You’ve asked for it
He gasped when he saw the first flash of lethal red lace. She smiled, pulling the zipper down a little further. “You are perfect,” he said. “My Venus.” The fool. She was nobody’s Venus. She was a devil in a blue dress, a red-lipped rebel with a cause. And he was a goner, caught in her web. “Tempt me,” he moaned. Hmm, why not have a little fun before the final, fatal stroke? “You’ve asked for it,” she said, and with a cat-like shrug, the Temptress let the dress slip from her shoulders.
We all know the typical femme fatale as she appears in numerous American hard-boiled detective stories: the purring, curvy sex bomb with painted-on red lips who enters the detective’s office with ‘trouble’ written on her forehead. Endlessly fascinating, but purely a figment of the male imagination. Whereas this clichéd, one-dimensional character is fatal only by accident, Agatha’s seductress possesses hidden depths. She is divers, dominant and violently active. Like her creator, she is a woman who refuses to be held back by what life throws at her. Agatha’s temptress seeks any means to rise above her lot in life and is actually not much different from her male characters in that regard. To get what she wants, she is not afraid to use her special, lethal weapon: her feminine seductiveness. And even though this didn’t always guarantee her a happy ending in Agatha’s books, it did make the Temptress a woman ahead of her time: the original feminine feminist.
“The world is very cruel to women. They must do what they can for themselves.” (Agatha Christie)
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MD Friends
Building bridges
From the Erasmus Bridge and the Mercedes-Benz Museum to Qatar’s metro network; Ben van Berkel’s iconic landmarks bring people together in rapturous beauty, again and again. I talked with the Dutch architect and educator about sensuality, ‘healthy’ buildings and the remarkable parallels between our designs.
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MD Friends
More than a feeling
Don’t ignore your emotions; they are much more powerful than you can imagine. By linking the magical world of emotions with hard science, Dutch scientist Pierre Capel, professor emeritus in experimental immunology, shows us the consequences of our feelings and the power of our minds. The message: we can do much more than we think. “Meditate. It’s the single best thing you can do for your health.”
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Marlies Says
Keto curious?
The fact that I feel bikini-confident all year round is, of course, a nice bonus. But for me, the biggest payoff of following the keto diet is the way it optimizes my health and gives me tons of energy.
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Marlies Says
Super (skin) food
‘If you can’t eat it, why put it on your skin?’. I pretty much live by this beauty adage. After all, with your skin being one of your body’s largest organs, anything – and I mean anything! – you put onto your skin will end up in your bloodstream.
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