Inquiring minds want to know: do ballet dancers ever have large busts?

The New Neo Posted on by

This post was sparked by this question from commenter “IrishOtter49”:

This is a serious question. Can women with an, er, “ample” bust be ballet dancers?

Commenter “om” replied thusly:

If you are jumping, spinning, bending at the waist, rapidly at times, in cadence with a musical accompaniment, and of course trying for grace and art, or being thrown into the air by your partner, excess mass and non-muscular tissue is probably a burden.

If for no other reason than it places extra stress on the bones, joints, etc.

It seems that this type of dance is very demanding physically and very competitive. Physical and aesthetic selection against hearty gals as well?

My answer is in line with that. Thin dancers are easier to lift, plus the shapes they make in space seem to most viewers to be more elegant and streamlined. Jumps are harder for heavy people, as well, and even turns can be harder because the center of gravity is less of a plumb line.

And imagine how much more difficult it is to carry extra weight while dancing on pointe.

Therefore, since for the most part slender women have smaller breasts – breasts are made mostly of fatty tissue, after all – it is very rare indeed for a professional ballet dancer to be well-endowed. When we see slender women with big breasts these days, it’s certainly possible they are natural – such women do exist – but it’s more likely that implants are involved. There is little reason for a ballet dancer to avail herself of implants; it’s just not an advantage at all.

However, I bring you Gloria Govrin as an example of the most well-endowed ballet dancer I can recall. She’s still alive and is in her early 80s, but in her heyday she was a soloist with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet. Most female dancers and even many male dancers tend to be on the short side, but Govrin was 5’10” while not on pointe. So she was very impressive onstage and made quite an impact. Because of her height, Balanchine tended to give her solo parts rather than pas de deux with a male partner.

Here’s an article with a photo:

Govrin, currently the artistic director of Eastern Connecticut Ballet, stands at five feet, ten inches. Though choreographer George Balanchine initially discouraged her from trying to become a professional dancer, he changed direction, and hired her for the New York City Ballet.

She became a soloist, and upended the longstanding idea of what a female ballet dancer should look like.

“For him, his dancers were inspiration and he once told me that he never saw anybody my size move the way I moved, and he was intrigued,” Govrin recently said on WNPR’s Where We Live.

“I had a different kind of career. It wasn’t the kind of career where you did the ballerina pas de deux kind of — there weren’t many tall boys in the company so it was difficult,” she said. “So what he did, was he created solos for me.”

Now, don’t get me wrong; Govrin wasn’t Jayne Mansfield or Sophia Loren. But for a ballet dancer, she was slightly more well-endowed than usual. Here she is in 1965. I’ve cued it up for her solo, which lasts about two minutes:

Congress versus TikTok

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s a movement afoot in Congress to force a TikTok sale:

Lawmakers say TikTok’s owner ByteDance has links with the Chinese Communist Party – something denied by ByteDance and TikTok.

The bill makes specific reference to ByteDance – which would be forced under the terms of the bill to sell TikTok, or face removal from mobile app stores in the US.

It does not contain any provision for individual users of the app to face legal action.

“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” said committee chairman Mike Gallagher, a Republican of Wisconsin.

The bill has bipartisan support. But TikTok “confirmed to the BBC it had sent a notification urging TikTokers to ‘call your representative now’ to urge them to vote against the measure.” Many of these TikTokers are children, who have made calls such as this one:

“I will kill you if you fucking shut down TikTok,” a teenage boy warned to a member of Congress in a voicemail reviewed by The Spectator. “I will really really fuck you up. So don’t shut down TikTok. Bye bye!”

This week, Capitol Hill was inundated with a series of unusual callers — children, some as young as six years old. They had been enlisted by TikTok to forcibly push back against a bill that’s on track to sail through the House next week which forces the divestiture of a series of companies owned by foreign adversaries, like China in the case of the globally popular video app. TikTok is regularly accused of everything from feeding eating disorder content to girls to spying on journalists to extensively tracking user data — at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party, no less.

The aforementioned assassination threat was far from an isolated incident.

By the way, in addition to “feeding eating disordes” and the like, TikTok is heavily implicated in spreading anti-Semitism among youth around the world. And TikTok is highly habit-forming [emphasis mine]:

“The truth is that they are being flooded with content that gives them an extremely distorted view of themselves, their bodies, their mental health, and how they compare to other people,” he added.

