16. Maze

16. Maze

It's no secret that for about the past ten years now, young girls outperform young boys on an educational level in the Western world. This painting seems to be about demanding respect for that fact. Everything out the image has been scaled to emphasize female superiority. We have a girl standing, aloof and from a distance, observing a boy (note how he's been made to appear even smaller by the scale) amusing himself by chasing a simple circle in the distance. Meanwhile she's wrestling with a fairly complex maze. She's apparently light years ahead of him in terms of problem solving ability.

There may be a secondary message in this piece by James Jean, too. Note how the struggles of the boy are out in the open. Everybody can see that he's chasing his circle. The girl keeps her much more complicated problem hidden out of sight behind her. Do women suffer silently with more troublesome problems than men speak aloud?

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Did You Know...

I

Chefs made their way into celebrity land a while ago. But how many celebrities that weren’t trained as professional cooks are actually whizzes in the kitchen? Here are several that come to mind.

II

Actress Julia Roberts is confident about her cooking skills. “I’m quite a good cook,” she told E! News. “I’m like a closet home ec teacher…I can really cook anything.” Roberts has said she often cooks fish for herself and her kids. And speaking of her three children, “They think that I’m a good cook,” Roberts told People. “They actually told me that I should open a restaurant.” She also relishes cooking for the holidays, particularly shredded Brussel sprouts. Roberts hasn’t published a cookbook, but we did find recipes attributed to her for peach crisp and banana hemp muffins. Or you can make the same summer salad the actress supposedly eats.

III

Chrissy Teigen started off as a supermodel. Then her love of cooking filtered into her professional life too. At this point, she’s created recipes for a limited Blue Apron release and also just launched her own home and cooking line at Target named “Cravings,” after the two cookbooks she’s released. Teigen describes cooking as “a time of peace” for herself. So maybe peace out to her tuna melt sandwich or the fried chicken wings that are a favorite of her husband, John Legend.

IV

Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, comes from a cooking Italian family. Her father started his own restaurant in New York and also published a cookbook. And apparently, Lady Gaga has inherited the family’s cooking genes. Her Instagram account occasionally features photos of her culinary activities. Sure, sometimes it’s topless cooking. But other times it’s more poignant like in the post she shared about her bringing food to the family of her dear friend who passed away. Want to try a Gaga/Germanotta family favorite? Check out her recipe for whole wheat pasta with a sweet fennel sauce.

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