Miss AP speaks up - and Mountains of love

You know, I've been surprised and horrified by the downright rudeness (at the risk of sounding impeccably English) that has greeted Maggie Gyllenhaal across the net in her new role as Miss AP, an instructor who schools the ladies in lingerie for Agent Provocateur - no doubt with a strictness learned from the hands of James Spader. So in defence of Maggie, not that she needs it, I want to post a few more photographs of Miss AP, accompanied by a link to an article that explains that, although Maggie doesn't appeal to all, she does seem extremely sexy to many others, perhaps a silent majority, both male and female.



In Doing It For the Girls, the Times looks at why AP picked their new model, who, it seems, is not the obvious candidate, unlike predecessors Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss. 'But what’s Maggie, a bluestocking type, doing modelling satin basques? If you asked the average bloke in the street who they would want to see in their undies, she wouldn’t be top of the list. She’s comely but somewhat unconventional, and even Agent Provocateur – for which she is appearing in a new book of erotic fiction – admits she isn’t obvious man-magnet material. “We’ve always been mindful to create a brand that appeals to both men and women,” says Serena Rees, the co-founder of Agent Provocateur. And so they have. These pictures acknowledge the fact that girls fancy girls.'


Who buys this underwear, afterall? I doubt it's all bought by men. Perhaps an intelligent woman with some spare cash for sexy frills would prefer to look like Maggie, a smart and sexy woman, than a model, a blank canvas. Maggie is a mother and a lover - and look how confident and aware she looks - certainly, not comely as the article suggests. I was right, Maggie doesn't need defending - you just have to look at her.


Mountains of love and grief

If Maggie makes us redefine the conventions of sexuality and desire, then she is following in the footsteps of her younger brother Jake whom, in Brokeback Mountain, caused many who saw his film to reassess their lives and the love in those lives. Not an easy experince for most but love was never supposed to be easy.


In 2006, Andrew Holleran wrote 'Grief: A Novel', which 'captures the pain of a generation of gay men who have survived the AIDS epidemic and reached middle age yearning for fidelity, tenderness and intimacy'. As he prepared to publish this book, Andrew wrote a moving article about a source of inspiration for himself and so many of us: Brokeback Mountain.


When Andrew finished watching the film, he 'was relieved to know it was already dark outside, glad I did not have to walk past a gauntlet of people waiting for the next show.' I remember that feeling - walking quickly through the dark to find my car to hide in. Andrew almost appears to have come obsessed by watching the reaction of audiences, especially the young, as they left the theatre, and then being driven to defend the film at every opportunity because it affected him so entirely and he couldn't understand why some appeared immune.


In The Magic Mountain, Andrew Holleran discusses the different atitudes towards Brokeback amongst gay men, their alternate responses to Jack and Ennis, so homely in the original story, yet so very handsome in the film. Above all, as Jake has said on more than one occasiona, Brokeback Mountain is a love story, it just happens to be love between two examples of the American icon, the cowboy.


'This may also be why one review complained that Brokeback is ahistorical: the romance takes place in a vacuum, with no reference to anything outside the relationship. The longing of Jack and Ennis for one another, though set in the early 1960’s, seems to unfold in its own little world—the way love does, actually. I suppose, had Ennis and Jack been allowed to live together, or grow old, their romance would have devolved into arguments over dish washing, channel changing, drinking, and depression. Maybe they would have moved to San Francisco, or started doing threesomes. But in this movie they do not. Their love lives on after you leave the theater because it was never obtained.'


As Andrew Holleran points out, while the actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger may have moved on from Brokeback Mountain, it's not quite so easy for those of us whose lives have been transformed and who are still working towards that sweet life.

Thanks to Jantoinette for sending me this beautiful article.
AP pictures (c)Alice Hawkins.