Critics of Christina - shut it!

I have posted about Christina Hendricks before and since then the world has become even more obsessed with the buxom beauty of Mad Men. In 2010 Esquire polled female readers who voted her sexiest women of the year (I whole heartedly agree) and UK Equalities Minister Lynn Featherstone highlighted her as a positive role model for young women. "There is such a sensation when there is a curvy role model. It shouldn't be so unusual." I think she is down right gorgeous, glamorous and sexy as hell, and when I see her rocking a wiggle dress or a designer gown I wonder at the wisdom that maintains that clothes look better on skeletons...Anyway enough of that old chestnut and on to the main reason for this post.

Christina at the 2010 Emmys

Christina Sans Make Up

Recently, Christina was spotted in a state of less than perfection, which has gotten the old blogger bitches typing double fast, to ridicule her, call her fat, frumpy, plain etc. The glee with which they have denounced her beauty and derided her is obscene, and it would be easy to wonder what these arch critics themselves look like, but instead of being nasty I am just going to say that I think it's great! Christina is gorgeous! And Hallelujah, Christina is normal. Sometimes she has to pop to the shops in good old comfy clothes. Sometimes she can't be bothered to pop her contacts in. Sometimes she wants to give her face a break for all the make up, and just pull her hair into a pony tail. She is just like the rest of us. She needs a little make up and some magic undies to look her best. Friday night I glam up, with all the glitter, mascara and hair spray that entails, and then on Saturday morning I look like Ozzy did my eyeliner and I fall out of bed and into a hoodie and jeans, my only purpose to locate a fry up as soon as possible. To say I don't look my best would be an understatement. But I am usually with someone I love, laughing over the previous nights drunken transgressions and mortifications, and not giving a flying fork about what I look like. It makes me love Christina even more if that's her Saturday morning ritual too.

Just a bit of Joan

The weekend was a total write off thanks to the fact that quasimodo decided to move out of the belfry and onto my eyelid...I have a huge sty which no amount of Golden Eye antibiotics or Jackie O sunglasses can apparently camoflage. Hence, I have had a weekend on the couch with Don and Betty Draper, Joan Holloway and the rest at Stirling Cooper. I have pretty much buried myself in the Mad Men box set, hiding my shameful peeper in a fugue of sixties cigarettes, slips, bourbon and sexism...

For those of you who have never watched the dirty indulgence that is Mad Men basically the show is a slick, sexy depiction of the world of advertising, and linked parts of American society and culture, in the 1960s. It's an education - just how far away is 40 years? At times the opinions and beliefs of the characters seem ridiculously quaint and old fashioned, at others the process of seeing opinions held and defended so long ago, allows you the cathartic realisation that in some aspects we haven't come that far at all.

A while ago I posed the question on my Facebook status (the Magic Eightball of modern times):

Can I be a modern woman and still want Don Draper?

Perhaps an easier question to answer is, can a modern woman still want to look like Joan Holloway?

Played by Christina Hendricks, Joan is a powerhouse of a woman. Perfectly put together, she is not the obvious feminist heroine, and her pandering to the men in the office at times borders on the sycophantic, however there is no doubt that the lady knows how to get what she wants (most of the time). And she is a style icon. Her clothes make me long for a time when dressing was an art. She lived in a time when the roles of gender were easily definable, and when ideas of what each looked like were pretty set in stone too. I can do without the gender stereotyping, thanks very much, but god, what I wouldn't do for those clothes! I am the queen of low maintanence, throw on outfits, however, after a weekend with Joan, I am desperate for a little bit more femme fatale, a little less happy hippy...

My Joan inspired wish list:

Giovanni Gold Brooch

Diana Vintage look pencil dress - custom made

Vintage Pen Necklace