too much typing—since 2003

5.30.2007

caption in need of cartoon (but I can't draw)

Arriving at the picnic, Ray realizes too late that the phrases "al fresco" and "au naturel" do not mean the same thing.

2 comments:

MacGregor Rucker said...

I think Edouard Manet has just the image, if you change Ray to Rae.

2fs said...

You're right, sort of...which raises the interesting question of the different ways male and female nudity are regarded, socially. Male nudity is generally presented as almost comic (unless the guy's a total hunk...but even then, we usually don't get the full monty outside of gay porn). Female nudity is comic only when the woman in question doesn't fit the idealized physique. The two schemas are similar - except that in one case, the idealized, sexualized version is by far the most common, whereas in the other, the comic, non-idealized version is more common.

To switch that around, the male exhibitionist is regarded either as threatening or comical. The female exhibitionist is never regarded as threatening...and isn't comical unless "pathetic" (again, with non-ideal bodies) is a species of comic.

All that's a long-winded way of explaining why "Rae" wouldn't work in the joke.