Fixation

How is it that we've come to exist in a society where, if a photographic artist tends to fixate on a particular type of model - presumably because she fits his aesthetic ideal of beauty - we view this as a flaw, a type of moral failing? This artist's taste may not match yours, but these things are uniquely specific, and surely one cannot expect an artist to follow another's artistic compass.

Is it because we, for some reason, resent the way that this phenomenon reveals the underlying motivation for many artists to be one that is more in tune with the sensual instincts than we would like to admit? But why should this fact offend us? As Thomas Mann once wrote, "we artists cannot tread the path of Beauty without Eros keeping company with us and appointing himself as our guide." And why should this be a bad thing, unless you harbor an unspoken (or perhaps even outspoken) resentment for the erotic? It is not as though the presence of Eros in any way erodes the value or the virtue of Beauty (in fact, I would argue, it enhances it).

Or, is it perhaps only when the fixation centers on certain over-represented qualities - such as youth, femininity, and litheness of form - that one becomes offended? Is it that we have progressed so far into a culture of diversity and inclusion that popular interests must be maligned in favor of the exaltation of minority qualities? That whiteness, straightness, etc. and the proclivities thereof must be viewed with suspicion and derision in a form of reverse discrimination? To exact upon the innocent and the many the justice that is due for the crimes of others who merely appear superficially alike? And how does that sound? No, I will have no part of it.