Ahmed said his organisation’s research suggested that changing a user’s name from “Sarah” to “Sarah Lose Weight” on TikTok could result in its algorithm serving 12 times more self-harm content.

“The algorithm recognises vulnerability and, instead of seeing it as something it should be careful around, it sees it as a potential point of addiction – of helping to maximise time on the platform for that child by serving them up content that might trigger some of the pre-existing concerns.”

Ahmed said that the centre’s research, which was based on 13-year-old users in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, suggested that, within about two-and-a-half minutes of setting up a TikTok account, young people could be pushed self-harm content – and eating disorder content within eight.

A more recent investigation, he said, suggested a 14-year-old boy on the platform was likely to be pushed content from the virulently misogynist Andrew Tate in less than three minutes of setting up an account.

That article is from about a year ago. Now the same push is including anti-Israel and anti-Jewish content as well.

Will there be a presidential debate?

The New Neo Posted on by

Maybe:

President Biden confirmed Friday that he may refuse to debate former President Donald Trump ahead of their anticipated election rematch.

“It depends on his behavior,” the 81-year-old Biden told reporters as he left the White House for a campaign trip to Philadelphia.

Trump, 77, said Wednesday that Biden must agree to debate him — amid suspicion that the incumbent would skip the traditional forums to deny the presumptive Republican nominee relatively unfettered TV air time.

“It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!”

It depends on his behavior feeds into the idea that Trump is some sort of out-of-control child, fuming and ranting – unlike the calm, cool, mature Biden. Those of us on the right who study Biden are scratching our heads that anyone can perceive the current president that way, but there are indeed many who do.

Democrats in general would probably rather not see a head-to-head debate for fear it would make Biden look bad. But I’m not at all sure that would be the result of a debate; it wasn’t that way in 2020, although it might have been. Biden’s handlers are more than able to give him enough preparation (including perhaps even knowing the questions in advance) and medication that his old fighting instincts will kick in as they did in 2020. Plus, he can lie in a debate and the MSM won’t call him out on it, so that’s a huge advantage.

People have perceived that Biden is extremely cognitively challenged. But every time he’s able to look at least somewhat with it and can string a bunch of coherent sentences together (even if wrong, even if angry, even if lying), he challenges that perception and allows some people who might otherwise not vote for him to relax and reassure themselves he’s okay after all.

So I’m not really sure if a debate is to Trump’s advantage, because the bar is so low for Biden and so high for Trump. But if I had to guess, I’d say there won’t be any debate – and Biden will blame it on Trump’s “behavior.”

Biden has a way with words

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ll just put this up here without comment. The comments practically write themselves:

It’s the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Flight MH370

The New Neo Posted on by

Ten years. We know more than we did then, but the basic mystery remains.

To refresh your memory, if it needs refreshing:

MH370 set off from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for China’s capital city on March 8, 2014. Thirty-nine minutes after taking off, the aircraft vanished from air traffic control radar displays.

The pilot sent a normal sounding radio call as the plane left Malaysian airspace, but he never checked in with Vietnamese air traffic controllers upon entering that country’s airspace as he should have done.

About two minutes after the last radio correspondence, MH370’s transponder — a standard piece of equipment on all commercial aircraft that routinely relays a plane’s position to air traffic control authorities — turned off, making the jet invisible to civilian radar systems.

Military radar and satellites showed that MH370 then turned around to travel over the Andaman Sea back toward Malaysia, flying for hours before it vanished, possibly when it ran out of fuel.

Malaysia’s prime minister said 17 days after the plane disappeared that, based on the satellite data, his government had concluded that the plane crashed down in a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, and that there were no survivors.

There were 239 souls on board, mostly Chinese nationals. Remains of the plane have washed up over the years but no remains of people. The leading theory – to which I subscribe – is that this was purposeful sabotage by the pilot.

A new search is being contemplated:

Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity, which tried previously to find the plane, has proposed launching a new search, and Malaysia’s transport ministry said it would consider the proposal.

The families and friends of the passengers have suffered a great deal, not just from the loss of their loved ones but from the long period of uncertainty. It is a terrible situation. The announcement of a possible new search was welcomed by the group:

“I’m on top of the world,” said Jacquita Gomes, whose flight attendant husband was on the plane. She said she is thankful that she may now have a chance for full closure and say a final goodbye.

