… the babe sings. Speaking on behalf of the Homely Brigade, I must say I’m starting to get a bit worried about the babe-ification of the world. It has of course long been the case on popular cable channels like Fox News that when your interviewer assembles a discussion panel consisting of a constitutional lawyer, a political strategist, an opinion pollster, and the author of some best-selling book about the state of the nation, they turn out to be a babe, a babe, a babe, and a babe. (The only area of comment not yet colonized by babes is the military, but it can’t be long. Watch your back, Col. Hunt.)

And now opera, of all things, has been babe-ified. A reader:

Mr. D: I was listening to the Met’s production of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” on WCPE just now. The people at the Met were interviewing some chick who spoke really good English, but with this sexy, sultry, Eastern European accent, and, after the interview was over, I learned that her name is Elina Garanca, and …

My correspondent goes on to make some remarks about Ms. Garanca that are longer on enthusiasm than on delicacy. To buttress his points, here are some pictures of the lady.

First Anna Netrebko, now this new gal. Where are the lardbutts of yesteryear? (Or, as they sing in that famous Rossini opera La Donna del Lardo: “Dove sono i adiposi-fundamenti?”) Where is Caballé? Where is Dimitrova? Where is Jane Eaglen?

It’s bad enough that the Patriarchy has been shattered and women are running for president. The field of visual acceptability in the public sphere is narrowing down yet further. Soon the only people who will dare show their faces in public will be babes, with perhaps some token hunks as a gesture to gender equality. It’s time the scrawnies and porkies, the snaggly of tooth and receding of chin, stood up for their rights.