Figuratively, anything composed of disparate parts.

(7) In biology, an organism (especially a cultivated plant) composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.

(8) In genetics, an organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two or more zygotes.

(9) In applied genetics, a slang term used by scientists describing one who has received a transplant of genetically and immunologically different tissue.

(9) In medicine, twins with two immunologically different types of red blood cells.

(10) In zoology, an alternative form of chimaera, a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.

(11) In the geography of Ancient Greece, a fire-spewing mountain in Lycia or Cilicia, presumed to be an ancient name for the Yanartaş region of Turkey's Antalya province.

(12) In historic geography, (1) the former name of Himara, a port town in southern Albania and (2) the former name of Ceraunian Mountains, the Albanian mountain range near Himara.

1350-1400: From the Middle English chimera, from the Old French chimere, from the Medieval Latin chimera, from the Classical Latin chimaera, from the Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khímaira or Chímaira) (she-goat).  Chimaera translates literally a “year-old she-goat”, the masculine form being khimaros from kheima (winter season) from the primitive Indo-European gheim (winter) and related to the Latin hiems (winter), the Ancient Greek cheimṓn (winter), the Old Norse gymbr and the English gimmer (ewe-lamb of one year (ie one winter) old).  The alternative spelling chimaera is used always of the fish and sometimes of the mythological beast.  Chimera & chimerism are nouns, chimerical & chimeric are adjective and chimerically is an adverb; the noun plural is chimeras.  In scientific use, the derived forms include macrochimerism, microchimerism, allochimeric, antichimeric, nonchimeric and xenochimeric.

Bellerophon Riding Pegasus Fighting the Chimaera (1635) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640).

The Chimera, a mythical fire-breathing creature depicted often with a lion's head, a goat's body and the tail of a dragon or serpent, was one of the many fantastical offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.  In all of antiquity, sighting the Chimera was an omen of storms, shipwrecks, and natural disasters (particularly volcanoes) and was depicted usually by (almost always male) writers as female.  The awful beast was slain by Bellerophon (who led a bloodthirsty life before being killed by Zeus, after which he was venerated as a hero) on the command of King Iobates of Lycia who had begun to find tiresome the Chimira’s raids on his kingdom tiresome.  There arose the tradition that the Chimera was supposedly an ancient personification of snow or winter, but the connection to winter might be no more than the ancient habit of reckoning years as "winters" or maybe just another of the many quasi-mythological imaginings of Medieval writers.  It was in antiquity held to represent a volcano so perhaps the idea of a link to a symbol of "winter storms" (another sense of Greek kheima) and generally of destructive natural forces held some appeal. The word was used generically for “any grotesque monster formed from parts of other animals”, creatures which in the pre-modern world were frequently conjured up for any number of reasons.  The now extinct alternative spelling was Chimeraor and the practice of using an initial capital (known from Latin) when describing the mythical monster is common (on the basis of it being counted as a proper noun) although for this there’s no basis in the rules of English.  The most common modern use, the figurative meaning “wild fantasy” was known in thirteen century French and first recorded in English in the 1580s.

A gargoyle on Cologne Cathedral (left) and a gargoyle on Marble Church, Bodelwyddan, Clwyd, Wales (centre).  The drainage function means the Welsh figure is defined as a gargoyle although its hybrid form is clearly that of a chimera.  The Lindsay Lohan sculpture (digitally altered image, right) is a pure grotesque (single species form, no water spout). 

Grotesques and chimeras

A chimera of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, contemplating the city, photographed by Noemiseh91.

In architecture, gargoyles are a specialized class of grotesques that include the functional feature of a waterspout and even if a building is renovated with a modern water management system added which means a gargoyle’s spout now longer is connected to the flow, it does not become reclassified as a grotesque; it remains a gargoyle, albeit a “dry” one.  While the difference between a gargoyle and grotesque is a matter of whether the design incorporates the handling of fluid, the distinction between a chimera and a grotesque is at the margins fluid in the metaphorical sense, both being ornamental sculptures most associated with Gothic architecture but critics have created criteria, however loose the parameters may seem.  Classically, a chimera was a fantastical, mythical creature, often a hybrid of multiple animals or a mix of human and animal features and for the architectural feature to be classified thus, it has to conform to this model.  In that chimeras differ from any grotesque which is a representation, however bizarre, of a creature from a single species.  What that means is that while all chimeras are grotesques, not all grotesques are chimeras.

