NSFW Blanche and the Femme Corporis Politique

[Fimm McCool]

much improved by putting him in kinky boots, no matter how more elegant the line of the calf to the ground may be perceived. It seems entirely gendered and normative that women must primarily conform to being aesthetically pleasing, wheras men are not.

But note the posing of the feet. The right foot has a section of tree behind it to deceive the eve into thinking the ground 'merges' with the straight leg. The left, on the other hand, is pointed downwards- granted not to the ridiculous degree of the ballet boots, but nonetheless to give a more 'pleasing' segue from leg to ground.

 

[ardyer]

Can't you people see that he's just trying to give Rob Liefeld examples of how to draw feet???

 

[Zhu Bajie]

In this case, because space marines aren't spindly and elegant in the way a lot of JB's characters are, they need a visually strong (wide) base where they meet the ground to give the effect of power.

Yes exactly. Women in Blanches painting are spindly, elegant victims submitting to the doctrines of (fetishised) aesthetic pleasure, whereas men are visually strong giving the effect of power. The aesthetic values are entirely in the service of communicating culturally normative values of gender disparity.

Fashion and status worshippers are dangerous, deranged individuals.

if it were not that fetish shoes and specific body types appear in Blanches work going back to the 1970s. I could go for that idea: Blanche is simply illustrating the dangerous, deranged self-mutilating citizens of the Empire of the 41st Millenium, The submission and mutilation of self in conformity to the oppression of the Empire, the erasure of individuals identity in adoption of the fetishist archetypes. But then art is art, and we are not constrained to read them in the context of fiction.

Can't you people see that he's just trying to give Rob Liefeld examples of how to draw feet???

Fiddly things to draw, I can't blame Rob really.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

In this case, because space marines aren't spindly and elegant in the way a lot of JB's characters are, they need a visually strong (wide) base where they meet the ground to give the effect of power.

Yes exactly. Women in Blanches painting are spindly, elegant victims submitting to the doctrines of (fetishised) aesthetic pleasure, whereas men are visually strong giving the effect of power. The aesthetic values are entirely in the service of communicating culturally normative values of gender disparity.

But note the posing of the feet. The right foot has a section of tree behind it to deceive the eve into thinking the ground 'merges' with the straight leg. The left, on the other hand, is pointed downwards- granted not to the ridiculous degree of the ballet boots, but nonetheless to give a more 'pleasing' segue from leg to ground.

Yes, that's why I chose that specific image. Blanche does not simply pose the feet of his figures in a more 'pleasing' way - something he could easily achieve. Instead he chooses to design his feminine figures in fetish boots. Visual aesthetics cannot justify a specific motif or symbol, only support its theme.

Fashion and status worshippers are dangerous, deranged individuals.

if it were not that fetish shoes and specific body types appear in Blanches work going back to the 1970s. I could go for that idea: Blanche is simply illustrating the dangerous, deranged self-mutilating citizens of the Empire of the 41st Millennium, The submission and mutilation of self in conformity to the oppression of the Empire, the erasure of individuals identity in adoption of the fetishist archetypes. But then art is art, and we are not constrained to read them in the context of fiction.

Can't you people see that he's just trying to give Rob Liefeld examples of how to draw feet???

Fiddly things to draw, I can't blame Rob really.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Yes exactly. Women in Blanches painting are spindly, elegant victims submitting to the doctrines of (fetishised) aesthetic pleasure, whereas men are visually strong giving the effect of power. The aesthetic values are entirely in the service of communicating culturally normative values of gender disparity.

I dunno, especially in the Confrontation stuff there are a lot of 'weak' male characters, especially decadent aristocrats. They also often have high heels btw, though peg-legs are also common!

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

Don't forget that this is ART and so there is a VISUAL rationale behind these things too. The ballet-boot style elongates the legs and gives an aesthetically pleasing slope into the ground that flat footwear doesn't. This is, after all, why ballet dancers (even men) point their toes. The lines are just more elegant that way.

Well, why aren't Space Marines on their tippy-toes if it's just more VISUALLY elegant that way? Consider that aesthetics in ART are not a set of absolute values that are equally distributed to all subjects.

Why do you think the massively chunky guards on the lower legs? They're not an homage to the useful design of shin guards and the leg guards of, say, Greek soldiery. No, what they do is widen the bottom of the leg so that the ankles are pretty much the same width as the feet, which gives the same effect of merging into the ground. In this case, because marines aren't spindly and elegant in the way a lot of JB's characters are, they need a visually strong (wide) base where they meet the ground to give the effect of power.

