The following argument feels true, which is always a bad sign, but I've never seen it written down.

Young men who heavily modify small hatchbacks do so because they still live with their mothers and lack built space they feel they own. They still live with their mothers because of the cost of housing and universal adult female contraception meaning that they haven't had to get married in a hurry. I say mothers. They would live with their parents if men, poor things, had a longer life expectancy and if women, poor things, didn't get left with the children when marriages break down.

Which brings me to Isabelle Huppert. Cinq Fois Deux and L'Emploi de Temps both feature married men passing their time sitting in quite large unmodified cars. "If I were French", I asked, "would I get to sit in my car all day?" In I [heartsign] Huckabees, Huppert's nihilist's car didn't represent alienation and despair, like a proper European car does, which was one of the many lets-down.

posted at: 21:56 | path: /simulations | permanent link to this entry

Most social changes in Europe and North America between the 1950s and now can be explained, at least in part, by the Pill. Your challenge for next Friday is to explain, structuring your argument around universal adult female contraception, the demise of the retroussée nose. This used to be a key requirement for the standard attractive woman, see Hans Memling's paintings of Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, and can now only be seen on Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson, who isn't even a woman.

posted at: 21:56 | path: /simulations | permanent link to this entry