Advertising's Image of Women
From:
= new reply since forum marked as read
Last edited Mon Jun 2, 2014, 05:07 PM - Edit history (1)
(Thought I should just preface that disclaimer in the subject line, lacking little red flag emoticons. 
)
But I believe the reason models in the fashion industry are starved into stripping away any sign of womanhood (i.e., boobs, thighs, a butt) is because the adult woman to some of these creeps is both undesirable and frightening. A WOMAN's body represents female power and sexuality. If a woman's body is but a hangar upon which to display clothes, she must be as small as possible -- that's what I heard at least one designer say. Better yet, pose those cadaverous bodies as if they are little girls, which adds another element of vulnerability. So whether women are placed in poses as if they are little girls or are wasting away from consumption, it's about making women appear vulnerable, helpless.
Now what I'm going to say next is not going to go over well with some and I've tried to have the discussion in the past in the LGBT community. (I am myself a lesbian, btw.) I realize this is a very touchy issue. A lot of the top designers, fashion critics et al are gay men. And I truly think there is an element of androgyny that comes into play when favoring models who lack the outward signs of being female. It's like role play when you design clothes for bodies that resemble those of adolescent males more than they do actual women. It's a "Mary Sue" story played out with clothes. And I really, really resent the damage those kind of fantasies, whether deliberate or subconscious, do to the self-esteem of women. Even as a woman who wouldn't be caught dead in designer fashions, it really pisses me off to see my sisters degraded in this way by the fashion industry.
I could go on and on about this subject (and have) but for now I'll just leave it at that.
Told her that I walk like a man, which he found offensive 