Day 17

And liberated?

Renoir once said, "There are enough ugly things in the world not to add to them."

So today after I emailed O to follow up and found out that they already hired someone, I figured I ought to get out and see that Met exhibit I've been looking forward to.

I headed uptown and checked out an audio guide (always worth the $7), got the student price on a ticket (the saleslady was nice), breezed through the statues and busts and things and headed up to the second floor. I was headed to the American Woman, but keeping an open mind, I stopped off at "Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950–1980" The photographer is supposedly known for his unemotional approach, but I don't think I'm sophisticated enough to appreciate that yet, because I preferred the photos in which one subject was looking at another. For instance, in one shot, a girl in very short shorts was crossing the street and a guy was checking her out from behind. Or in another, a group of conservative-looking women were ogling a heavy-ish woman with super-coiffed hair wearing a short dress and heels. I just liked the expression.

The best part of that exhibit had to have been the people, though. These two girls behind me rushed from picture to picture. Passing me, one of them said to the other, "You know how when you watch an old movie and you can't tell who's popular and who's not because all the fashion...(here she started to giggle and I lost whatever else she said.)"

Sometimes people are the art.

Continuing on my way, I saw a picture of Joan of Arc I really liked, because the setting was so earthly and her expression was so eager, but I don't remember the name.

So on to American Woman.

I love that the audio tour was narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker. I wish there had been more information about the history of the dresses (Where was each piece worn? Why?). But the pieces were exquisite. Paint and stone may lose me, but embroidery I understand. The exhibit started with evening gowns from the 1890s, moved to turn-of-the-century sportswear, then moved to the bohemian look, the Gibson girl, the Suffragist and the Patriot, the flapper and jazz babies, and the starlet. I wish it went on longer--the fashion of the 60s was so important!--but I loved what I saw. Could I have done without the constant insistence that the image of American women is slender to the point of being androgynous? Yeah, I probably could. I actually felt guilty being so hungry while I toured. I should have grabbed a box of croissants and helped kill the stereotype. Nonetheless, the exhibit was very well done. Each era had a room decorated to look like the perfect setting for the time (a ballroom near Washington Square Park for the 1890s' heiresses, skyscrapers for the flappers). Each room was circular, and the final room was lined with two semi-circular screens. They flashed so many images that I watched the show straight through three times. The pictures and videos drew such wonderful comparisons. Caroline Kennedy in an evening gown, then the Obamas dancing at the inauguration. A black jazz baby shaking her hips wildly next to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. A video Venus Williams celebrating after a black-and-white shot of another female tennis player going for the win. Of course, there was more than one video of the Sex and the City girls.

There was a lot of talk about liberation through fashion.

I came home and baked cookies. Red and white for Independence Day.

Liberated, huh?