I've been in touch with a broker about helping me buy a used car. I spoke to him yesterday about specifications and told him what make/model/years I was interested in. This was the culmination of many hours poring over consumer reports/insurance tables etc. I had done research.
Finally he mentioned a car that a woman had been considering trading in, which was one of the models etc that I wanted.
And I guess that's when I outed myself as an owner of a vagina by asking "What colour is it?"
I was told that 'women are usually interested in that, but men are more interested in (presumably more important) features like anti lock brakes, keyless entry, stereo, mileage etc.
I'm still angry that I didn't tell him that as a customer, aesthetics are very important to me. That assuming you can get all the features you want in a car that is NOT white, grey, silver, beige, greige, taupe or any of those ugly bullshit non-colours, I want the fucking colour I want!
I emailed him today to clarify which colours I was interested in, given the other variables--the make is the make, the model is the model--the colour you can fucking pick!
Just another way to establish that women's concerns are trivial. Or maybe it's some sales technique, to make you feel like a moron so you'll pay more to seem smart? I don't fucking know.
I do know I'm not being embarrassed into buying a greige, silver, or grey car.
Showing posts with label aesthetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aesthetics. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Aesthetics and Ethics
| pic has not a gd thing to do with anything--at Cafe du Monde in NOLA |
There was a passage in it where Lestat is talking about ethics, and makes some statement that aesthetics are the highest form of ethics. I'm not well read in philosophy but the idea stuck with me. I like it. He basically said that all aesthetic decisions or determinations are also ethical.
Okay I found the passage:
"But why...you've said Lestat shouldn't have made you start with people. Did you mean...do you mean for you it was an aesthetic choice, not a moral one?"
"Had you asked me then, I would have told you it was aesthetic, that I wished to understand death in stages....But it was moral. Because all aesthetic decisions are moral, really."
"I don't understand," said the boy. "I thought aesthetic decision could be completely immoral. What about the cliche of the artist who leaves his wife and children so he can paint? Or Nero playing the harp while Rome burned?"
"Both were moral decisions. Both served a higher good, in the mind of the artist. The conflict lies between the morals of the artist and the morals of society, not between aesthetics and morality."
| 2 pics of the garden district in NOLA |
This makes perfect sense to me. I like it a lot actually. I think aesthetic choices and determinations aren't given enough consideration actually.
And it turns out really smart people have thought about this too. This from Wikipedia:
Aesthetic ethics
Aesthetic ethics refers to the idea that human conduct and behaviour ought to be governed by that which is beautiful and attractive.....the unity of aesthetics and ethics is in fact reflected in our understanding of behaviour being "fair" - the word having a double meaning of attractive and morally acceptable.
Wittgenstein stated that ethics and aesthetics are one, that only through aesthetics and art can what is truly important in human life be shown. Thus ethics and aesthetics can illuminate the relationship between art and our lives.
I have to think more about this but I'm excited to think that choices you think are purely about beauty also incorporate ethical and moral values. Wait I gues that means what we think is superficial is really meaningful! Which is what I have suspected all along!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)