The old dictum states that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Well, I got two of those and I use them all the time. Here’s a list of the nine most beautiful girls in the world, in no particular order.
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina has been said to be the most beautifully described woman in literature. She herself, of course, was not a woman but a figment of Tolstoy's imagination and the predicate was most likely rendered by some other guy. The woman we are here glorifying is not the character of the book, but the book itself.
The book Anna Karenina ranks number 1 on J. Peder Zane's list of best books ever, which was compiled after the opinion of 125 living authors. In his Time article Tom Wolfe establishes, “literary lists are basically an obscenity,” and then submits a few of the contributors: Franzen, Mailer, Wallace, Wolfe, Chabon, Lethem, King.
At once we see the rub: Tolstoy, Zane, Wolfe and the authors he mentions, who are all so mesmerized with Anna Karenina, are all men, men who have men thoughts and draw men's conclusions. And men love Anna Karenina because her fatal response to the separation from her son is utterly masculine. The novel's character Anna Karenina is a transvestite.
Desire for another person may drive a man to suicide, but a so-afflicted woman would suffer anything for proximity (as shown in the 1991 movie Not Without My Daughter). And that makes the book Anna Karenina the least understood creature in man's literary kingdom, even eluding her creator. How beautifully feminine.
Although the moon is the brightest light in the night sky, it produces no light of its own. Some have compared this to a woman's need to augment her pulchritudinous talents by getting it from Lauder, but others, especially those who've suffered a dark night or two, remember that at night the moon is the proof that the sun exists.
The word moon comes from a very old root that has to do with time, and which also yields the word menstruation. Like any woman, the moon can't be owned. According to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, she has the same status as international waters.
Carla van Putten
Het Simplistisch Verbond. Nobody really knows how to define womanhood or ladyhood, and the fact that these issues are debated shows that there is something wrong with our definitions. In the good old days when men were hunter-gatherers and the woman mother-housekeepers the differences were clear. In our day and age they aren't.
People that are most upset about men dressing up as women forget that nature (or God, if you please) has deliberately faded the border that divides them. Behavior that any culture typifies as feminine occurs in both men and woman, and vice versa. Humans that have two similar sex chromosomes (XX) do not en-mass show a trait of behavior that humans with dissimilar sex chromosomes (XY) don't show.
Although XX-people usually are folks we recognize as women, and XY-people as men, there are XX-people who look just like guys (is called XX-male syndrome or de la Chapelle syndrome) and there are XY-people who look just like girls (is called androgen insensitivity syndrome).
Everybody loves Queen Beatrix. She's the kind old lady who lives down the street, who loves her kids and grandkids and always has little gold-wrapped mandarins when we're out trick-or-treating. She's wonderful, but she's not the lady we're here to portrait.
The United States of the Netherlands was declared independent on 26 July 1581 by Willem van Oranje's Declaration of Independence (Acte van Verlathinge) and became one of the first modern republics. Willem came from Nassau, in present day Germany, but at age eleven he acquired the princedom of Orange in the South of France (near Avignon). And thus his name became a Germanized Van Oranje-Nassau. Willem was assassinated but his descendants would forever reign, or were supposed to.
In 1806 Napoleon turned the republic into a monarchy and made his brother Lodewijk its king, but changed his mind a little later and annexed the country all together. After Napoleon's defeat, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was proclaimed, and Willem Frederik van Oranje-Nassau became its first king. The "United" part became superfluous after Belgium and Luxemburg became independent themselves.
The monarchy of the Netherlands is arranged in the constitution of 1848, which states that the monarch is the head of state and enjoys immunity. However, since nobody wants a dictatorship, any of the monarch's actions or statements must be pre-approved by the ministers. Most of these actions nowadays focus on the second part of the constitutional definition of the monarch: to unite, represent and encourage the Netherlanders. When Queen Beatrice goes abroad, she's accompanied by representatives of countless companies. And anyone who stops to greet our Majesty gets a big wad of business cards stuck under his lapel.
The area Orange was named after the fruit that was raised there. But now that it's tied to the Monarchy of the Netherlands - the institution that is devoted to the union and encouragement of the Netherlanders - the color orange represents the fact that we, collectively, are going to kick! your! but! Whenever a Dutch national sports team engages another one, droves of Dutchies don the most fabulously orange costumes and follow their heroes whilst imbibing Heinekens and bawling anthems. And where host nations fearfully await the arrival of other nation's supporters, the Dutch crusaders are uniquely welcomed and cheered on as they pass by.
The day when the Dutch legion left Berne during the 2008 Eurocup, the Berner Zeitung printed: “Dank U wel, Oranje!” across its front page, and this is Dutch, not German, for “Thank you, Orange!'
Nederland, Majesteit: goed gedaan!
The Bride of Christ
The Bride of Christ is a collective of humans portrayed by John the Revelator as part of his apocalyptic vision. It denotes a condition of total mental cohesion and compliance to natural law. In this state a human being is completely free, completely enlightened and completely loved by God.
The Pacific Ocean
In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne forwards the notion that the Pacific Ocean has no memory. But even though this water-world has no direction, no permanent appearance, and even though she is perfectly cruel and astonishingly beautiful, she hides a treasure trove of information in her motionless crypt. Her salinity is a measure of the earth's age and her very size the result of landmasses moving apart. After decades of research, we still have no idea what the Pacific remembers.
The Eurodam
The newest member of the Holland America Line Fleet is an almost 300 meters long floating mini-cosmos, with a double engine room, over a thousand cabins, five restaurants and four pools. She'll be inaugurated in Rotterdam on July 1, 2008. Her maiden voyage will take her to northern Europe.
The Internet
Rarely recognized as feminine, the Internet is mankind's most seductive mirror, most vast market place and most wise sage. She can't be governed or tamed. She can't be predicted, and she certainly can't be trusted. She's stolen our age-old heart within a decade and she will grow into something no human could have foreseen.
Bas: My Indescribable World of a Daughter
today i watched the world melt in my arms it drenched my skin it filled my veins with whispers a touch of resin seeping off wounds brushed in me; i tasted salt, faced winds smashing mist in blurs on my brow i stood alone with everything as my sole companion and a child sobbing of trivialities she's asleep now but everything about her is in me wide awake.
A very interesting article. I do not agree with all your choices, but I too love the moon.
Good job
#2 by Arie Uittenbogaard, Jun 24, 2008
And the layout messed up my daughter's poem. Here's what it's supposed to look like:
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Arie/Poetry/Today_II.html
#3 by nobert soloria bermosa, Jun 26, 2008
another good article,i like number 9 he best
#4 by purnomosidhi, Jul 20, 2008
So, internet is female. She must be attractive :-). Two Thumbs up for your article
#5 by Westbrook, Jul 27, 2008
Very interesting and imaginative Arie. Your title drew me in because I have a weakness for female beauty, however, I did not see what I expected. On the other hand, I have to give in to the fact that definitions and beauty are in the beholder's mind.
#6 by glori4me, Jul 27, 2008
#9-Your daughter looks so content. Nice Poem, too.
#7 by gigwriter, Jan 10, 2009
! ! ! i can't say how nice it is to see a list like this rather than angelina jolie...heidi klum...adriana lima...although your little girl falls into that merely physical world of beauty - she is gorgeous. from a scientific view why are we attracted to certain visages - is it media rape or something atavistic? and biblically God looks into the heart and values not the outer appearance...what will we look like in heaven?
Good job