Ciara Marasigan: Let Them Eat Cake

Article By Aldus Santos

“Let them eat cake,” Marie Antoinette was rumored to have said once in response to complaints that the peasants she lorded over “had no more bread.” Pretty damn cold, I know. However, this was never established, and Jean-Jacques Rosseau must have been smoking something, or he was alluding to an entirely different person. The point I’m trying to make is that a luxurious life is a distorted reality, if reality was to be seen in terms of universal nakedness: that, underneath all the ruffles and pearls (or ironic “message” T-shirts and slim-fit denims, to the contemporary world), it’s all genitalia. Robert Zimmerman also said something to this effect in “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”: “Even the president of the United States must sometimes have to stand naked.” In fleeting moments, however—when one shrugs off the crassness and occasional insensitivity—people like Marie Antoinette are walking canvases that are just amazing to look at.
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