Dear Elitist Snob Cosplay Enthusiasts…

A few days ago, I read this article on BuzzFeed, about a young woman who knows virtually nothing about such things being walked around New York Comic Con and asked to name various characters that were being depicted with varying degrees of accuracy and success.

Her answers were all hilariously, good-spiritedly, entirely wrong.  Which is cool.  If it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing.  But she was a good sport about it.

The same, however, can’t be said for the commenters on the article who called her “uneducated”, asked if she’d been living under a rock, wondered if she’d ever had a childhood, all sorts of variations on that same assholic theme.

What bothers me the most about that reaction is that the cosplayers I know, the ones who actually make the costumes and post the photos and bring the characters to life for these conventions, would never react that way to this young woman’s ignorance of their craft.  Granted, I don’t know every cosplayer in the world, but the ones I do know are genuinely nice, friendly, helpful, supportive people who get that their thing isn’t everyone’s thing.

So, because I’m fighting a cold and it’s making me grumpy and considerably less forgiving than usual, I’m issuing a little challenge to the judgmental elitist cosplay fans who are convinced that lack of knowledge of their particular interest makes someone a complete moron.

The following are photos of women who will be immediately recognizable to most pinup & burlesque enthusiasts.  Can you name them all?  Can you?  CAN YOU?!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

WTF really?  You can’t?  Is it because you’re an uneducated rock-under-dwelling Amish who never had an adolescence?

Or is it maybe just because this isn’t your thing, and that’s perfectly okay?


ANSWERS WILL BE POSTED HERE ON 10/15

Hot Woman with Great Boobs Needs Your Help

Veronica Virgo, contributor to the first issue of The Poetic Pinup Revue and all-around stellar human being, needs our help.  She has a photo entered in a contest to win a shoot with Roy Varga.  The winner of the contest will be determined by the number AND QUALITY of persuasive comments left on each photo.

This is Veronica

This is what she has to say about the contest: 

"I'm BROKE! I'd love to win some free photos! You don't have to vote for me, but please vote for someone! There are LOTS of deserving ladies!"

See, that right there is indicative of why she deserves to win.  Even when she's trying to garner votes for herself, she acknowledges that she is not the only vote-worthy option and is supportive of the entire contest.

Here's what I had to say:

"There is not enough room on FB for all the reasons I think Veronica should win. There may not even be enough room on the Internet. But I will try. Yes, she has beautiful eyes, fantastic boobs, and a smile that could light up a small country, but it's when you look past those things that you really find what makes her as special as she is; the warmth, the humor, the strength, the grace, the very rare and very real human being that she is. If Jane Russell, Grace Kelly, Indira Ghandi and Mae West each threw a dash of DNA in a test tube which was then left in the thick of a wild rose bramble to develop with nothing more than its wits and the occasional spring rainfall to help it along, the end result would be something very like Veronica Virgo. This is a woman who either needs to be cloned numerous times or captured on film as often as possible, it's the only way for there to ever be enough of her to go around."

And I meant every word of it.

Support the arts, the boobs, and the broke pinups.  Please go HERE, like the photo and say something nice about why you think she deserves to win.

Then go HERE and like her page.

Then, while you're clicking links anyway, you may as well go HERE and pick up a copy of that magazine she's in...

The Poetic Pinup Revue - Simply Artful. And Really Frikkin' Exciting

Yes, it's here.  The first issue of The Poetic Pinup Revue is now in our hands, still warm from the printer's warehouse, and ready to ship.

Go here to read all about it, order & subscribe.

Balance, Perspective, and Why I Love My Life

As many of you know, I recently submitted a photo to the Pinup-Doll.com Pinup Doll of the Month contest. This is the photo

and as you can see, there is butt. It’s what I do, you should know that by now.

When I first submitted a photo to this contest, the page owner replied that she loved the image I sent but was concerned about it being reported and did I have something a bit more Facebook-friendly. Now, the image I first sent was already on my own FB page and hadn’t created any problems, but I understood and appreciated her concern, so I sent the above, more modest version of the same shot. She said she still had concerns but would add the photo to the contest and hope for the best.

It was up for a week before it was reported and deleted. The stats for that week are as follows.