Horodecki House (House with Chimaeras), Ukraine, Kyiv.  This is the aspect which faces Ivan Franko Square.

One of the most celebrated buildings said (erroneously) to be adorned with chimeras is Horodecki House in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a structure better known on Instagram as “House with Chimaeras” which received much attention when Volodymyr Zelensky (b 1978, president of Ukraine since 2019) in February 2022 stood in front of it to deliver his “Our weapon is truth” address following the Russian “special military operation” (invasion of Ukraine).  Classified as being in the Art Nouveau style, the building was designed by Polish architect Władysław Horodecki (1863–1930) and despite all the intricate detailing and other complexities, it was completed in little more than two years, opened in 1903.  One thing which made the speed of construction possible was the core technique of using concrete piles as the underpinning, something necessitated by the land being steeply sloped, resulting in an asymmetric building with six floors on Ivan Franko Square while three face Bankova Street.  Another novelty was the use of cement as the finishing material, something at the time not unknown but still rare.  Despite the popular moniker “House with Chimaeras”, the many sculptures which lend Horodecki House its distinctiveness are technically grotesques because all, bipeds & quadrupeds, are representations of real animals, not figures from mythology or fantastical hybrids and it’s believed it picked up the romantic nickname because it imparts such a wonderful air of gloominess and recalls the Gothic style.  The grotesques, rendered in cement, were the work of the Italian sculptor Emilio Sala (1864-1920) who spent most of his working life in St Petersburg and Kyiv.

Interior detailing, Horodecki House Ukraine, Kyiv.

The motif was the theme also for the interior detailing with stuccos, high reliefs and sculptures decorating the ceilings, walls and stairs and of particular interest is that while what’s depicted on the exterior uses only living creatures as a model, inside, everything is dead and often dismembered; Horodetskyi was an avid hunter.  Despite the pervasive feeling of gloom as one approaches the thing, it’s different inside because (the many carcases notwithstanding) the rooms are bright and airy with the floral ornaments typical of early Modernism although it’s of regret all the original furniture and many of the frescos fell victims during World War II (1939-1945) to marauding Red Army soldiers and other looters.  Although in recent years substantially restored, no attempt was made to re-create the frescos, the space not taken by paintings.

Woman with Catfish, Horodecki House Ukraine, Kyiv, photographed by Константинъ. Although there are two creatures in this sculpture, it's still a grotesque because they're separate beings; had the depiction been part fish and part human, it would have been as chimaera.  Although large, certain catfish reach 3 metres in length so the sculptor was rendering still still in the realist tradition.

Following restoration, in 2004 the building was designated a museum but since 2005 it has enjoyed official status as the “Small Residence of the President of Ukraine”, curious term meaning it’s used for meetings with foreign dignitaries and in that there are many advantages, it’s location meaning it’s easy for the security forces to secure the site, the larger rooms are spacious and an make a most attractive backdrop for photo opportunities.  Daily Art Magazine has a feature with a fine collection of images.

Probity

Probity (pronounced proh-bi-tee or prob-i-tee)

Integrity and uprightness; honesty.

1505-1515: From the Middle English probite (tried virtue or integrity, strict honesty), from the Middle French probité, from probitatem (nominative probitās (uprightness, honesty), from probus (virtuous, good, excellent, honest).  The construct of the Latin probitās was prob(us) (upright; worthy, good) + itās (the -itas suffix was from the Proto-Italic -itāts & -otāts (-tās added to i-stems or o-stems, later used freely) and ultimately from the primitive Indo-European -tehats.  The noun plural is probities.  Synonyms include (variously according to context) godliness, goodness, honor, righteousness, saintliness, uprightness & virtue; the antonym which best catches the sense is probably wickedness.

Quia suam uxorem etiam suspicione vacare vellet

Pompeia was (probably the second) wife of Julius Caesar (100–44 BC; Roman general & dictator 49-44 BC) who Caesar married in 67 BC.  In 63 BC Caesar was elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus (head priest of the Roman state church), a perk of which was a grand house on the Via Sacra and it was there in 62 BC that Pompeia hosted the festival of the Bona Dea (the good goddess), an event no man was allowed to attend.  However a young man called Publius Clodius Pulcher, disguised as a woman, managed to enter the house, his purpose the seduction of Pompeia.

