Real beauty

Following on from my article when I commented on Marine Le Pen's physical beauty (or lack thereof), I thought it would be good to do an article on what I consider to be real beauty, in my position as an expert fashion connoisseur and fashion editor and a real heterosexual Frenchwoman.  My magazine makes a point of targeting real beauty.  The fashion industry is regrettably controlled by men who are receievers of swollen goods, which means that a lot of fashion models do not reflect what real heterosexual men and women find beautiful.

I am not talking about plus-sized models.  I find that look utterly atrocious.  I would not allow my magazine to feature Tess Holliday (whose tattoos make her look even less attractive), unless I did a special fat-shaming issue!  MDR.  My magazine targets what real men and real women find attractive: - slim hourglass figures for women and muscular physiques for men, which is at odds with the flat-chested women and bony and androgynous-looking men who appear on many catwalks due to the influence of homosexual men in the fashion industry.

Tattoos are not attractive on either gender.  This is due to my view as a Frenchwoman that natural beauty is good and my view as a Christian woman that one's body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19): - one would not face a holy temple and so neither should one deface one's body (granted, the temple in the picture below is an idol temple).

In spite of all my use of the magic phrase "la moitié, s'il vous plaît", I know very well that it is not attractive for a lady to be flat-chested: - hourglass figures are attractive because men are wired up to desire women for childbearing and who have self-discipline.  A narrow waist indicates self-discipline, big hips indicate the ability to carry his offspring and large mammary glands are desired given that that is how she will (in a large proportion of cases) feed his offspring for the first few months of their lives.  I advocate saying "la moitié, s'il vous plaît" at every mealtime, but the bony look is not attractive either: - Mireille Guiliano points out that a Frenchwoman eats three meals a day.

Facelifts also look horrible: - Mireille Guiliano points out in "French women don't get face lifts" exactly what the title says.  Natural beauty works better, in spite of Zoë Williams' gormless rant about the book.  I sincerely hope Donald Trump (rather than Hillary Clinton) wins this week, but Melania/Melanija Trump is a classic example of an older woman who looks a bit like a hallowe'en character on account of apparent facelifts.

The classic example of a lady with this sort of physical beauty is Marilyn Monroe.  Some of my readers might pipe up and say that I have traditionally been very critical of American women and their inability to stay thin.  I say "American women didn't get fat in the 50s" (this blog is now known by the name "Outdated by design").  I don't just do women of the past though.  Even though Marine Le Pen doesn't have much physical beauty, her niece (Marion Maréchal-Le Pen) does: - I love the fact that in spite of her physical beauty and political success, she has spoken to promote the beauty of motherhood and generally promotes conservative values (she was a prominent marcher in anti-same-sex marriage rallies).  She represents Vaucluse's 3rd constituency, which is centred around Carpentras, which is very easy to reach from Marseille using a connecting TER service via Avignon TGV station and the recently-reopened Carpentras branch.  I would love to do a whole magazine devoted to her, given her position as a conservative woman who is a pretty face and much, much more, but the danger is that this would attract protests from old-school feminists who grumble about the lack of attention given to the jobs a woman does in favour of her appearance, MDR.

The fashion industry also does not understand what real beauty is in men either.  When I attend fashion shows, I constantly have expressions of disapproval when I see bony androgynous male models walking past me on the catwalk.  Real women such as myself do not find that at all attractive.  Real women want men to be real men: - it is our ungodly world that seeks to blur gender boundaries.

I simply don't see the point of six-packs either, as they are simply not reflective of a man's abdominal strength.  I am not all that enthused by well-defined muscles either.  I have heard stories of men participating in bodybuilding contests having 2% body fat and it being painful to walk, given the absence of fat on the feet: - I struggle to see what the point of this is.  If a man wants high physical strength, he needs to eat accordingly: - strongmen should not say, "la moitié, s'il vous plaît".  I much prefer the sort of body that men participating in strongman contests have: - big muscles, but not necessarily well-defined.  To get that look, men often have to do odd things like not drinking for two days prior to a photo shoot to get that look.  Also, a layer of fat is useful for balancing boulders on one's chest during strongman contests, MDR.

