My annual valentines day rant

[sparkindarkness]

As may or may not be known, i hate Valentines day. And LJ better not take the opportunity to defile the site with a sacchirine pink banner of vomit like last year *shudder*

Most of it I have covered before. In fact, in 2007 I said pretty much all that needs be said: http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/2007/02/13/ but I do love repitition.

A "romantic" gesture is not romantic because it is mandatory. And Valentines day is mandatory. It is as personal as the DVLA and has about the same level of emotional meaning. We give presents and gifts on Valentines day not because of love but because it is expected, because it is demanded, because we will look bad if we don't. We send cards because we have to, not because the messages within are deeply evocative of our feelings (it's a printed card with a generic message - how can this even remotely be romantic?) Unlike anniversaries, Valentines day doesn't even testify to your ability to remember a date since the advertising industry is there to remind us every 10 seconds. Blah, I've said it before and I've said it again - for something to be romantic it has to be PERSONAL to the people involved (not generic) or it has no meaning and it needs to be motivated by affection - not social requirements

But I have another bitch about Valentines day since I've already ranted about the crappiness of the "romance" this day supposedly represents

I also hate depictions of Cupid. Cupid/Eros. Now call me picky, but I kind of think that the god of erotic love, the son of Venus, goddess of love, the husband of Psyche, goddess of self, the father of Volupta, goddess of pleasure - the man who was so beautiful Psyche was willing to spend eternity tracking him down is rather poorly depicted byt an overweight baby with some aerodynamically improbably wings. I rather doubt that the Greeks and Romans imagined Cupid as a pre-adolecesent - nay, a babe in arms! And if they did it just clashes in my brain. To me Cupid is, among other things, the very personification of sex, passion and infatuation and the little pink baby? Not so much. Cupid should be a flaming hunk of pure sex. It is known.

I could make a long in depth post here about the desexualisation of Valentines Day and how we are historically and culturally so terrfied of sex, so anti-sex, so disgusted and repulsed by sex that we have to to turn one of its avatars - perhaps one of its most iconic, prevalent and long-lasting avatars into something as utterly sexless as we can possibly imagine. A baby - a being that is not only utterly without sex but that the mere association of sex with it would repel us. Honestly, that's pretty fucked up of us, when you think of it and shows just how deeply unhealthy our attitudes towards sex and sexuality actually are.

But mainly I just want hot cupid man porn. Because that would make the holiday waaay better.

Comments

[jrho.livejournal.com]

Hot cupid man porn would make any day better.

What I really like about Valentine's day is all the chocolates on sale the week after.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes it would



hmmmm cheap chocolate

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

I've always though Cupid should look like He-Man would if he were translated from cartoon into reality.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/heman2.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093507/

That what you had in mind?

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

Nope. I was aware of that casting but it doesn't work for me. Dolph just does not float my boat. I can't actually think of an actor that could do it. Dolph is not handsome enough - too angular. He-Man has those chiselled features but a softness abiout the mouth and eyes that Dolph doesn't have.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I picture him as younger and more defined than muscle bound, but certainly a hot hunk of man flesh

[klgaffney.livejournal.com]

you should totally write hot cupid man porn. *solemn*

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I totally have to now, you know this :)

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that there is hot cupid man-porn out there.

[speaks.livejournal.com]

Actually a GIS of "Cupid Man Porn" and "Hot Cupid Man Porn" turned up nothing you'd really want to see except for some Classic Art of Cupid and Psyche.

Disappointing really.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I sniff.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Rule 34.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I've always seen valentines day as an excuse for partners who do not treat thier lovers well (of any sexual combo) to suddenly be romantic for a day, as if thier lovers didn't want to be made feel special all year round. duh!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It seems so... mechanical

And today we have scheduled some romance. We shall be romantic today.

AWWWWW

Day is over now. No more romance.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty dead on.

[nessa5.livejournal.com]

try here ;)
http://www.aresjoxercupidstrife.com/

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

nom nom nom

[makarov.livejournal.com]

i plan to spend it in my room with adequate supplies of food, pipe tobacco & vodka

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

IS there ever an adequate supply of vodka?

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

Now call me picky, but I kind of think that the god of erotic love, the son of Venus, goddess of love, the husband of Psyche, goddess of self, the father of Volupta, goddess of pleasure - the man who was so beautiful Psyche was willing to spend eternity tracking him down is rather poorly depicted byt an overweight baby with some aerodynamically improbably wings. I rather doubt that the Greeks and Romans imagined Cupid as a pre-adolecesent - nay, a babe in arms! And if they did it just clashes in my brain.

