Text: Pornostyle: Sexualized Dress and the Fracturing of Feminism
Author: Pamela Church Gibson
Pamela Church Gibson is Reader in
Cultural and Historical Studies at the London College of Fashion, University of
the Arts London, founder and principal editor of the journal Film, Fashion and
Communication. She has extensively published on fashion, film, fandom, heritage
and history.
In this article, Gibson
talks about the body ideal being promoted by so called ‘sexy’ celebrities. She
informs us that this new body, as well as the system behind it, knots fashion
and pornography together.
Gibson starts explaining that many
young women – and it is important to say that there are no male-equivalent for
this phenomenon – dress in a ‘sexy’ way, hoping to emulate particular
celebrities. She notes that those celebrities being mirrored are not the ones
promoted in the high-fashion media as ‘stylish’ icons, instead it refers to ‘sexy’
celebrities – once considered vulgar – but that now dominates the masses and
the fashion industry. In this new ‘system’, a curvier and tanned body
substitutes the traditionally skinny and elongated fashion model one.
In the text, Gibson points out that
the fashion industry have been seduced a few times by what has been called by
Lynch (2012) the “porno chic”, which she says is a potent popular concept with
interesting commercial value. She mentions the V magazine editorial with Kate
Moss and Rihanna, shoot by Mario Testino, as an example. In the photoshoot the
models appear very sexual and intimate on a ‘vibrant pink’ background that
evokes soft-porn. Gibson mention the popularity of the ‘starlets’ – which can
be considered a personification of the ideal body discussed in this article –
on the television. She notes that, yet criticised those women are considered
celebrities. As a matter of fact they make their own capital and have numerous
followers.
The text mentions the popular ‘Kardashians’,
in this case Kim Kardashian – which is described is the most famous one. It
points out that despite the popularity of ‘sexy’ icons such as Kim, some
magazines – like Vogue – would ignore her in order to promote the values and
trends of the high-fashion world. This part of the text emphasises that the two
different bodies and lifestyles being promoted by the two different systems are
dramatically divergent. She cites the case of Victoria Beckham that went
through a complete image – body and clothing – transformation when she decided
to enter the fashion world as a designer. In order to do that and be accepted she
had to match the fashion ideals at place.
Furthermore, the text narrates the
conflicts between feminists around the problem of whether women can or cannot
have the freedom to dress whatever way they want, including the ones who desire
to look ‘sexy’. Gibson explains that this is a discussion that became much more
complex recently for it raises questions around class and taste that have
become more complicated in ‘the age of celebrity culture’ that ‘challenges the
traditional fashion system’.
“For there is a ‘tasteful’ variant of body-conscious dressing, complete
with mane of long, glossy hair and tanned limbs, that is now seeping into the
upper echelons of society”
The Kardashians (Image: http://www.oxygen.com/sites/nbcuoxygen/files/field_blog_image/2016/01/kardashiansmain.jpg)
Kendal, Kim and Kylie (Image: https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/08/25/09/KardashianSisters.jpg)
“Fecund, pregnant or not, this other, opposed, contemporary ideal is
curvaceous in a particular way that is no easier to attain than the overall
slimless demanded of the fashion model”
(Image: http://tvseriesfinale.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Season_10_Promo.jpeg)
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In this image you can compare Kim and Kendal's body type with the fashion models. (Image: http://celebmafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kim-kardashian-vogue-foundation-gala-paris-fashion-week-july-2014_7.jpg)
(Image: http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/rihanna-and-kate-moss-star-in-the-cover-shoot-of-v-magazine-82/)
Rihanna and Kate Moss for V magazine by Maria Testino. (Image: http://vmagazine.com/article/only-girls-in-the-world/)
I think is safe to say that 'even Vogue', which is presented in the text as a magazine that 'ignores' Kim Kardashian has fallen into hers, and her family's, spell.
Brazilian Vogue. On this edition Kim talks about her collection to the department store C&A (Image: http://www.blackbutterflylifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Kim-Kardashian-Vogue-Brazil-June-2015-Cover-Shoot01.jpg)
(Image: http://www.correiodopovo.com.br/blogs/correiofeminino/tag/kim-kardashian/)
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