Speaking of Marines...
Originally they also had some seriously bizarre bodies:
viewtopic.php?p=66092#p66092

In this case, because marines aren't spindly and elegant in the way a lot of JB's characters are, they need a visually strong (wide) base where they meet the ground to give the effect of power.

You're saying all these weird things. We know whose theory Zhu Bajie follows. Now it's time for you to disclose your sources.

I dunno, especially in the Confrontation stuff there are a lot of 'weak' male characters, especially decadent aristocrats. They also often have high heels btw, though peg-legs are also common!

The Confrontation stuff was apparently done by Christian Schwager, not by John Blanche, though.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

The aesthetic values are entirely in the service of communicating culturally normative values of gender disparity.

I dunno, especially in the Confrontation stuff there are a lot of 'weak' male characters, especially decadent aristocrats. They also often have high heels btw, though peg-legs are also common!

Pics! Need to see it to talk about it properly. If the Blanche Boot is used on weak, decadent males, then we can read it as a symbol for weakness that is almost universally applied to the feminine, and used to define weakened (effeminated) masculinity, which would in turn, cancel the idea of the heel as a symbol of sexual power. Or perhaps, political or psychological power over physical or martial. Alternatively it could be just an embrace of the Queer. But it's hard to say for sure without seeing the images.

Also I think, as AranaszarSzuur requested, it would be cool to name the theorists you're using (I'm guessing some follower of Kant) in case anyone following wants to get in on those ideas.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Speaking of Marines...
Originally they also had some seriously bizarre bodies:
viewtopic.php?p=66092#p66092

Yes indeed. The physicality of marines is interesting. I don't want to derail too far into a full-blown semiotic analysys of 40k, although it it is important to compare how gendered concepts are established. Some rather odd thoughts on Space Marines having the visual proportions of headless children here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3326

 

[Citadel Collector]

Many of the women in his early paintings (including the one above on the left of the pic with red hair) are based on John's first wife.

 

[Stormbringer]

Some rather odd thoughts on Space Marines having the visual proportions of headless children here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3326

That was a fascinating read. I love the phrase "mechanical-battle-womb".

I've often been curious about the stooping stance of RT-era Space Marines -- even the ones in regular power armour seem unusually 'hunched'. I always assumed that, being genetically modified psychopath-savages, that their stance was meant to give the impression of an almost beast-like aspect, as if they had somehow regressed back a few steps down the 'March of Progress'.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Umm, me.

And by the by, when I say 'Confrontation' I got the impression a lot of the art which ended up in Necromunda, Inquisitor etc. was actually intended for Confrontation, but I may be wrong. This is the kind of thing I mean:

 

[Fimm McCool]

Interestingly, this guy is obviously meant to look strong, but still has decadent heels:

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

Speaking of Marines...
Originally they also had some seriously bizarre bodies:
viewtopic.php?p=66092#p66092

Yes indeed. The physicality of marines is interesting. I don't want to derail too far into a full-blown semiotic analysys of 40k, although it it is important to compare how gendered concepts are established. Some rather odd thoughts on Space Marines having the visual proportions of headless children here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3326

Oh God, that's so messed up .

Some rather odd thoughts on Space Marines having the visual proportions of headless children here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3326

That was a fascinating read. I love the phrase "mechanical-battle-womb".

I've often been curious about the stooping stance of RT-era Space Marines -- even the ones in regular power armour seem unusually 'hunched'. I always assumed that, being genetically modified psychopath-savages, that their stance was meant to give the impression of an almost beast-like aspect, as if they had somehow regressed back a few steps down the 'March of Progress'.

I think the reason why RT-era Marines were hunched is that they'd try to minimize their silhouette. RT-era art had a lot of images showing dying marines. They weren't heroic giants that wade through small arms fire with impunity.
Just google "soldiers under fire" and you'll see a plenty of similarly hunched people.

The aesthetic values are entirely in the service of communicating culturally normative values of gender disparity.

I dunno, especially in the Confrontation stuff there are a lot of 'weak' male characters, especially decadent aristocrats. They also often have high heels btw, though peg-legs are also common!

Pics! Need to see it to talk about it properly. If the Blanche Boot is used on weak, decadent males, then we can read it as a symbol for weakness that is almost universally applied to the feminine, and used to define weakened (effeminated) masculinity, which would in turn, cancel the idea of the heel as a symbol of sexual power. Or perhaps, political or psychological power over physical or martial. Alternatively it could be just an embrace of the Queer. But it's hard to say for sure without seeing the images.

It could also be seen as a reference to an era. Looks like historically, high heels were often worn to make nobility look taller.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-heel ... ar#History
It seems that men experienced a sort of liberation in the late XVIIIth century.