WORDS PEOPLE USED TO DESCRIBE THE PHOTO

2 “Nasty”, 1 “Gross”, 1 “Tacky”, 4 “Sexy”, 3 “Hot”, 3 “Gorgeous”, 2 “Beautiful”, 1 “Sensual” and 1 “Oh My Dick” (which I know is three words but it made me laugh so I’m including it)

TOTAL – 14 Positive, 4 Negative

PEOPLE WHO LIKED AND DISLIKED THE PHOTO

Disliked – 2 people who called it “nasty”, 1 person who called it “gross”, 1 person who called it “tacky”, and one person who felt the need to report it and have it deleted

Liked – My mother, 4 of my sisters, 1 of my goddaughters, 8 of my personal friends, and 91 random strangers whose support I greatly appreciate

TOTAL – 105 Positive, 5 Negative

PEOPLE WHO FELT THE NEED TO TAKE ACTION ON THE SAME DAY

Report the photo to Facebook and have it deleted – 1

Go to my shop and shell out $20 for the first 2012 calendar sale of the year – 1

TOTAL – 1 Negative, 10 Positive (because people who put their money where their mouth is count 10 times more than people who hide behind Internet anonymity and report things they don’t like rather than just looking away)

This is the first time I’ve had a photo deleted on Facebook, and while it stung for a moment, what I found particularly amusing about the experience was trying to figure out what people find offensive. Let’s compare sections of the photo currently up on the Pinup-Doll.com FB page, the winner of last month’s contest, and the photo that was reported and consequently deleted.

Clearly, what bothers people is not exposed skin, which both photos have. It is not cleavage, because the first photo quite obviously has a great deal more of that. No, I have given this careful thought and believe I have determined what it is that strikes fear in the hearts of Internet users, causing the knee-jerk “report & delete” reaction.

The sight of butt crack is deeply and irrevocably linked in the subconscious to the idea of costly home repairs, and this is the fear to which people react, without even realizing it. It’s not nudity that people have a problem with; it’s plumbers.

That’s the only explanation I’ve found that makes any sense, when people go to a page with the name “PINUP” in the title and are shocked to see skin. If you have other theories, I would love to hear them.

(The first photo in the above comparison is of Pinup Doll Ashley Marie, and please do not take anything in this post to mean that I don’t like her. I do, she is gorgeous and you should go HERE and lavish all sorts of praise on her. While you’re at it, go HERE and Like the Pinup-Doll.com page, and HERE to continue your admiration and praise-lavishing on Naomi VonKreeps, founder of Pinup-Doll.com)

A Girl, A Harp & A Photo Contest

Once upon a time, there was a girl with a harp who forgot to get dressed, and a guy with a camera who was nice enough to bring the naked harp-playing girl a cup of coffee, which he rather carelessly set down on top of a dictionary, but then he took a really nice picture so the girl forgave him, and when a group of vigilante lexicographers stormed the camera guy's home in a not quite so forgiving state of mind, the girl took it upon herself to get dressed and repel the intruders by means of eggs and empty shampoo bottles and penguin-themed haiku hurled at high speed and volume, and when the lexicographers had retreated and the eggs and shampoo bottles had been cleared away and they had almost managed to forget they ever heard the words

"ersatz tuxedo
your informal bent belies;
swim and mock no more!"

