Question:
Post an advertisement for a fashion brand and explain
how gender is portrayed through the clothing, models, etc. Does the advertisement reinforce traditional gender norms, or does it subvert (go against) them? Include one quote from Fashion and Cultural Studies to support your answer.
Response:
Alexander Wang, a former creative director at Balenciaga, launched a H&M SS15 denim line called Denim x Alexander Wang. Following the trend of Calvin Klein’s controversial Calvin Klein Brooke Shields campaign, Alexander Wang’s new denim line advertisement triggered the public. In the advertisement by Steven Klein, the model, Anna Ewers, is laid back on the chair in the nude with the jeans lowered on her ankle. Even more in another campaign, the model places her hand on top of her private part while the jeans are unbuttoned creating sexual attractions toward the audiences. Overall, the campaign accomplishes the explicit sensuality and seductiveness. However, the use of female figure for marketing devalues women, reinforcing the traditional gender norm. In the past, men degraded women and considered their identity as one of their accessories, symbolizing men’s desire, because women physically had less strength and power than men. The women’s performances of gentleness, nurturance, tolerance, caring, sensitivity, etc create a stereotypical belief, which eventually created restrictions to sexual and reproductive rights. However, in the today’s society, gender discrimination diminished and feminism aroused. Gender equality increased, so publicizing unclothed women is not innovative; it is rather shaming women. The tagline for this advertisement, “Once you see, you can not stop thinking about it”, is referring mainly toward the jean, but also to the model, which is portrayed in a sexual method. Also, the word “it” at the end of tagline is inappropriate, because the word “it” is used as an object that looks lifeless, and referring a female to “it” stimulates anger and frustration.
In order to demolish the notion of women in a inferior method, specifically in a sexual standard, the society needs to change women’s performance and thoughts. In the book Fashion and Cultural Studies by Susan B. Kaiser, the author states, “Gender is actually not just who we are; it is what we do or perform as we participate in an embodied way with cultural discourse. Feminist critical theorist Judith Butler (1990) refers to this gendered interplay between cultural discourse and everyday habitus as performativity” (Kaiser 2012, 123). Our performance of how we style-fashion-dress affect greatly from our culture and tradition. Our thoughts are limited and enclosed, which is the reason why people have difficulties accepting new viewpoints, concepts, and ideas. By showing this advertisement to the people, this could create a notion that high end brands believes one of their merchandising methods is by selling women’s body.
For this advertisement, it is difficult for the audience to understand what the producer is trying to convey. After observing the campaign, the consumers could wonder why the jeans want the consumers to take off their clothes off and touch their body. It is confusing how the campaign creates a relationship between nudity and jeans. Although Alexander Wang’s intention of creating controversy was successful, it is unnecessary to insert nudity.
Bibliography
Kaiser, Susan B. Fashion and Cultural Studies. London: Berg Publisher, 2012.
Klein, Steven. Alexander Wang x Denim Ad Campaign, 2014, Digital Photography. Accessed February 15, 2019.
