Monday, August 19, 2013

Dear Emily Post: May a Young Woman Romp Almost Nekkid in a Robin Thicke Video?

At a time when bodacious skanks can be seen cavorting topless in "Blurred Lines," I thought it might be amusing to quote a passage from the 1949 edition of Emily Post's Etiquette, published at a time when lines were sharp, clear and distinct. This passage is from a larger entry, "MAY A YOUNG WOMAN GO ALONE TO A MAN'S APARTMENT?":
But now let us say you want to dine with the fascinating man you met the other night. You know perfectly well you shouldn't go. Why look for the answer here? In any case, why not make it a dinner of four? Objection to a dinner of four instead of two is just that much weight added to the "no" side of the scale.
It is not necessary to add that a silly or emotionally inclined young woman who in pursuit of thrills accepts about any invitation from almost any man is certainly more likely than not to become shopworn or tarnished or otherwise marked down in value.
How late may you stay? If you dine alone, you should leave before ten, which is the hour that the servants in most houses are supposed to go off duty for the night. If you are four, you need not closely watch the clock. But, even so, you should remember that past midnight is too late for a well-bred young woman--even two together--to be leaving Bachelor Flats...
Servants? Well-bred young women? Bachelor Flats? How deliciously quaint. Especially since in the era of "blurred lines" (and "Blurred Lines") a foursome would be seen not as a safety valve but as an opportunity for, well, a foursome.

Update: Former Brit swimsuit model "reverts" to Islam, covers up in head-to-toe body bag ('cuz there are no blurred lines in sharia).

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