Take or make freedom
“If I need to pee, I pee in the road; if I have a letch for someone, I hop into bed with him.” It was a given for Lee Miller: of course women should have the same social and sexual freedom that men have been enjoying for centuries! And why not use your feminine capital to get what you want? (And have some sexy fun while you do so?). “The first is to take or make freedom,” the feminine feminist pur sang once wrote. And she did so, gloriously, taking lovers as she pleased.
Lee called herself romantic, but “never sentimental, never”. Sexual taboos? She laughed them away. “I’m in a state and will go practice hydraulics [masturbation],” she once wrote to a friend. Perhaps she had internalized the advice of a psychologist who told her at seven years old to ‘separate sex from love’, perhaps she was born badass. I suspect it was a mix of the two. All the same, Lee left a trail of broken hearts wherever she went: a true femme fatale. The Surrealists who saw eroticism as an important gateway to the imagination embraced sexually trailblazing Lee as their ultimate muse. In Jean Cocteau’s movie ‘Blood of a poet’ Lee plays a spellbinding statue. In the end, the hero dies with the imprints of Lee’s kisses on his body. Needless to say, he dies a happy man.
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.
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.”
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.
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.