Elegance Has Two Faces

Beauty and stewardship, Cartier is fast becoming the face for feminine excellence

- JONATHAN HO

MUCH LIKE CARTIER'S ICONIC ANIMAL, Vanessa Kirby follows her own path with determination. A free spirit who shares a desire for independence with the panther, the British actress known for her philanthropic commitments, hits the nail on the head when she acknowledges that true feminism is "not about tearing men down" during the launch of the Women's Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Conversations on femininity have taken an odd turn of late as some advocates on the left began aggressively pushing North America to talk about pregnancy and birth in gender-neutral terms such as birthing persons.

It's a stance that mainstream medical scientists like the National Institutes of Health have stated, "Both pregnant women and pregnant people are acceptable phrases.

It is unnecessary to avoid the word women by substituting phrasing." Vanessa Kirby has never given birth, but after her first lead role in Kornél Mundruczó's Pieces of a Woman, she feels like she has, telling Bazaar, "Playing a mother giving birth in [the movie] really brought home to me the power of women as life-givers and creators. And that's essentially what the Earth does - it's why it's called Mother Earth. I think it's all linked to female empowerment."

Indeed, in some odd ironic twist, the push for "inclusivity" by extreme ideological fringes ignores the reality that the feminine power to nurture and birth new life is synonymous to a power that mirrors Mother Earth's own; hence, it stands to reason that when women's empowerment suffers on the altar of gender-identity politics, we all suffer.