“We have been on a roller coaster for the last 10 years. … If it is not found, I hope that it will continue with another search,” she said.

Family members of passengers from Malaysia, Australia, China and India paid tribute to their loved ones during the event, lighting a candle on stage to remember them.“

No matter if it is 10 years, 20 years or more, as long as we are still alive…we will not cease to press for the truth. We believe the truth will eventually come to light,” said Bai Zhong, from China, whose wife was on the plane.

I hope they find out more.

NOTE: This article explores some of the theories about the plane’s disappearance.

Anti-Semitism thrives on lies filling in the gaps created by ignorance

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s Douglas Murray:

“Maybe if we come up with a perfect argument,” he said. “Maybe if we inform people about the history, and broadly speaking, you’re talking about trying to educate or inform people who are not educated or informed.”

Most anti-Israel people aren’t informed about the Peel Commission or the Balfour Declaration, according to Murray. “You’re talking about people who have never heard of any of these things,” he said.

The Peel Commission and Balfour Declaration are esoteric knowledge compared to what most people are ignorant about. I’ve previously told the story of a well-educated person I talked to around 2005, a woman a few years older than I am, who did not know that immediately after the state of Israel was created, the Arab world declared war on it and Israel won that war. She knew literally nothing about how Israel was created, and yet she bought every bit of Palestinian propaganda. In her case, she was a follower and admirer of Edward Said. In the case of many other people I know, ignorance is also usually involved, although they’re not all quite as ignorant as she was.

It’s also significant that when I discovered how little that acquaintance of mine knew, I offered to send her a link or two on the subject. She readily acquiesced. But I never heard back from her and I doubt she read what I sent, even though it wasn’t long. People are usually quite dug in in their beliefs.

Murray also says:

Asked why there is so much antisemitism in Europe, Murray replied that many are “working out to have some kind of guilt complex, which ends up attacking the victim.”

“It is a desire so deep down, they probably could never identify it even after years of therapy—to blame the Jews and accuse them of the same thing done to the Jews,” Murray said.

Much more at the link.

This idea of lies and propaganda filling in the gaps created by ignorance is something I’ve pondered many, many times. In the twenty years since I had that conversation with that acquaintance of mine, the education system and the left have made sure that the young people coming up are even more ignorant than before, and the MSM helps to fill their heads with leftist-approved lies. Anti-semitism is only one aspect of this, because the ignorance affects an enormous number of topics and creates an enormous amount of opportunity for the left.

[ADDENDUM: Well, this group of Jew-haters seems to be aware of Balfour, at least – they slashed his portrait at the University of Cambridge.]

The passing of the RNC guard: Michael Whatley and Lara Trump are elected

The New Neo Posted on by

The Trump allies are now in charge:

Speaking to RNC members, Whatley vowed that the organization “will be focused like a laser on getting out the vote and protecting the ballot.”

“In less than eight months, we are going to determine the fate of not only the United States but of the entire world,” he said. “And this body, the RNC, is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly, every single day to elect our nominee Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States, flip the Senate, expand our majority in the House of Representatives.”

Good. And that Hill article doesn’t miss a beat in the next paragraph [emphasis mine]:

Whatley, who has served as chair of the North Carolina GOP and RNC general counsel, is a Trump loyalist who has echoed the former president’s rhetoric about “election integrity” in the wake of the 2020 election, which Trump has falsely claimed was fraudulent and stolen.

As for Lara:

Lara Trump will serve as co-chair and will have a major focus on fundraising. The RNC has lagged far behind Democrats in bringing in cash over the past year, a setback heading into what will be a lengthy and bruising general election campaign.

Speaking to RNC committee members on Friday, Lara said the RNC had already received a check for $100,000 and pointed to the importance of fundraising and encouraging early voting, something that the GOP has at times struggled to rally around.

“We’ve got to play the game a little bit differently. We have to encourage people to do things like early voting,” she said.

Agreed.

Biden’s SOTU: eye of the beholder

The New Neo Posted on by

Late last night I looked at comments to a YouTube video that featured excerpts from Biden’s SOTU speech, and the first ten or so were on the order of “Great speech!” “Unifying speech that will bring us together!” “Statesmanlike speech!”