I also love beards, as they are a prominent indicator of masculinity: - I have known Bilal since he was a little boy and he has had a beard as long as he has had facial hair.  He has always regarded this as an open indication of Christian masculinity, firstly because of how beards generally only appear on men and secondly given biblical verses on the subject.  Bilal has always regarded cutting off a man's beard without his consent as a very egregious act.  I am aware of an incident in school where a school bully attempted to cut his beard, which resulted in the bully getting a broken jaw (Bilal has always been generally a quiet and pensive character) and Bilal running away into some nearby forests and not turning up at home until after dark.  He is not normally argumentative, but I am aware of him having arguments with his school (over presentation issues) and his family (once they found out the beard was the result of his perception of it as an indicator of Christian masculinity).

I don't publish photos of Bilal or our son here because he has said he is not happy about it (I fully accept and appreciate his desire to maintain our family privacy), so I obviously need to talk about men in the public eye (or, at the very least, with online profiles) I perceive to be attractive (admittedly not as attractive as Bilal) in order to illustrate what I perceive to be real beauty in men.  One man I would like my magazine to do a feature on some day is Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, a.k.a. "The Mountain" in "Game of Thrones" in spite of his tattoos and weather-beaten face (no surprise, as he is from Iceland, a country with extreme weather).  One Londoner I have come across online who shows non-white men how to look good in a beard is the Adventist Andrew Fuller.  However, apart from Bilal, the man I would most like my magazine to do a feature on is Englishman Eddie Hall, the first person to deadlift 500kg under strongman conditions (which nearly killed him).  Of men in the public eye, he is strong (pun intended) in every category: - muscular body (no six-pack present or needed), young-looking face and a great beard.

Our possible first female president

According to polls, there is a very serious chance that Marine Le Pen could win the French presidential election.  With the day of the presidential election in the USA a matter of days away, I thought I would reflect on Marine Le Pen and what it would be like to have her as our first female president.

Firstly, as a religious woman, I am at the very least uneasy about the idea of a female leader.  1Timothy 2:12: - "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."  Liberals would say that we aren't bound by something as unfashionable and last-season as the Holy Bible.  Halfway conservatives say this rule only applies to leadership positions within the church.

For practical reasons, the issue of men reporting to women is not an issue with my magazine, as it has no male employees, given the type of men who tend to be interested in fashion, who would never feel at home at my magazine (receivers of swollen goods, in other words).  My fashion magazine is all about clothing that Christians would feel entirely comfortable wearing and which is distinctly for one gender or the other (no androgynous clothing, an example of which is above): - this idea of "non-binary" is thoroughly wicked and contradicts "He made them male and female" (Genesis 5:2, Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6).  

It is possible for women to be leaders, but still under the rightful authority of their husbands.  This is reputedly the case with Queen Elizabeth II, who is a queen regnant (i.e. a queen in her own right, not a queen by virtue of her marriage to a king).  It is understood that her husband Prince Philip (whose politically incorrect comments I like) makes the important decisions on family matters.  It is the same in my household: - I am doing very well with my fashion magazine, but I joyfully render obedience to Bilal in accordance with Ephesians 5:22-24, who in turn does a very good job of fulfilling his obligations in Ephesians 5:25 (nobody is perfect: - if they were, they would not need a saviour).  Laws in virtually every country in the world guarantee my right to make my own decisions on this one, but I have so far been happy to waive this right and let Bilal make the decisions on when we try for children, for instance.

That subject covered, let me turn my attention to another very important issue: - Marine Le Pen is badly overweight!  I had hoped that if we had a female president, we would have somebody who is a quintessential example of female beauty in France.  Marie-Ségolène Royal (who thankfully lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election) is a good example of an attractive female French politician.  I asked Bilal what he thought, to which he replied that whilst he didn't view her as being "well buff" like me, she is "reasonably fit".  Zoë Williams, in her rant entitled "Cherchez la femme", gave several good examples of attractive female French politicians who know how to dress.  With all the attractive women who exist in France, it is a shame Marine Le Pen doesn't look like she knows much about how to look nice, though admittedly, her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen is also "quite fit" in Bilal's estimation and has a nice figure in my estimation as well.

In terms of her politics, I much prefer the National Front's political positions when they are compared with other major political parties.  I am aware that they particularly appeal to Pied-Noirs (or "Pied Renois", as Bilal calls them).  Islam is the great enemy of what France stands for, though admittedly, the traditional French church (the Church of Rome) is not great either.  I am proud of France's history in the reformation, e.g. the Huguenots, John Calvin etc and am aware that many reformed congregations have existed in the vicinity of Strasbourg over the years.  Granted, there might be potential converts from Islam (like Bilal) coming into the country, but on balance, it would still be great to protect what is left of France's Christian heritage and reform it, bringing about a genuine religious revival in France.  The Le Pen family is very good at standing up to establishment figures who do their utmost to stop France being governed by real French people for real French people.

