I ran across this remarkable painting, titled “The Irritating Gentleman,” on Sheltered and Safe From Sorrow, a blog devoted to Victorian mourning rituals and other creepiness from that period. The gentleman in question seems to be a Victorian era Pickup Artist in action. He’s even peacocking, Mystery style, with that bow tie and stupid hat and even a non-ironic handlebar moustache. Probably the only thing keeping him from wearing aviator goggles is the fact that airplanes haven’t yet been invented.
What makes it all the worse is that the PUA’s target is clearly in mourning. As the blogger behind rawr I’m a tumblr notes:
She’s wearing all black in 1874. Black gloves, hat, cloak, and dress. In public. The whole nine yards. That’s not a fashion choice or a gothic thing. Back then when people wore all black like that, they were in mourning for someone who died. No one did mourning like the Victorians, that shit was an art form to them.
Someone in her family has died—she could even be a young widow. No one’s accompanying her either. With the carpet bag? She’s traveling alone while still in deep mourning. Look at the closeup. She’s got tears in her eyes. She is upset, devastated in a way that one is only when someone has died. And the guy’s still bothering her, like her problems are flippant bullshit and she needs to just smile or pay attention to him because ladies are supposed to be pleasing for men no matter what shit they’re going through. That’s not a look of “what an ass.” That’s a look of devastation that even in her pain, she’s expected to give people like him focus. She’s not mad. She’s hurt. And to add insult to injury? Everyone would be able to tell. It was a clear sign and still is in ways that someone is mourning, to dress in black crepe like that. He would know why she’s wearing all black, and he’s still demanding her attention.
What an insufferable dick.
Yep.
Uncle Joe: Bwahahhahahahaaa! RAGE! Rage against (very beautifully painted) fictional scene set nearly 150 years ago!! Dissect it for meaning as tho’ it was a photograph taken yesterday!
Bwahahhahahahaaa! CLUELESS, Clueless in the very present tense. It’s not rage, and it’s not about the event in the past. It’s analysis of how jerks and assholes like him are with us still. Never mind that your appreciation of art (apart from thinking it’s pretty) fails to appreciate that, because it wasn’t a photograph, paintings said something.
It might (as with a still life) be as simple as, “the world is beautiful”, but it might (as with Breughel’s “Icarus” be about how the life of the peasant goes on, no matter what, “momentous” events are happening elswhere.
Here is seems to be, “Dickwads have no sense of decency”
But I do agree, there are some clear examples of Poe’s Law to be found here.
The more I look at that man’s face in the enlarged pic, the creepier and more gloatingly predatory he looks. It’s all the worse because between being physically unable to get away and the massive social conditioning on how well-bred women were meant to behave, there is nothing she can do about it.
Also look at the body language. He knows that she’s uncomfortable, she’s curling into the corner and has placed her bag as a (not very effective) shield between herself and the rest of the carriage, and still he persists with a big shit-eating grin on his face.
I’m guessing that the artist must have witnessed some pretty obvious harassment, to be able to depict it so accurately.
Yes, exactly. Grandfather Roissy is gloating about the whole situation.
And it’s not like he seems to he thinking terms of a seduction – I doubt that would be considered possible in that situation. I’m pretty sure he’s harassing her for its own sake, for the pleasure of frightening and distressing her.
Very little public harassment is intended as an attempt at seduction, in my opinion. The usual goal is to get a rise out of someone.
I was thinking more in terms of other Victorian paintings where there’s an overlap. There’s one where a woman’s evidently lost a lot of money at a casino, and a man is evidently offering cash for sex. It came to mind because the arrangement of the figures is similar to this. I’ll have a scout round and see if I can find it. But yes, public harassment is definitely about other things than seduction, however the slime of the MRM and PUA want to pretend it isn’t.
I suppose Owly would say that girl was assaulting the poor fellow with her seductive youth and that revealing black gown.
Here it is – On the Brink by Alfred Elmore.
There’s nothing you feminists hate more than a heterosexual man that is confident is his sexuality.
Except of course for “nice guys”.
The woman in that looks about 12…
@RomanCandle
“confident in his sexuality” =/= “raging creep”
kthanx bai
Hey, don’t you admire men who’re confident in their right to be creeps?
Misandrist.
hth
It’s great how “shaming male sexuality” or similar seems to always mean “telling people they’re being creeps”, as if male sexuality had something to do with intimidation or harassment.
And by “great” I mean “terrible”.
as if male sexuality had something to do with intimidation or harassment
But, you see, MRAs. PUAs, and all the associated misogynists who float around at the edges of the manosphere think that intimidation and harassment are universal components of male sexuality. They’re not even secretive about it, because they believe that it’s an obvious fact that everyone except feminists agrees with them about, and that anyone who objects to intimidation or harassment or bullying women into sex is objecting to men having any sexuality at all, because their reasoning is so circular that they’ve turned into the Uroboros.