Who are these people? Bots, paid operatives, or just party regulars? Do Democrats really see that and hear that when they watch and listen to Biden?

The right saw it as the angriest and nastiest speech ever, and incredibly divisive. For example from Ted Cruz:

Frankly tonight Joe Biden reminded me like an angry old man standing on his porch, screaming to the kids, “Get off my lawn!” That’s who he was.

I’ve never seen…. I’ve been to 12 State of the Union addresses. I’ve never seen anything remotely like this. This was entirely focused on the November election. …

… [H]alf the Republicans almost fell asleep because after welcoming the president where we stand and show respect for the office, we basically just sat there for over an hour, as he told lie after lie after lie.

And he just went hard left. I’ve never seen anything like this.

That pretty much fits my impression of Biden whenever I’ve watched him give speeches, which granted isn’t very often because it’s hard to stomach.

Apparently a lot of people also were taken with Speaker Johnson’s expressive eyerolls:

And many people have pointed out that the MSM propaganda machine quickly got the word out in unified fashion, crowing that Biden’s speech was the f-words “fiery” and “feisty.” Examples abound; see this, this, and this.

Tonight’s State of the Union address: Biden to supply Hamas

The New Neo Posted on by

I won’t be watching tonight’s speech by Biden. As usual, I’ll just check the transcript later.

And yes, I think he’ll be able to stand there and read it, although there may be a few “gaffes.” And the Democrats will applaud wildly. Or maybe not-so-wildly; they’d love for him to step down and not run in 2024. But they’ll applaud anyway, of course.

One of the things he’ll apparently be saying is this

President Biden will announce during his State of the Union address Thursday that he’s directing the U.S. military to lead the construction of a port along the coast of Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea to boost the amount of aid getting to Palestinian civilians.

“We know the aid flowing into Gaza is nowhere near enough and nowhere near fast enough. The president will make clear again this evening that we all need to do more, and the United States is doing more,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters.

The port would be able to receive large ships that can bring in food, water, medicine and other supplies into Gaza, which has been under fire for months as Israeli forces carry out shellings and military operations in response to Hamas’s attacks last October.

How kind of him. I’m sure the Muslim voters of Michigan will be happy about it. Because that’s what this is all about, IMHO.

It is the equivalent of airdrops to Germany during World War II. As Stephen Green writes:

You can move in a lot more food by sea than you can by air. A whole lot more. A starving soldier is a soldier who cannot fight. Biden is going to make damned sure that Hamas has all the calories it needs to kill as many Israelis as possible in a war that will go on needlessly long.

More:

Initial shipments of supplies would come via Cyprus, enabled by the U.S. military and partners. Officials said the U.S. would work with the United Nations and other humanitarian partners to distribute aid across Gaza once it reaches the port.

Oh, the UN. They’ll certainly make sure Hamas doesn’t get the lion’s share (that’s sarcasm, by the way).

Plus:

A senior administration official said the U.S. worked “very closely with the Israelis in developing this initiative.”

What Israelis? The Israeli left? The only information on that I could find is this:

An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said Jerusalem “fully supports” the US plan, but did not comment on what it said about Israel’s ability to prevent a humanitarian crisis on its own.

An unnamed “official” says the Israelis support the plan. Perhaps they do, but only in the sense that they think it will take some of the international heat off them. I predict that it will do no such thing. It will merely feed it, as in oh, the Israelis were so mean that the US and the UN had to step in to feed the Palestinians who are victims of Israeli aggression.

Hamas is the perpetrator in the present conflict, and the Gazans overwhelmingly support Hamas and the atrocities it (along with many Gazan civilians) perpetrated on 10/7. The enabling of the Gazans and Hamas to live to fight another day only perpetuates the horror for Israel and for Gazans as well.

If there were a way to establish which people among the Gazans are actually innocent – whether that number is tiny or substantial – and to help them out, that would be fine. But there is no such way. Unfortunately, Gazans decided to elect a group of terrorists as their government, and to cheer and support (and even join in some cases) those terrorists as they perpetrated acts of barbaric horror on Israelis. That has resulted in a war, and in war the aggressors suffer. At least, that’s the way it used to be. But world opinion has mobilized around helping these aggressors, and that’s what Biden is doing.