Discovered early in the event, he was arrested and Caesar immediately divorced Pompeia.  The young man was prosecuted for sacrilege but when called as a witness, Caesar disavowed any knowledge of the events and declined to offer any evidence against Clodius who was therefore acquitted.  Pompeia assured her husband her honor hadn’t been violated which her husband believed but when asked by the prosecutor why therefore he'd divorced her, Caesar's answer was that his wife couldn't be even under suspicion and there must be no doubt as to the probity of Caesar's wife.

From this passed into use the phrase attributed to Julius Caesar by the Greek (later Roman) historian Plutarch (circa 46–circa 124): quia suam uxorem etiam suspicione vacare vellet (because he should wish even his wife to be free from suspicion) which is translated usually as "because Caesar's wife must be above suspicion", and the expression of womanly virtue therefore being understood as "acting with the probity of Caesar's wife".

Many subsequent Caesars have benefited from the probity of their wives, their rectitude not always appreciated or reciprocated.

Inspire

Inspire (pronounced in-spahyuhr)

(1) To fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence.

(2) Too produce or arouse (a feeling, thought etc).

(3) To fill or affect with a specified feeling, thought etc.

(4) To influence or impel; to animate, as an influence, feeling, thought, or the like, does.

(5) To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by inspiration.

(6) To prompt or instigate (utterances, acts, etc) by influence, without avowal of responsibility.

(7) To give rise to, bring about, cause, etc.

(8) In medicine and physiology, to take (air, gases, etc.) into the lungs in breathing; inhale (now rare).  The antonym in this context is expire; only between physicians should inspire & expire be used to refer to breathing.

(9) In medicine, to infuse (breath, life, etc) by breathing (usually followed by into); to breathe into or upon (archaic).

1300–1350: From the Middle English inspiren & enspiren (to fill (the mind, heart etc, with grace etc) & also "to prompt or induce (someone to do something)"), from the Old French enspirer & inspirer (variant of espirer, from the Latin inspīrāre (to breathe upon or into(and figuratively "inspire, excite, inflame”))), present active infinitive of īnspīrō (inspire), itself a loan-translation of Biblical Ancient Greek πνέω (pnéō (also as pnein)) (breathe), the construct being in- + spīrō (breathe), from the primitive Indo-European (s)peys- (to blow, breathe).  The construct of inspīrāre was in- (The prefix -in is quirky because it can act either to negate or intensify.  The general rule is that when pre-pended to a noun or adjective, it reinforces the quality signified and when pre-pended to an adjective, it negates the meaning, the latter mostly in words borrowed from French.  The Latin prefix in- was from the Proto-Italic en-, from the primitive Indo-European n̥- (not), the zero-grade form of the negative particle ne (not) and was akin to ne-, nē & nī.  In Modern English it is from the Middle English in-, from Old English in- (in, into), from the Proto-Germanic in, from the primitive Indo-European en) + spīrāre (to breathe).  The general sense of inspire meaning "influence or animate with an idea or purpose" dates from the late fourteenth century and in Middle English, was sometimes also used in literal sense.

The adjective inspired dates from circa 1400 in the sense of “communicated by divine or supernatural powers" and was the past-participle adjective of the verb inspire; from the 1660s the meaning extened to "infused with seemingly supernatural influence".  The noun inspirer came into use circa 1500 as the agent noun of the verb.  Inspirator, a Late Latin form, has existed in English since the seventeenth century in the Latin figurative sense but from 1890 was used literally as the name of a component of (a double injector (or a pair of injectors combined and working in unison, one raising the water from the pump-chambers or reservoirs and delivering it to the other which forces it into the boiler).  In modern theology, dating from 1846, an inspirationist was "one who believes in the inspiration of the Scriptures”.  Inspiratrix, the feminine form of inspirer, has been in use since 1819.  The adjective inspirational in the sense of “tending to inspire” dates from 1878 but was by 1839 also being used to mean “influenced by inspiration" and by 1888 “pertaining to inspiration” and earlier, it was used in the writings of spiritualism.  To convey the meaning “tending to inspire” there were inspirative (1770) & inspiring (1640s).  Inspire is a noun & verb, inspirable & inspirative are adjectives, inspirer is a noun and inspiringly an adverb.

Crooked Hillary Clinton, the Met Gala and inspiration

Crooked Hillary Clinton, Met Gala 2001.

