Love the fuzz, dahling – so very unprepossessing
Published:
July 4, 2014 at 9:36pm
Is Malta Today no longer a Friend of Joseph? Just look at the (very large) photograph of him which they published today.
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Do women find him attractive? If they do, which sort? This is a genuine psycho-political question. I need some female input here.
[Daphne – No, straight women do not find him attractive. He has zero sex appeal, and not even the old ‘power is an aphrodisiac’ is enough to undo that. Much of this has to do with the fact that he gives off no sexual signals when talking to women. It’s as though a woman, however attractive, is a piece of furniture. Straight men, however, seem to find him magnetically attractive because he flirts with them outrageously and, because their conscious mind is processing ‘straight man talking to me, not queer’ they fail to realise that the communication they’re actually processing is pretty much the same as that of a woman who’s coming on to them. I used to think that Muscat did this intentionally because he thinks men are more useful. Now I realise that it probably isn’t even conscious.]
It’s involuntary – as in, not within his control. Look at the way he looks at David Cameron. Muscat’s mesmerisd. Cameron isn’t.
Then that would make him rather unique in modern politics: an extremely powerful man with no sex appeal. I wonder how it is reflected in his policies.
[Daphne – He isn’t unique in the history of Maltese prime ministers, though.]
Not when the Prime Minister is in his forties and selling himself as the object of desire.
Eddie Fenech Adami’s pitch was never: “Vote for me because you wish you had what I have”. Ditto for Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Lawrence Gonzi. Alfred Sant seemed to attract women within a peculiar niche.
But here is is a man whose marketing spiel reads more like an American CEO’s than a European politician’s: young, virile, successful, wealthy, powerful, attractive, so vote for me because I am the Jet Set, and you wish you had all this.
Of course there are other Maltese politicians who got elected on the strength of this kind of sales pitch. Konrad Mizzi is a prime example, with a foreign wife to boot. Mario Demarco is another. That Ian Borg has it down to a fine art, and him so young and all. Silvio Parnis does it all the time.
[Daphne – The minute you see Muscat waddle on video, it’s all gone. Women have a really serious problem with men who waddle. It’s got nothing to do with being fat – some of the most portly men are total lady-killers. We love them, especially when they make us laugh. The real problem is what I said earlier: absolutely no sexual signals. Muscat twinkles clearly at men. But you can be a ravishing young lady or a fascinating older woman, and nothing will register on his face when he’s introduced to you. No interest. Zilch. The lady might as well be 90 years old or a cupboard which is being shown to him. Most women pick that up immediately. This has nothing to do with being gay or not being gay. Lots of gay men are great flirts with women and have sex appeal for women despite the women knowing the facts of the game.]
Why, KMB had sex appeal?
Careful H.P., he’s even got you wondering now.
Quick, take some antidote.
A.Attard, didn’t he sport a cool haircut?
I have thought that too. As a gay man myself, I know exactly when a man is flirting with me or coming on to me, and I can see it when men are doing it to other men (to a friend of mine for example).
I think the reason why Muscat gets the better of hetero male journalists is because they are not fully aware of how a man flirts, even though they do it themselves. They construe it as bromance of some sort, but don’t see how they get manipulated.
If a man like Muscat were to talk to me like that I would simply say flat out, “You may have young men who enjoy being strapped down on your bed and controlled and manipulated like that, but I sure am not one of those young men”, because that is the creepy feeling I always get when I watch videos of him talking to people.
But I don’t think it’s just Muscat. It seems to be something quite common in the Labour skip. I even remember watching a video clip of Mintoff and seeing other photos of him and thought his body language gave off exactly the same signals.
I think the old and gullible (about 65+) find him “attractive”, especially when they idolize him with Mintoff.
So it looks like he is amoral and asexual.
It would be good if we could ask these men if they find him attractive:
1. Jason Micallef.
2. Cyrus Engerer.
3. John Dalli.
4. Konrad Mizzi.
Not to worry, Joseph. Look at Angela Merkel.
Muscat actually falls into the category of ‘if he were the last man on earth…’
“Straight men, however, seem to find him magnetically attractive”. Dear Daphne, I have to declare my position here. Although I agree with you in almost everything that you write, I am diametrically opposed to this statement of yours. I am very much straight but I never found this guy attractive, let alone “magnetically attractive”.
Also, with reference to Michael’s contribution further down, I am over 65 and, I repeat, I do NOT find him attractive in any way. Actually, I find him highly repulsive.
