July Sneek Peek:
The Analysis of Booty, by William Hogarth edited by Aimee Lusty.
A contemporary translation of William Hogarth’s 1753 book The Analysis of Beauty. While the same ideals of aesthetics still exist they are forced into the shadows by the obsession with personal beauty and physical appearance as influenced by pop culture and the media, especially affecting women. Throughout the essay every mention of beauty is replaced with the word “booty.”
Hogarth implements six principles which independently affect beauty: fitness, variety, regularity, simplicity, intricacy, and quantity and greatness. In this new translation each principle is illustrated by a different stereotype of woman, thus critiquing the ageless mindset that women are objects of beauty to be analyzed.
Focusing on Hogarth’s attraction to the serpentine line and retranslating to contemporary standards, The Analysis of Booty illustrates these thoughts with pornographic women and contemporary examples of ideals of beauty. The plates in the book have been replaced with iconic “booty” references, illustrating the abundance of these images, not only on the internet, but also television, advertisements, and film.
While The Analysis of Beauty is a timeless bible to how we see and interpret beauty in art and objects, contemporary aesthetics and ideals of physical beauty have changed drastically from the modest attraction to a female nude, to an aggressive attraction towards scantily clad fashion, focusing more so on sex than sensuality. The Analysis of Booty is a critique on the abundance of sex and objectification of women in the media, and its consequent deformation of the aesthetics of beauty.
This is a very time consuming project, and unfinished as of July 8, 2009, ETF mid August. It will be Part II of my translation triptych, Part I can be seen/bought here.
