Books and Covers

I was going back and forth through some Black Pigeon vids on YouTube, and ran across the one below on how women love to objectify themselves:

What's relevant today is the Dave Chappelle bit that opens the video, especially the line "OK, you're not a whore. But you're wearing a whore's uniform."Many of us were taught as children to "not judge a book by it's cover." Hell, the very claim of "inclusiveness" has as a corollary that those of us on the right are racist simply because we hate those who are different - without of course asking what those differences are, the impact they have on trust, expectations, behavior, etc.. Supposedly, it's just a different skin over the same 3D model, and we're all exactly the same inside, our differences molded entirely by society and nothing inborn.

Putnam famously tried to demonstrate that "diversity is our strength" and so conclusively discovered the opposite that he sat on the results for years before figuring out how to release the final results in a way that he could kindof suggest that the issues were fixable.

The first problem is that even if we were all the same, social conventions take generations to assimilate. If you are even trying to.

The second problem is the one I'm touching on here today though - that statement is grossly overapplied.

Sure - a book can have a lurid and exciting painting and be boring as watching paint dry. That's what the warning, and similar ones like "not all that glitters is gold", are about - that the map is not the territory, the cover is not the contents. The cover artist may have simply been more competent than the author. That those who want to take advantage of you and take your time - directly or through money - will camouflage themselves. That predators disguise themselves, and may act as your friends.

That evil puts on a pretty face, tries to gain your trust through deceit.

Yet - "you put on a whore's uniform."

The cover of a book is chosen - at least by competent publishers - to let the reader know what kind of story is inside. Fantasy, science fiction, mystery, whatever. It may have murders, or monsters. Adventure or navel-gazing. Whether it takes place in the past, the future, or the present. In our world or one very like it but off in some way.

Similarly a man may wear a suit when he wants to present himself as a businessman - especially when he is one. Or hiking boots when spending the day in the woods on trails. Whatever you are wearing out at any moment is a function of what status you wish to project, what practically works for what you are doing at the moment, and your choice of style and habits.

Like a man who keeps his hair unkempt.

What you see in front of you when you look at a man or a woman is not their totality, but barring deceit or a disconnect between their social presentation and their actual status - the apocryphal millionaire who looks like a beach bum - it tells you a lot about who they are, what circles they present themselves to, what they are doing, and how lazy or disciplined they are, what they care about. Their choices and attitudes are written in their face, their tattoos, their alertness, and their posture.

So no, you may not be a whore, nor are you asking for it, but if you're dressing in a way to show off your sexuality, men will look. Including men you find too ugly or awkward to spend time with. You're holding up a giant billboard that says "I want attention and sex" whether you really do or not. And if you are scantily clad in some club, drunk to the point you broke off from your friends and lost track of your purse, phone, whatever, in order to "just dance", you're throwing chum in the water before the predators out there, and marking yourself as easy prey.

While we're at it, some more crimethink: