Grad Photos, 2007
Since it's that graduation time of year, here's a display Deborah and I saw when we went to Boskovice. For a wilder collection of grad photos, we'll have to go back to last year's Kutná Hora crop. Maybe life is just more sedate in Boskovice... which seemed like a pretty nice place from what we could tell.
Labels: Czech
posted by Karla at 10:21 PM
7 Comments:
I love your collection of matriculation pics. These girls have just graduated as sewing machine operators? From their sultry poses they somehow look like they are about to enter that other "seamstress" field.
I was just about to post a link to some High school graduation photos from Russia.
Well, I don't know about which town is more exciting, but I agree with Julia. Did these girls just graduate from the Playboy Bunny Institute?
Dr. Zaius--Yup, there's nothing quite like pimping up your old school uniform.
I thought these were relatively tame compared to last year's, but maybe not.
As for those Russian grad photos (I followed the links to the seething mass of photos), pimping is definitely the word. Or tarting. Megan will have to examine them and tell us whether her Czech students' graduation antics were ever quite so indicative of a future in the kiddie porn industry. My impression was that there was merely a lot of multigenerational drunkenness and a topless waitress, but I could be wrong about that.
I think that your words are perhaps bit strong, at least when compared to America. I think that you could put any of those photos on prime time American television without a problem, which is perhaps more of an indictment of American TV than a defense of the photos.
The single most titillating aspect of any of the photos is really the ridiculous outfits that the girls are wearing, which are allegedly "traditional." The girls aren't doing anything that risque. Compared to "Girls Gone Wild" television advertising in America, these photos are mild.
Young girls in America, like high school girls, actually walk around in shorts or sweat pants with phrases like "Hot Stuff" or "Can't Touch This" actually printed on the rear end. It is considered normal, like pre-teens with nose rings and young girls with thongs sticking out of their pants. (The phrase is a "whale tail.") Women's liberation is alive and well somewhere, I'm sure, but not in the US.
Perhaps what is far more embarrassing than the girls behavior is what some of the adults posted in the message section of the page.
Even the website, englishrussia.com, is very mainstream. Most of the pictures on the site are things like a Shark phone booth, the Underwater Fountains of St. Petersburg, a Painted Metro Train, and a cool Horse Heads Monument. (Karla might like that one.) The only other pictures of pretty girls are Tired Police Academy Students, which are kind of funny.
Ah, you address some of our favorite complaints about American fashion and mores!
I agree the outfits are more ridiculous than anything most of the girls are doing. And this is where we get the pimping up aspect. The outfits are based on tradition, but traditionally they certainly weren't miniskirts. I've seen plenty of photos and folk-dance versions of traditional Russian clothing, and the skirts were long. Nothing about them would have prompted the "naughty French maid" comments on the original blog. And I'm not sure what the deal is with the knee socks combined with the evil pointy Russian shoes, this looks to me like something only a small segment of the shoe fetishist population could approve. Of course, Kristen can comment more fully about Russian clothing. (Yes, the comments on the original page were all too revealing.)
Being in the academic world, Kristen and I see more American teen "fashion" than we can digest. (At least it's not high-school fashion.) The TA office in our department has been host to many a bemused discussion of the grotesque things students wear to class. We hope never to see another whale-tail ever again, and you know I am not too easily grossed out. And whoever decided that provocative lettering on people's butts should be mainstream merchandise rather than a dada gesture ought to be shot. (I'm reminded of something I read long ago, to the effect of "If people don't listen to you, what makes you think they want to hear from your sweater?" I shudder to think that this would now have to end with "what makes you think they want to hear from your pants?")
This blogger sez, sexy is ok, but tacky sleaze gets laughed at.
Post a Comment
<< Home