by Veronika | Filed Under Articles, Muse Lore
Part 6 of our essay on fantastical, mythological, and supernatural Muses
The Cheetah Woman: Our Secret Desires and Fetishes
Finally, I want to end this by considering the strange and controversial allure of Aimee Mullins’ part-woman/part-cheetah creature in the five-part film cycle, “The Cremaster Cycle,” produced in the early part of this decade by art world darling (and Bjork’s partner) Matthew Barney. For this films Barney assembled an eclectic cast: Normal Mailer, Ursula Andress, and Barney himself played key (if opaque) roles. Mullins, as she always does, struck an even sharper and more unsettling note, for she is a double amputee. Therefore, when Barney made her two cheetah legs for the third film, in a way he was starting from scratch. Is this the source of her allure? Her danger? There are those who argue that Mullins is exploited (this was especially the case when Alexander McQueen used her as a runway model; he countered by saying she was a stunning beauty, and that’s that – with more profanity thrown in), but I don’t think so. She is a model and an athlete, and she seems more than in control of her remarkable collaborations.
I recall an image fetish photographer Eric Kroll had on his web site of a very young girl (early 20’s probably), innocent-looking, fresh and pretty, and “normal” looking except that she had had one of her legs amputated. He once confided in me that she had received more marriage proposals – through his site – than any of his other models.
What do men look for in women like her, and particularly in Mullins, already primed for any metamorphosis, having shed the encumbrance of human legs that, as the little mermaid complained silently, “stabbed like knives”? Are they searching for a muse who represents an entirely new race, a new creature? And is it ethical to fetishize someone’s misfortune and physical pain?
Maybe we should all just wear out our dancing slippers every night; becoming a cheetah-woman is too hard.
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