Crooked Hillary Clinton provided an unexpected photo-opportunity at the 2022 Met Gala, twenty-one years after her last appearance.  The theme in 2001 had been Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years and in that spirit (the then pre-crooked) Hillary choose a leopard-print taffeta gown paired with an olive-green and gold wrap augmented by a somewhat haphazard arrangement of jewels.  It was blingish but most seemed to like the look and though the relationship to Camelot may have been strained, that’s hardly rare on the Met red carpet.  The 2001 appearance was presumably to celebrate having taken possession of the New York senate seat to which she felt entitled, an exercise in public legitimization for taking the presidency in 2008, another office to which she’d come to think was her entitlement.  Events in 2008 didn’t go as planned but, in fairness, by the time of the 2016 election, a majority of those who voted agreed she was entitled but not enough of them lived among the “deplorables” in the states she’d either ignored or taken for granted.

Crooked Hillary Clinton, Met Gala 2022.

The Met’s theme in 2022 was In America: An Anthology of Fashion, said to be a sequel to last year’s similarly vague In America: A Lexicon of Fashion but, twenty-one years on, the voluminous Bordeaux-colored dress, designed by Joseph Altuzarra (b 1983) was politely received.  Much admired was the detail work in the subtle pleating which showed a sense of restraint, the designer resisting the temptation to do too much which can be hard to resist with all that fabric.  The choice of color too seemed inspired; it's hard to imagine anything else so suiting the cut.  At the edges of bertha collar and the hemline were embroidered the names of sixty women from America’s past, all of whom crooked Hillary claimed had been an inspiration to her, including:

Abigail Adams (1744–1818; wife of John Adams (1735-1826; US president 1797-1801 and thus de facto First Lady 1797-1801).

Sacagawea (circa 1788–1812 or 1884; Lemhi Shoshone woman associated with early exploration).

Harriet Tubman (circa 1822–1913; American abolitionist and social activist).

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962; diplomat and wife of Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945, US president 1933-1945) and thus First Lady 1933-1945).

Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005; US politician & civil rights activist).

Rosa Parks (1913-2005; US civil rights activist).

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020; associate justice of the US Supreme Court 1993-2020).

Madeleine Albright (1937–2022; US secretary of state 1997-2001).

Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007; wife of Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973; US president 1963-1969) and thus First Lady 1963-1969)).

Dorothy Rodham (1919-2011; mother of crooked Hillary Clinton).

There was a racial DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the list notably wider than that in the neighborhoods where she and her husband choose to live or spend their frequent vacations (apart from the help of course) but that may be coincidental.  What was not was that all on the list are dead, avoiding any embarrassment which might have been caused had anyone living been included who might have asked to be removed, not happy with the association.  Crooked Hillary claimed that had she included the living, the sheer number would have “filled the entire dress” so, she added “…I decided to stick with women who are no longer with us because that would have made it really impossible to have even one dress if I had everyone on it I admired".  That cleared up any misunderstandings.

The small print: Embroidered names on the bertha collar.

The designer’s take on the embroidered names and their link to the Met’s theme was more technical, reflecting his interest in the tradition of “friendship quilts” which for generations women have crafted with embroidered sayings, phrases or the names of friends and family members.  Altuzarra noted that his creation “…paid homage to the homemakers and seamstresses” who had long been a neglected part of the history of American fashion.  Sometimes, to mark a special occasion, a village would make a quilt, a community would quilt together, signing their names in ink or embroidery and family quilts would serve as mementos of the dead or former homes.  “The quilt was an opportunity for women to get together and have this social interaction”, Altuzarra explained and “they were often a kind of memory for women of their community and families, especially if they didn’t stay in one place all their life.”  The making of friendship quilts flourished between the 1840s and the early twentieth century and there is an International Quilt Museum devoted to their preservation.

Inspiration is where it's found.  Some sources endlessly continue to to inspire.

Best part of the Met Gala coverage however came from Olx Praca which reported “the dress was embroidered with the names of sixty women who Clinton said find her inspirational.”  Olx Praca is a news aggregator presumably not staffed by politically aware journalists and these days there are no sub-editors so the mistake (unless crooked Hillary “misspoke” as does seem to happen a bit) is perhaps understandable and probably there are on Earth sixty women who find crooked Hillary inspirational.  Olx Praca may however be onto something; maybe crooked Hillary really does still believe most women find her inspirational.

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.