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“Then you can stay here as long as you need.”
“Thank you,” said Devine, who was surprised by the offer, but also humbled by it.
“Are they after you?” she asked.
“Three of them aren’t.”
“So you, what, arrested them or something?”
“Or something, yeah.”
“So you’re not going to tell me what happened?’
“I thought I just did.”
She sat back and took him in, it seemed to Devine, line by line, crevice by crevice.
Artist as observer, he concluded. And it was a little intimidating, as though she could see through the flesh and bone and home right in on the thoughts right now hovering in his mind.
“You know what I really love about creating art?”
“No, what?” asked Devine.
“It’s all about perspective. Of both the artist and the viewer.”
He finished his coffee and rose to pour another cup and took her empty cup to refill. “How so?”
“You looked at my sculpture of the big penis roped and the testicles cuffed and concluded it was meant to symbolize women pushing back against a man’s baser instincts.”
He sat back down after handing Alex a full cup. “And it wasn’t?”
“From your perspective it clearly was, which is why you voiced that opinion.”
“And fromyourperspective?”
“You looked at it from a male’s point of view. As the artist I look at it differently.”
“You mean from awoman’spoint of view?”
“I mean from a neutral observer’s perspective.”
“I didn’t know there was such a thing,” said Devine half-jokingly.
“There can be, if one tries,” she said, her voice low, modulated, and serious.
“So, as a neutral observer?” he said, losing his amused expression.
She slid her finger along the top of the table. “Life can be unfair for anyone, those with a penis and those without.”
“Then why—”
“A man can be trapped by his own masculinity, or what is perceived as masculinity. Dick chained, balls cuffed. They feel they have to act in a certain way because that is what society as a whole expects. For some men it’s no problem. It’s who they are anyway. Rambo or whatever. But that’s not most men. So most men end up living a life that is not really...theirs. It’s dictated by societal expectation.”
“And women?”
“Women have a whole other set of problems and challenges and expectations that are impossibly unattainable. So you have people getting rich off selling crap to women to put on their faces, or lips or eyes, devices to suck in their gut and ass, or encouraging them to go under the knife to get bigger boobs or bigger butts or fewer wrinkles, or smaller boobs, or lesser butts, as the tastes of the money-grubbing influencers change. Or become skeletons so they can squeeze into latex miniskirts and cleavage-baring tops, without the benefit of personal chefs and trainers, all in the name of female empowerment. Which is one of the biggest hypocrisies I can think of, while others applaud, idolize, and enrich these people for telling females, particularly young and impressionable ones, that not rigidly adhering totheirdefinition of physical attractiveness will doom them to be considered ugly by society. As though beauty and confidence and empowerment can’t exist in any shape, size, or color. But it’s all about the almighty dollar and it makes people do awful things to each other, but they rationalize it as actually helping those who are not perfect becomeperfect. So you see, it really is all about perspective.”
Devine laid down his fork. “Okay, men’s dilemma covered, neutral observer’s side taken care of, women’s challenges done. Now let’s hearyourside.”
