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TikTokers have been breathing new life into an old painting, using it in videos about how thoroughly tiresome they find most other people. The painting at the heart of the trend depicts a young woman glaring angrily out of the canvas as she is surrounded by friends and attendants apparently trying to placate her with kisses and attention. It’s called The Hesitant Fiancée, presumably because the artist, Auguste Toulmouche, couldn’t really opt for “The Fiancée Who is Absolutely Done with Posing for me and May be About to Punch a Hole in my Masterpiece”.
What precisely had enraged our young lady at the time is beside the point now that she is doing the rounds online with sassy captions superimposed over her head. She was a fiancée but now she’s your mood when people call you “unapproachable”. She’s the face you want to pull when a stranger tells you to “cheer up” in the street. She’s the luteal phase incarnate.
A digital art expert has been examining what makes this painting so memeable and has concluded that it comes down to a delicious combination of factors, including but not limited to our enjoyment of subjects who break the fourth wall.
It’s perhaps not surprising that a picture of a raging lady is going viral at the moment given how much modern women have to put up with, as we have been finding out in a series of fascinating articles exploring the question of having children in the modern age. The latest looks at the enormous pressure placed on women, whether they choose to become parents or not.
This series is tied to an event taking place next week entitled “Should I have children?”. With a panel of experts, a group of Conversation editors will be having a frank discussion about the economic, environmental and personal dilemmas at play as 21st century people mull a decision that their forebears spent much less time on. There are still a few tickets left if you’d like to join them by signing up here.
And as Dr Who turns 60, we’ve been looking at what makes the series such an enduring success. While the Doctor hogs the limelight, anyone who has watched a single episode knows that time travel would be a miserable business without a companion. That’s why every version of Doctor will inevitably meet and become entangled with an inquisitive stranger who ends up coming along for the ride. These accomplices come in many forms and from many worlds but often share common
personality traits. They are optimistic in their outlook, resilient and open-minded. I guess you’d have to be to step foot inside a Tardis…
Also this week, experts switch on their SAD lamps to see if they make any difference to their winter blues, a tonne of our readers suddenly realise they don’t know what that little padlock symbol on their browser window means, and the
fall of autumn leaves sparks a seasonal debate about composting.
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