they lived happily ever after.

~~~~~~~~~~

True story. Now please go vote for this photo HERE.

(No registration necessary, and you can vote for five photos total. And as always, your support is appreciated tremendously.)

UPDATE: Thanks to all of you wonderful people voting and helping to spread the word about the contest, look what we got. Well, we didn't actually get a ribbon, we got a CD from the woman who sponsored the contest. This CD from this woman, to be precise. So thank you all very very very much.

Make the World a Better Place in 3 Easy Steps

Yes, it's true. You can make the world a better place, in three easy steps, without even leaving the comfort of the chair you are currently sitting in.

STEP 1 - Go HERE and vote for Jessica's Hope Project in the Pepsi Refresh Project, so she can win a $25,000 grant to continue her work of sending fitness-oriented care packages to U.S. troops. We're talking about the people who have pledged their lives in defense of ours. The least we can do is help the project that sends them the things they need in order to remain as badass as possible. This costs you nothing, and takes about 14 seconds.

STEP 2 - My favorite photographer really needs a haircut. Go HERE to see just how badly. Seriously. The man has tremendous quantities of hair. Fabio sends love notes to Jerry Seeger's hair. At least he used to. I think that might be over now. Maybe that's why Jerry has decided to do something like donate his hair to Locks of Love. Hair needs to be loved, and if Fabio's enamorment is out of the picture, this is the logical next stop for such a fabulous flowing man mane. Please donate if you're able, even if it's only a dollar. If you are not able, believe me, I understand, but if you could repost the link, that will also be greatly appreciated. And costs you nothing, and takes about 14 seconds.

STEP 3 - Okay, there's some shameless self-promotion in this one, mixed with the desire to make the world a better place, but the two are actually more intertwined than you might think. The more I can get my name and face and various exposed body parts out in the world, the more little sparks of recognition will start flying around the Internet when I organize or promote a fundraiser. Which I do a lot of, particularly from October to December. So for Step 3, I am asking you to please go HERE and vote for me as Pinup of the Month, to win a four page spread in The Pin Up Magazine. You can vote once daily, now through 9/15. Guess how long it takes, and how much it will cost you.

Yep.

What the Flag Isn’t

I hesitated to write this because it just seemed too much the beating of a long-dead horse. Then I asked myself, can the horse really be pronounced dead if no one can identify the body? If what made the horse what it was still resonates in the minds and hearts of all who knew it? If the horse’s voice can still be heard to whinny from beyond, a plea unanswered, a conundrum unresolved, the one thing the horse always wanted in the whole wide world of ever still ungiven?

In short, and English, is there such a thing as saying something too often, if people still don't fucking get it?

And the conclusion I came to is that no, as often as this has been said, it apparently hasn’t been said enough:

There are things you just really shouldn’t do with the flag.

Now, before I go any further, let me clarify something. I will never say “YOU CAN’T DO THAT WITH OUR FLAG!!!” because the painfully beautiful thing is, what that flag represents actually means that my respect for it equates to my support of other people’s rights to be disrespectful of it. So if you are someone who knowingly, intentionally and habitually disrespects the flag, this post is not directed at you, because you are a complete douchewit and I do not waste my time and genius on people like you. It does no good and just makes me feel tired, sad, and slightly clammy.

Rather, this post is directed at people who disrespect the flag not only without seeming to realize it, but while thinking they are actually doing something that shows their support of our country and troops.

Last year, I wrote a poem for an issue of a magazine that was being compiled as a tribute to the men and women of the U.S. military, and I wanted some photos to accompany the poem. My mother has a beautifully photogenic garden in a quiet neighborhood, so shooting with it as the background seemed not only ideal for what we wanted and a good excuse to spend a morning with my parents but also, with Dad being a former Navy guy, I knew having the flag displayed properly would be guaranteed.

Mom & Me & Dad, post-shoot

Flash forward the time it took to get my copies of the magazine, and frankly I wished I could have removed all traces of myself from it right then and there. My parents, my father in particular, were equally stunned at what was being presented as a tribute to our military; photos showing the flag being used as a shawl, as a tablecloth, as a wall covering, and in one instance spread out on the ground with someone sitting in the middle of it.

I’d like to say I don’t get it, but the truth is I’m old and I know a lot of what I learned in school isn’t being taught any longer. And it saddens me that something I was taught in the first grade has been so completely forgotten, the most basic tenets of flag code, like you don’t let the flag touch the ground. Seriously. This was drilled into our heads so often that as a child I thought our flag was protected by some sort of invisible electro-chemical-magnetic field that would cause it to explode if it ever made contact with asphalt. I can still remember when my elementary school got a new flag, and I was too terrified to ask what had happened to the old one. I just assumed it had gone up and taken the janitor with it.

They don’t instill irrational fear in kids like they used to. I blame the video games. But I digress.

The point is, just having a flag somewhere in your photo doesn’t make it a patriotic photo. If your use of the flag is a breach of flag code, not only is it not honoring our country and military, it can actually be downright offensive to the men and women who, as a part of the training they undergo to pledge their lives in defense of yours, learn and know that flag code almost as surely as they know their own names.

The flag is not an article of clothing. It is not a backdrop, it is not a window covering and it is most certainly not a throw rug or a beach blanket. Please keep that in mind next time you’re planning a photo shoot designed to showcase your love and respect for your country.

FLAG RULES AND REGULATIONS FROM USHISTORY.ORG

Pinup Lifestyle Photo Contest

Jerry and I have a photo entered in the Pinup Lifestyle "Hollywood Glam" contest. It looks like this

and we'd be ever so appreciative if you would vote for it HERE. And then ask a bunch of people you know to do the same. No registration necessary, and you get a total of five votes in this contest, which you will need every one of because there is some amazing photography competing for each.

Well, each of the remaining four, anyway. We want one. After that, you are free to vote... freely.

If you are a fan of pinup-style photography, culture, etc., you should also consider joining Pinup Lifestyle. It's a fantastic network where you will find not only the best and latest in pinup photos, but also enjoy discussions with like-minded folks about cars, tattoos, shoes, makeup, patriotism, more shoes, food, movies, other shoes, and so much more.

And in the section where they ask how you heard about the site, tell them Harlean Carpenter sent you. If I refer enough people, I think I get some shoes.