Many of the women in his early paintings (including the one above on the left of the pic with red hair) are based on John's first wife.

Which confirms my theory of chosen looks being driven by "spiritual" attraction.

Interestingly, this guy is obviously meant to look strong, but still has decadent heels:

I guess it would be hard to get away with high heels on power armour. Too heavy + the backpack.

 

[Stormbringer]

I've often been curious about the stooping stance of RT-era Space Marines -- even the ones in regular power armour seem unusually 'hunched'. I always assumed that, being genetically modified psychopath-savages, that their stance was meant to give the impression of an almost beast-like aspect, as if they had somehow regressed back a few steps down the 'March of Progress'.

I think the reason why RT-era Marines were hunched is that they'd try to minimize their silhouette. RT-era art had a lot of images showing dying marines. They weren't heroic giants that wade through small arms fire with impunity.
Just google "soldiers under fire" and you'll see a plenty of similarly hunched people.

You make an excellent point. The old school SM look like they're vulnerable. Yes they're highly trained, super fit, surgically altered psychos and yes they're clad in the best personal armour in the galaxy, but they still look like they're fighting a very deadly war and death will claim them any second.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Definitely agree on the observations on the early Space Marines. Note how none of the military realism, or ideas of weight and power are ever applied to the female of the species...

You're saying all these weird things. We know whose theory Zhu Bajie follows. Now it's time for you to disclose your sources.

Umm, me.

Oh come now. You're a talented and intelligent chap Mr. Fimm, but you didn't invent Formalist art critism or aesthetics. Formalism is great for abstract works or describing the technnical aspects of a composition, but it's not designed to tackle the subject matter, communication theory and semiotics are better for that - although appreciating how the formal aspects of the work can contribute and transform the meaning is useful.

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-res ... /formalism

And by the by, when I say 'Confrontation' I got the impression a lot of the art which ended up in Necromunda, Inquisitor etc. was actually intended for Confrontation, but I may be wrong. This is the kind of thing I mean:

"Kind of thing" implies there are more, I can't find any.

The main figure is not only wearing odd shoes, hes also exposing his nipple! it's a deeply significant nipple, look at its saggy slope on it's pale unformed chest tissue. Any fansplanation would read this as the influence of Slaanesh - whose mark is the breast, an early sign of decedance and corruption. The figure isn't a tight, ballet dancer nymphette, nor a hypermasculine broad shouldered warrior with dustbin legs strapped to his legs, nor atheletic youth, but the image of a pale, pudgy, middle-aged man, with a receeding hairline and egg shaped head.

Note the dramatic line of the costume splitting the character in two. One side clothing and decoration, and normal footware, the other half revealing nudity and the pale flabby torso, with the spiked heel. Here is a pictorial narrative of of unveiling, and revealing, tripping the outer layers of costume to reveal what lays under - in this case a bloke in high heels. As Sheila Jeffreys notes out in Beauty and Misogyny, the secret wearing of the boot by the (male) fetishist is a common practice, part of the object-worship. I read this image as a depiction of the fetishist, not of the fetishised object of desire, as we see in other but an image of the shoe fetishist himself.

Yet the kinky boot on the man isn't an extraordinary heel, compared to this much more frequent kind of thing we see in Blanches work, such as this which I think is an Esher from Necromunda :

Then observe how small and ineffectual the mans heel is, almost like a weak, vestigal appendage, compared to the grand architectural gothic arch and weaponised spike that we can so clearly and repeatedly observe in Blanches fem-boot as worn by the Esher girl and a thousand others. Rather than a triumphant, en-nobled individual, that one might expect from a historical image of Nobility (thanks AranaszarSzuur) overall feeling is one of degeneration and furtiveness, the gun stuck in the mans pants at the groin, the boys hand in his trouser pocket, the choice of a stabbing, penetrating weapon. The comfortableness compounded by the inclusion of a small child-as-adult, which in a post-paedogeddeon mediascape leads nowhere good. It's like a commedia dell'arte version of Baron Harkonnen, from Dune, repulsive.

Anyone else immediately think of the mutant love child of Freddy Mercury and Conchita Wurst ?

..no? just me then!

...Unlike the semi-hidden perversion from Confrontation, here we are presented with an out, loud and proud shoe fetishist. The curve of the phallic sword, mirroring the curve of the leg and the boot - itself peeking out from behind a red curtain like a common trope of Burlesque theater, echoing and reflecting the Freudian fetish symbolism. Almost phantasmically detached from the body, the focus of attention and desire. No longer a hidden.