I was meaning to comment on this.
I don’t think straight men in general are attracted to anyone who sucks up to them. It is only the effete who are.
Malta has a lot of them, because of our ingrained culture of laghqizmu and mutual compliments, and also because most men haven’t measured themselves up against the real deal.
You only have to look at the list of Maltese Men of the Year. It’s a very “ragel ta’ success” thing, the male equivalent of a “nisa ta’ success”.
His eyes seem to be set in anticipation for Guiyang.
To please his hosts maybe.
Why are all his closeup photos suddenly looking as if they’ve been taken with a fisheye lense?
His head seems to have changed shape and he looks bloated and rather sick.
What’s going on?
Kibritlu rasu.
That’s why I think there’s actually something wrong with him that’s staring at us in the face and not being registered.
I see something totally non PC every time his face appears.
I too find him repulsive because I immediately recognised the lying scamming trait in him that I found broadly developed in another person with whom the connection has since been established. It is this that is written all over his features.
These sort of narcissists are only interested in themselves.
That is why emotion is studied and reproduced but not felt.
A genuine laugh happens either when caught unawares or when the ego is being stroked and fawned on. When manipulation is underway.
Any threat to that imbalance is countered by the “under the belt where it hurts” type vindication.
Control and manipulation are the greatest turn ons.
I would say Muscat is self-sufficient in things sexual.
Those type of men go for devices that restrain blood flow.
Oh gosh Baxxter, how on earth did you even imagine that women would find him attractive? He doesn’t exude anything to a straight woman, and his arrogance and silly comments and cockiness are pure turnoffs.
He may be asexual. Bear in mind that his children were conceived artificially, as he himself has told us – so no secrets there.
Is he having a hair transplant?
I’d keep the hair and change everything else.
Saviour Balzan wasn’t very complimentary of Joseph Muscat on Iswed fuq l-Abjad last Wednesday. He harshly critisied the Prime Minister for the decision to reopen the bird trapping season.
Off topic: Remember when a few days prior to the March ’13 elections Joseph Muscat was so endorsed with much fanfare and media exposure by France’ president Francois Hollande?
Now read this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10944874/IMF-warns-of-negative-spiral-in-France-as-recession-looms-again.html
Maybe Francois Hollande should take a leaf out of Joseph’s book and phone Peking. Selling all those French nuclear power stations to China may do the trick. NOT.
Ghamel xaghru perm.
@ HP Baxxter
No, I find him repulsive. No chemistry at all, let alone any temptation for physics.
A pig on a spit has more sex appeal. At least I can eat it.
A year on, it is not just political fatigue, but physiological too.
Keeping up with wild promises is never easy.
The world’s been waiting for Joseph Muscat to say how the Commonwealth should be run.
As long as he looks attractive and sexually appealing to his wife, why should we be bothered? Il-Malti jghid ghalhekk il-baqra tinbieh kollha.
The man is immature in Maltese politics and believes he knows everything. Time will tell.
We should be bothered, but we certainly should bother. I always read labels at the supermarket.
And I always read the label, including the small print, of my prime minister. Joseph Muscat has sold himself through a very modern celeb pitch: love me because you’ll never be like me. In the vernacular, adurani ghax tghir ghalija.
It is a profoundly Maltese social climbing technique, and also our definition of “success” (with a dotted c), viz. “xi hadd li tghir ghalih”.
Hence my original question. If the definition of success in our highly sexualised society is “a man who is desired by all women”, then by what measure can Joseph Muscat define himself as a successful man?
[Daphne – I disagree with you here (unusually). The principle of ‘if people want to be you they will want what you have’ works like a dream in selling consumer products and ‘lifestyle accessories’. It was, in fact, the basis of a 2009 film starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny, The Joneses – but that is not what we are looking at here.
Men don’t want to be Muscat. He is absurd-looking and hopelessly out of shape for his age, has a very ordinary wife, couldn’t father children even in his early 30s – a crucial point because this is a macho culture, shows absolutely no hint of interest in women and vice versa, is reduced to manufacturing a show of virility with cameras at the gym, still lives practically with his parents in a house which they paid to have built in their garden, has never fended for himself, has a very mediocre academic record, a non-existent work record outside elected politics bar a couple of years selling investments for Alfred Mifsud, and the lifestyle preferences of the caravan/boathouse classes who have made a bit of money.
