A Crisis In Masculinity

Ms. Samara Lieber is the author of Astronaut, an astronomical comic strip, and art editor of New Escapologist, an escapological magazine. She may yet even prove to be the artist for a graphic novel idea that she and I have been considering of late. This is not to define her by her job, of course. She is also other things, whatever they may be.

Going back to her job though, Ms. Lieber has recently released the first in a series of colouring books, which are available to purchase through lulu.com. I was lucky enough to be granted a sneak-peek.

The work presents studies of various undergarments in states of puffed suspension, mostly uncoloured – although, there is a delightful challenge in a piece called Basic Black. Here, you can see that I have modelled one pair, Dainty, on the peripheral underpants that appear, fleetingly, in Mr. Barthelme’s Nothing: A Preliminary Account – “We are persuaded that nothing is not the yellow panties. The yellow panties edged with white on the floor under the black chair. And it’s not the floor or the black chair or the two naked lovers standing up in the white-sheeted bed having a pillow fight during the course of which the male partner will, unseen by his beloved, load his pillowcase with a copy of Webster’s Third International.” The other, Transvestite, is based on a pair your author saw in a dream.

I had coloured some two-thirds of the book, passed many amusing and, I presumed, fictitious bloomers, before I skipped to the end to see how it turned out. It was only then that I discovered the work was a tribute to Ms. Lieber’s close associate, Ms. Maharaj, and that the piece was an actual-to-life catalogue of the latter’s collection.

Where I come from, it is ungentlemanly for a “so-called” gentleman to interfere with a lady’s autonomy and, certainly, directing the colour, pattern, and material of her undergarments would be a step too far. Such would verge on the sexually domineering. Even the misogynistic. For what man designs women’s underthings, but a fashion designer. And what sort of man is he, but a wealthy one?

These are the issues that you must consider before purchasing Ms. Lieber’s book. I, for one, cannot recommend this crisis in masculinity highly enough.