Marine Le Pen is certainly a very powerful and talented public speaker: - we need such people to put our cause across to the people.  I remember the famous rant she delivered against our commie socialist president François Hollande.  She seemed a little like Zoë Williams, who wrote a long rant about how women can supposedly only enter French politics if they have a powerful relative.  Honestly!  Zoë Williams rants about our great nation not giving women a chance unless they are thin, but yet when a fat woman is in the upper echelons of French politics, she continues to complain!

In conclusion, in spite of her lack of physical beauty, I am keen to see Marine Le Pen win next year's presidential election and make France great again.

Promoting bad habits

Apologies to my regular readers for the lack of postings.  Nobody said that managing a top-flight fashion magazine and being a wife and mother was going to be easy!  Our son has been reasonably easy to train to sleep through the night and is by no means an unusually difficult child, but no baby is easy to care for, hence why I have struggled.  As mentioned, we are expecting another baby, so there is the danger that my blogging will suffer even further and Bilal remains resolute in his desire for a large family, but we shall see how things go.

I read a rather shameful article which talked about how supposedly French women are fatter than people think they are.  To be honest, I think the article's author (Caroline Bell) seems somewhat covetous of French women's effortless perfection, as well as somewhat deluded.

The topic of fat-shaming has been in the news a lot recently, in particular with a Venezuelan lady named Yoseph Alicia Machado Fajardo in the context of the American president regarding the Miss Universe contest.  Inevitably, Godwin's Law has been proven correct in this instance, as she has compared Donald Trump with Hitler, accusing him of using all sorts of derogatory names against her, given that she gained 12 pounds during her reign as Miss Universe.  She talked about how she was 116 pounds when she won the Miss Universe contest and was anorexic and bulimic.  Putting aside the fact that 116 pounds is not much of an achievement as far as a Frenchwoman is concerned, one thing I have historically admired about the USA is its supposed culture of personal responsibility.  As a believing woman, I categorically say that many of the things Donald Trump has said are silly, but blaming Donald Trump for your anorexia and bulimia is ridiculous and this woman is stretching the truth.  For a start, anorexia and bulimia cannot co-exist, as anorexia diagnoses are given to people below normal weight and bulimia diagnoses to people at and above normal weight, if they do the various things associated with the conditions.  As Mireille Guiliano says, "French women choose their own indulgences and compensations.  They understand that little things count, both additions and subtractions, and that as an adult everyone is the keeper of her own equilibrium".  Note the last part in particular: - blaming someone else for your anorexia or bulimia indicates a lack of personal responsibility.  A Frenchwoman knows that purging is not the way to achieve our impossibly perfect figures.  We have a magic phrase to achieve our impossibly perfect figures: - "la moitié, s'il vous plaît!"  Unfortunately, this woman is now a US citizen and can therefore vote in a couple of weeks: - neither I nor anyone else in our church who I know of has any liking for Hillary Clinton.

I am digressing.  I say that Caroline Bell is jealous because she feels the need to talk French women's wonderful figures down by talking down the effortlessly perfect figures that we have: - I am quite sure that I would have noticed it if her figures were accurate.  I am interested to know how many people they translate into, but it is hard to discern, as her figures are too well-rounded, MDR!  Authors like Zoë Williams like to slag off French women, whereas authors like Caroline Bell like to insinuate that our figures really aren't that great.  She is also deluded because she actually thinks the women shown in the article look great.  *Cough!*  As a fashion editor with a steely eye for the details everything to do with fashion, I think they look awful!  Plus they are setting a bad example to their compatriots who need to take more pride in their impossibly perfect figures that they have laboured so diligently to achieve!  We work very hard to teach our daughters (admittedly, I don't have any yet) to teach them how to look great and we don't need people coming along and promoting plus-sized models and journalists to give them the message that they can slack off!

I note the part about how Lalaa Misaki goes into many French shops and is told they don't have anything in her size.  Why should French stores stock clothes for plus-sized models when they know that being thin is necessary for success and French women are thin and it is therefore an obvious business decision to target clothes for thin women?  Also, being fat looks horrid, so why should clothing manufacturers aiming to cultivate an image of exclusivity produce clothes for women who will never ever look good in anything?

My message to impossibly dainty Frenchwomen out there is be proud of what you have worked hard to achieve and don't let some haters in the public eye downgrade your achievements!