On a quick perusal of period sculpture of Eros/Cupid, he seems to be depicted either as a youth (around 15 or 16, perhaps?) or as a child. Trying to only give examples here that have source information with them, which ended up weighted towards the 'child' end, but there WERE a good number of youth representations. I'd say that infants or young children made up about half of the examples I found.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/04/eusb/ho_43.11.4.htm
http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S10.17.html
http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S31.2.html
http://www.photoseek.com/greece/greece.html (towards the bottom)
http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S31.1.html
http://www.thecityreview.com/f06cant.html
http://mini-site.louvre.fr/praxitele/html/images/picto/769.jpg

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

Whoops. For that last one, try this instead:
http://mini-site.louvre.fr/praxitele/html/zoom/769_en.html?&&newWidth==263&&newHeight==456

As a side note:

While we can't really blame the cupid on modern attitudes about sex, there IS something else interesting going on here. In contemporary society, it's common to showcase the beauty and sexuality of GIRLS in the 15-17 age range, but the ideals of male attractiveness seem to center around the early 20s. The Greeks definitely lacked that double standard.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Greeks were happy with the idea of male beauty - and happier than we'd be comfortable with of YOUNG beauty too I think

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

A youth I can understand, the Greeks/Romans were... line crossy with their age of consent thingy

And Eros with Aphrodite doesn't count - because they're childhood scenes of the kid and his mother :)

I want mah hot Cupid :P

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

This also fits my opinion of Mother's Day and Father's Day. And happily my parent's opinions as well.

Unrelated: our first Valentine's Day together my husband bought me a large, very sharp, knife.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aye, I try not to opt oput of them because it isn't my place to do so - but it's another fake holiday made by greetinsg cards companies


This man is a sensible sensible person

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Couldn't have said it better myself. I may spend saturday watching pr0n in honour of your pagan holiday.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

This? Should be a new holiday! We must now propose a porn holiday instead of valentines day!

[solid-squid.livejournal.com]

On the pictures of cupid as a child, it's probably worth mentioning that the baby cupids are either called "putto" (small boy) or "amoretto" (little Cupid). The reason they've become so commonly recognised as the only image of Cupid is because they were used to add a touch of humour to religious scenes, which the fully grown Cupid would have struggled with. They also sometimes get called "little angels", which suggests that they were also a way to get around Christian issues with paintings of Greek gods.

So basically, one depiction of Cupid (the little Cupid) found a way to be adapted into Christian paintings without offending (they're just little angels!) while still allowing artists to draw on the Greek influences that were so popular at the time. So that became the most common view of what cupid looked like and the adult version was largely forgotten

Interestingly, the general imagery of God is actually based on paintings of Saturn, the only real change was they made the hair grey. It's likely because artists decided to keep using the same stock image books they did before, but changed the hair colour to avoid problems with the church. Worth remembering when you see Christians talking about God, because there's a good chance their idea of God's appearance is actually Saturn :3

[solid-squid.livejournal.com]

Aha! little detail I wasn't aware of before and just read. Putti and Cherubim were originally seperate images, where Cherubim (from christianity) would be used in sacred roles and Putti (from greece) would be used for profane roles or secular love (ie, love outside of that between man and god) after having been used as one of the images of Cupid. Around the time of the Baroque Era, these two images were fused into a single, multi-purpose image for Cherubim, Putti and, because Putti were one of the most common depictions of him now, Cupid, and Cherubim were always child like in appearance.

Also, the image of Cherubim itself is entirely wrong. In the bible they were described as being.. well, a chimera of sorts. They had four faces, a lion, an ox, an eagle and a man, hands and stature of a man, feet of a calf and two pairs of wings. So actually, what people think of as Cherubim angels is actually Cupid, even if it is the infant form of Cupid.

ps, sorry for the long posts. I read this just when I was writing 1000 words on the evolution of symbols in art, with a large focus on greek and christian art :p

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that Cherubs as fat babies were really annoying. I mean really! Thing that was set to guard Eden with a freaking flaming sword and you're depicting it as a fat baby? WTF?

[seryan.livejournal.com]

I rather picture them as blond men who run bookstores with strange hours.

[solid-squid.livejournal.com]

I approve of this image, as well as the books they sell

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Yeah that bugs me. Cherubim are supposed to be (correct me if I'm wrong) just one step below Seraphim and righteous arsekickers at that.

Little overweight babies? Not cherubim. Admittedly I never imagined Chimera but they'd certainly be more arsekicky

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I can take baby cupids becuase he was a baby once :) but I like my adults.


I can see the point of trying to get soem classical elements past the religious censors. Those poor renaissance painters, you can feel them HUNGERING to go all greek in their art.

Y'know I've never really thought of it but there is a distinct simularity. I just assumed it was generic patriarchal figure

[solid-squid.livejournal.com]

Well, alternative is that the church sponsored it because it made it easier to have people convert, similar to how they made Christmas the same day as Mithras.

Personally I prefer the idea of them slipping it past that way though, and it is also a reasonable assumption when you consider how heavily influenced Renaissance art was by Greek stuff. The Renaissance was also the point when the religious restrictions from the middle ages on the creations of images were loosened, which could at least partially be explained by gradual introduction of "graven imagery" in artwork which can be explained away, such as the cupids/small angels

[home-of-usher.livejournal.com]

Tis would be the day Jarrod and Kevin take Slingshots and pennies and go shooting down the chimerical flying babies that spring up to flitter around unseen to all but the Enchanted. I'm sure they tried arrows, as kind of a ironic justice, but neither of them are very good at firing a bow. The human casualties made more of a mess than they wanted to handle. Then the guys get their girls and go out to watch a violent gory movie. And they also try and keep Kevin in his seat so he doesn't up and start attacking the Psycho killer on the screen. Nothing says day of love like social mayhem.


ahh normal holidays to the Supernatural are so much more entertaining. I'm going to watch something violent now.