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发表于 2010-12-10 10:23:45
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VOX POPULI: A glimpse of the pathetic truth in a bar mirror
2010/12/04
My alcohol consumption rises in winter. After a hard drinking session, I sometimes come to my senses in a bar restroom as I stare at my flushed, slack face in the mirror. The pathetic face is unmistakably mine, even though a part of me wants to disown this incorrigible wretch.
The kabuki star Ebizo Ichikawa, 32, recently had his head bashed after an all-night drinking binge. There's an advertisement that says words to the effect, "The morning after decides whether you've overdone it." Ichikawa had to have surgery.
I imagine he must have come to his senses by now.
He is an actor, after all, whose good looks and fine voice have made him a heartthrob. I hope his injury won't ruin his signature "nirami" glare, a typical kabuki pose that the Ichikawa clan has elevated to art form over many generations.
Our faces determine people's initial impressions of us. In a recent reader survey by the vernacular Asahi Shimbun, nearly 70 percent of respondents said appearances matter to men. Many people think good-looking men are not only attractive to the opposite sex, but also fare better in job-hunting and at work.
Traditionally, appearances mattered more to women than men. In fact, women have been compensated more generously than men for disfiguring accidents at work. The reason given by the labor ministry was that since women are more sensitive than men about how they look, they suffer greater damage and emotional anguish from injuries.
That changed this year. A male metal worker, whose face was burned while handling molten metal, questioned the constitutionality of sexual inequality in the awarding of accident compensations, and his claim was upheld by a court. The presiding judge ruled men suffer as much emotional anguish as women.
The government is now hastening to revise the workers' accident compensation insurance law.
This is not to say, of course, that a face has to be scar-free to be attractive. On the contrary, an old, wizened face can be quite attractive because it is etched with the hardship and sorrow its owner has overcome with grace. Nobody needs a debilitating trauma, but a few scars here and there actually add depth and personality to one's face.
I don't strut the kabuki "hanamichi" runway, nor do I need to impress anyone with my face. But I would like to age well, and for my face to show it.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 3 |
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