MRA’s are quite different to the Ouroboros, actually. The ouroboros has its ass inside its head.
Nice work on the necklace, Kitteh! That seems like it would take a long time??
I am totally amazed at all you people with very specific knowledge about information relative to this painting. It’s funny because art history always seemed like THE MOST BORING THING EVER, but this discussion is really interesting!
It pretty much fits with my theory that everything in the world is interesting if you do it right.
“There’s nothing you feminists hate more than a heterosexual man that is confident is his sexuality.”
Being a misogynist, creepy asshole could be a way of being confident in one’s sexuality, but it’s a kind of confidence no decent human being would ever encourage because, you know, people who are like that are awful human beings. It’s quite easy for a man to be confident in his sexuality while still being a decent person. It happens all the fucking time.
“Except of course for ‘nice guys’.”
Ah, yes, the guys who think that nice things done for women should be rewarded with physical and/or emotional intimacy with those women. I sure am unreasonable for thinking that they’re whiny, misogynistic shitstains.
“Bwahahhahahahaaa! RAGE! Rage against (very beautifully painted) fictional scene set nearly 150 years ago!! Dissect it for meaning as tho’ it was a photograph taken yesterday!”
Do you understand this blog post? Do you even understand the damn painting? Or do you just want to act like you’re some witty and interesting MRA?
The meaning of this painting is so fucking obvious that you barely have to even try to understand it.
@Kittehhelp
I feel unqualified to say anything on necklaces but that’s a fab tattoo!
But wait a minute, guys, the patriarchy DOES construct male sexuality as something that’s intertwined with violence (harassment and creep-ness fall under that umbrella). It’s absolutely no surprise that when you decry the violence part of it, MRAs think that you’re trying to deny them their entire sexuality. Without the violence, there is no patriarchal male sexuality, it just can’t stand on its legs that way.
(And since I’m a radical feminist, I think that the only way to fix male sexuality is to dismantle the patriarchy, the other way around won’t work, there’s no incentive for most men to try to build a new male sexuality because the male sexuality as it is right now has the overwhelming societal support. (Including the support of most women, unfortunately.))
Which reminds me… just now I had a rather creepy moment when my flatmate and her friend casually remarked that they both were kinda glad that her first child’s going to be a boy… because “You don’t have to worry about them getting raped or anything…”
Jesus christ. Is this really something that should cross people’s mind when they’re talking about their first child’s future life?
Hrovitnir – thank you! It didn’t take as long as I expected, about eight hours, maybe? I did it yesterday and today and didn’t really keep time, but it wouldn’t have been longer than that. Once I got the hang of curling the wires it was pretty easy, and most of today’s work was fiddling around re-arranging the beads so they colours balanced the way I wanted. (Forward planning? What’s that?)
I know what you mean about art history, it was pretty damn boring in school (high school back in the 70s, ’nuff said). I think Victorian painting’s a good place to start in a way, because so much of it was about narrative, whether it’s genre painting or social commentary or whatever. They loved a picture to tell a story, and has already been said, the works were in a language and scattered with clues the audience would read. Picking out the clues when they’re not familiar is fun, I think.
Plus of course it means one can talk CLOTHES! 😀
lowquacks – thank you! I’m very fond of that tattoo. It’s Mr K’s signature, I got it from one of his letters. Had it about seven years. (You should see my mum’s tattoo – Michael Schumacher’s logo on her arm. Threw my aunt completely when she first saw it.)
Oh my, so feminists hate confident hetero men? I guess all the feminists here who’re in relationships with confident hetero men better hand in their feminism cards, or tell the blokes they’re not Really Confident In Their Sexuality because they don’t feel the need to hit on grieving teenage girls who are young enough to be their daughters.
Funny, I’d have thought part of being a confident man – whatever his sexuality and in whatever situation – would be that he’s not shit-scared of half the human race and projecting that fear into hate. That’s not Confident Hetero, that’s Loser.
I was wondering what trolling the post could possibly generate, but evidently the subject just doesn’t matter: shitlords gon’ shit.
@Cassandra:
I remember that… I think it was after I wrote about how I was harassed all the time when I had just moved to Stockholm from the countryside, and kept looking at maps all the time to find my way around. When I invented the trick of pretending to know where I was going all the time (even if that sometimes meant having to turn and go back again, since I ended up the wrong spot, and then look at a map when there were less people around) the harassment dropped drastically. So although it’s not the only factor that make men harass women, I do think “perceived vulnerability” often plays an important part.