Oh God, that's so messed up .

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Many of the women in his early paintings (including the one above on the left of the pic with red hair) are based on John's first wife.

That's really interesting. As unlikely as it may be, I'd be fascinated to hear the models views on these works.

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

Definitely agree on the observations on the early Space Marines. Note how none of the military realism, or ideas of weight and power are ever applied to the female of the species...

I suspect the female marines were a sort of a joke like the Santa Claus marine. Wait, they are "adventurers", not marines. By the way, there seems to be a thing with female characters going back to Laserburn...

 

[Fimm McCool]

Anyone thought to ask the artist's own explanation?

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Definitely agree on the observations on the early Space Marines. Note how none of the military realism, or ideas of weight and power are ever applied to the female of the species...

I suspect the female marines were a sort of a joke like the Santa Claus marine. Wait, they are "adventurers", not marines. By the way, there seems to be a thing with female characters going back to Laserburn...

Tony Yates Laserburn via

I never thought the Females in Powered Armour were a joke, until I saw the painted reverse. I think it's a winning example of how gendered thinking dominates in GW. Yes, Tony Yates was drawing some Heavy Metal style things for Laserburn, Reaper also has its fair share of Dejah Thoris types.

Anyone thought to ask the artist's own explanation?

Allow me to introduce the The Death of The Author, by Roland Barthes, and the Intentional fallacy:

"The design or intention of the artist is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of art." , - Wimmsatt / Beardsley (paraphrased)

Or to put it another way, whatever the stated intention of the walker, the footprints are still there to be read.

What are we to make of this strange, fleshy appendage, chosen as the sign par-excellance of the Femme Militants? This object of fetishist idolatry and submission. Not a bolt-gun, not a skull, not a helmet, not military nor religious insigna: a high-heeled shoe.

 

[Erny]

Interestingly, this guy is obviously meant to look strong, but still has decadent heels:

He has cowboy boots, spurs, a great big quiver of arrows, a cloak, a big tash and a top knot.

He's a space nomad horse archer so naturally he has a bit of a heel going on and pointy shoes. The point allows the foot to fit into his stirrups more readily, the slight heel keeps his feet in the stirrups. The fashion for high heels started with Iranian horse archers and the spread to Europe by the 16th C. Later women started copying this outlandish style of dress and the heel as with all fashion became more and more extreme.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Hey Erny, good references.

There's a a number of persian references, certainly. Unlike the reflex bow, hairstyle and Shamshir - the Khans boot doesn't appear to be historically determined the Persian horse-riding device, is a low shoe, and remained so when popularised on as a male fashion item by Louis XIV Nor does Khan's shoe look like a traditional Cowboy boot, which is normally a slip-on thing. It has some similarity (suggested by coloration and the 'swirls' of a boot of the Ottoman Empire - which doesn't even have the cuban heel. If the shoe was intended to be a specific historical reference, it seems to be more of an amalgamation.

If we read the Khan Boot is itself a-historical, as none of the historical, pre-fetishisation shoes seem to have the same design features or fur trim. It appears like a victorian, stud-hook eyelet riding boot - a historical shoe more readily associated with the dawn of the camera age and the birth of pornography. The white highlights suggest a high gloss material For all intents and purposes. Kahn is wearing lace-up red PVC / patent-leather things with fur trim. Kinky!

By drawing on the early history of the high heeled shoe (the Perssian cavalry) where the heel was not gendered feminine, the shoe fetishist is perhaps allowed to be the strident, empowered figure we can see in Khan, rather than the shameful uncovring we see in the Necromunda image of the male high heel wearer.

Comparing to John Blanches other Primarchs, it's also interesting Khan is depicted in a pre-Space Marine state, he hasn't adopted the powered armour and the weight|power paradigm of hetronormative masculinity that we see in Leman Russ or Rogal Dorn, Horus etc. ad nauseum. And then there is this:

It's interesting, if not significant that the image of Fulgrim, labelled as having "meticulous physical perfection" is also in kinky boots - with camel toes (and all that implies) and apparent heels, judging by the angle of the foot to the ground. Interesting word - "Meticulous" - "showing great attention to detail; very careful and precise." not natural, but artifice and consrtuction.

But more than that, in the portrayal of Fulgrim we are given the image of a naked female torso, her arms broken off like the venus de milo having her face obscured (identity removed) by the sword, being stood upon, alongside the slogan "Deathe to the Enporers Foes" [sic] and a severed head. The female image totally objectified, mutilated, reduced to a pair of breasts and a buttock, visually decapitated and reduced to a prop to be trod upon, crushed under the heel.