And women don’t want to be with him for many of those same reasons. The one thing women observe most closely, other than how a man is with women in general, is how he behaves towards his wife specifically. And that is precisely why men who are good to their wives and affectionate towards them represent a major attraction to other women – not just as a challenge but because that is exactly what women want. Inexperienced/very young women imagine that when a man is dismissive or thoughtless towards his wife, it is because of the way she is and not because of some inherent problem with him. They imagine that he will be different with them. Experienced/older women know a lot better than that.]
I think we actually agree. Let me explain.
Consider the bling. The man is wealthy – in PC-speak,”financially stable”.
I think he did use that to sell himself, i.e. “vote for me because I am rich and still in my thirties.” There’s a certain vulgar flaunting of money which runs through the entire marketing campaign of Joseph Muscat for the last six years.
He didn’t pitch himself as the blue collar worker, or the average income family man, but as the very comfortably well-off thirty-something.
[Daphne – Yes, but it is his parents’ money, and he doesn’t even work for the family business, but receives hand-outs. Coupled with the fact that he still lives in his parents’ pocket, literally, this makes for a most unattractive situation to all but women who are from desperate parts of the world (as with Manuel Mallia) or women who see the man as a means to improve their own station in life (Michelle Muscat). They are not, however, the kind of women men like Muscat actually want, if they want women at all. Men like Muscat want a woman who is also a status symbol, but women who are status symbols have more choices.]
Of course I never meant that this marketing tactic would work on you, or even me. You can see right through it, so you didn’t fall for it. I didn’t fall for it because it’s not the kind of thing I admire in a man.
But many of our fellow citizens lapped it up.
The reason I brought up the subject is that Muscat’s policy choices seem to be determined by this manufactured public persona. Vide the LSE speech. You won’t see Muscat playing bocci (Dominic Mintoff), or browsing through his vast collection of books (Alfred Sant), or handing out kiwi fruit (Lawrence Gonzi), but you’ll certainly see him at the breakfast table with the fruity Helle, or cutting million-dollar deals with Azerbaijani oligarchs, or speaking at the high-speed, low-drag LSE, or sharing a joke with Abercrombie-Winstanley.
In his political life Muscat is the perfect example of the man who ‘juzak u jarmik’. Transfer that to family life and that is what scares women away.
He is the one who knows it all and will get his way with or without consent. In spite of all the hype, he doesn’t listen but forges ahead with his plans.
And this is not a financial consideration at all.
Who says that he looks attractive and sexually appealing to his wife?
She was seen with a copy of “Fifty Shades of Grey” on a flight to Milan some time ago.
Dear Arnold, do you know the meaning of asexual? When children are conceived artificially it does not mean that that their own sperm/egg was not used.
Artificial insemination is used for many reasons.
[Daphne – Asexual means a total lack of interest in sex and the absence of sexual desire in whatever context, Persil. It does not mean a failure or inability to produce sperm. Also, much of IVF takes place using donor sperm and has done so from the beginning of its practice in Malta in the 1980s. People in Malta will not tell you whether they have used donor sperm or not, which is why people tend to think that it doesn’t happen. This is not a comment about the Muscat situation, but a clarification of a misunderstanding about IVF in general. Yes, IVF in Malta sometimes takes place with donor sperm.]
Sometimes, yes, Daphne. But the sperm is usually donated by the father. Insemination is done in the laboratory because either the sperm count is low or else there is a problem with the genital system in the woman.
Maybe also they are incompatible and the sperm dies in the genital canal on its way to meet the egg. When the sperm comes from a donor the father is not the biological father at all but only an adoptive father.
I would not like to be impregnated with a donor whom I do not know. You never know what the donor is except the colour of the eyes and skin.
[Daphne – I know exactly how the human reproduction system works, Persil. And other than that, I was the first person to write about how artificial insemination was taking place with donor sperm in a completely basic ‘turkey-baster’ environment in Malta in 1986.
One of the questions I remember asking my interviewee is whether the couple had it clearly explained to them, whether they truly understood, that donor sperm means the resulting baby is not the mother’s husband’s. There was such great ignorance in those days that people literally did not know that donor sperm is the entire genetic package of a total stranger and that the mother’s husband is written out of the equation completely.]
Once I accompanied a couple abroad to Nottingham because they wanted a baby and the husband did not produce any sperm or they died before being ejaculated.
When everything was explained to them, including that the sperm will be donated, the husband did not understand a thing. He asked me “But the baby will look like me?” and I started to cry.
I too used to work in such areas of health.